[TUHS] Bringing up any 4.3BSD on a MicroVAX without tape....

[msokolov@ivan.Harhan.ORG (Michael Sokolov)]

Aharon Robbins <arnold at skeeve.com> wrote:

> Wasn't there an "installboot" program that told the bootblock where
> to find the /boot file?

The installboot program in the original 4.3BSD, whose function has been
incorporated into disklabel(8) in 4.3-Tahoe/Quasijarus, writes the boot
blocks to the disk, but it does not patch them with the location of
/boot, the bootblock code is smart enough to understand the filesystem.

As for Robert's problem, I don't know where he got screwed - but man,
use your head, what do you think your god-given brain is for?  You can
single-step through the code with the MicroVAX ROM monitor's N command,
you can put some printf's in the code to see where it dies, etc, the
possibilities are limitless.  Just debug it the same way you would debug
any other problem.  What do you think I do when I get a similar
mysterious snafu?  I debug it like a real programmer, don't go crying to
a mailing list.

MS