[rescue] Sun3, Sunos 4, 3/60 Boot Block ?

[Chris Quayle]

Been looking into the disk layout and it seems that the boot
block is in it's own separate partition at the start of the
disk, which, afaics, includes the disk label. That partition
is not normally visible from the OS, nor  shown in the
partition table within format. The installboot program
is a binary, not a script and that and the /usr/kvm files
were  not included in the original install  on the Sun 3,
for some reason, though they may have been lost or corrupted.

Downloaded the sun3_kvm.tar.Z tape file from www.sun3arc.org
and unpacked to find the /usr/mdec boot block related files
Used the installboot program on the Sparc LX (running Solaris
1.1.2) to install the boot block on the Sun3 disk. Wasn't
sure if it would work, Sparc to Sun3, but it does and the
3/60 now boots and works fine. Now have a system disk and a
second identical copy in case either fails. Next thing is to
build a net boot server on the Sol 10 box and also try the
S10 installboot program to see if that works. Systems
spanning several decades and still compatable at some level
says quite a lot about the original design.

Thanks for all the comments and help with this...

Chris