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

[David Brownlee]

On 6 July 2018 at 17:03, Chris Quayle <syseng at gfsys.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I've been trying to build a new system disk for an old
> Sun 3/60 system.
>
> Around 1993, built a disk enclosure with 2 x 766 ESDI fh
> drives and 60 meg magtape + interface boards to convert
> to scsi. It was my first desktop Sun system, used for
> a number of years until upgrading to Sparc. Pulled it
> out a couple of years ago, all ok other than a flaky
> psu. Tried it again this year, but root sd0a is US.
>
> Have dump files for the root, usr and home partitions,
> so formatted another drive in a Sparc LX, also running
> SunOs and restored the partitions from backup. Have
> searched all the usual places, but can't find any
> reference to install the boot block, or whether this
> needs to be done before or after restoring the root
> partition ?. Have tapes., but no working tape drive and
> would be better to have the machine back as it was.
> Assume dd may be relevant, or, there is an
> installboot command on the LX, but not clear how to
> use it it this instance, though it should perhaps
> work if given the right Sun3 boot file
>
> Any ideas ?...

Something of a tangent, but would definitely recommend setting up
another box to netboot the sun3. From memory its just rarpd and tftpd
to load boot blocks, then bootparamd to get the kernel across and to
tell the kernel where to NFS mount root.

You can extract the backed up filesystems for the nfs root and then
use the netbooted OS to format and install onto any disks.

A contemporary SunOS sparc box will have all the daemons to hand as
will a BSD and (with a little hunting) Linux.

If you want to netboot a more recent BSD on the sun3 you'll probably
need dhcpd instead of bootparamd, otherwise the same, and I think a
NetBSD netboot will boot a SunOS kernel if you don't have a SunOS
netboot to hand

David