SCSI disk and installboot problems...

[Jarkko Oikarinen]

I recently tried to install a MiniScribe 9380S disk to a standalone
Sun-3/50. I didn't have a portable tape drive so I borrowed a working disk
and connected both disks to Sun via SCSI.

Formatting and partitioning the (new) disk succeeded after some minor
problems with /etc/format.dat. But making the disk bootable using
installboot seemed to be impossible; it always flamed back with a message
'not a superblock'. Why is this ?

The command I used was something like:
'installboot /mnt/boot bootsd /dev/sd4a'
(the root partition of the new disk was mounted to /mnt).

I finally got around the problem by simply dd:ing the root partition from
another disk, but would like to know the reason for installboot's
behaviour.

Thanx in advance.

--Jarkko