Sparc Woody install freezes after asking for second boot floppy

["Chris Peterson" <cop@speakeasy.org>]

I am trying to install Woody on a newly acquired Sun SparcStation IPX. The
computer currently has Solaris installed, however I do not know the root or
PROM passwords. To reset the PROM password and boot from floppy, I had to
reset and reprogram the NVRAM, which seems to have been successful.

I am now trying to install Woody from floppies. I do not have a Sun keyboard
or monitor, so I am using a null-modem serial connection (to my PC terminal)
for the installation. I can now successfully boot the Woody rescue/boot
floppy. It asks me to press ENTER, which works (this is an important point).
I see the Linux boot info fly by without any error messages, so everything
seems to be working:

    Uncompressing image...
    Booting Linux...
    ...
    floppy0: WARNING disk change called early
    VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER

Now the problems begin. The rescue/boot floppy is automatically ejected. I
insert the root filesystem disk and press ENTER, but nothing happens! The
machine seems to be frozen or not responding to my keypresses. If I press
CTRL+BREAK to break into the OpenBoot ok prompt, nothing happens. I have to
power-cycle the machine.

Does anyone know what the problem might be? What might cause the warning
about "floppy0: WARNING disk change called early"? Is that important or
harmless?

thanks for your help,
chris




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