Boot problem on a Sparc 2

[John Turnbull <johnrt@home.com>]

Hi: I have managed to install Debian 2.2r2 potato on a Sparc 2 that I
plan to use as an ntp timeserver. However, during the install, the step
for making a boot floppy failed and the system will now not boot
directly.

>From a cold start I get:

  Boot device: /sbus/esp@0, 800000/sd@3,0 File and args:
  The file just loaded does not appear to be executable
  Type b (boot), c (continue), or n (new command mode)

entering 'b' just goes 'round the loop, but 'n' generates an OK and by
putting the original install/rescue disk in the machine I can boot as
follows:

  OK: boot floppy
  SILO
    (long Debian install intro)
  boot: linux root=/dev/sda4

and it will boot just fine.

Would somebody please look at the following and help me fix silo.conf so
that I can boot directly. Help greatly appreciated.  John T


Puzzle bits:

/etc/silo.conf currently reads:
  partition=1
  root=/dev/sda4
  timeout=100
  image=1/vmlinuz
  label=linux
  read-only

part of ls -l / shows:
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           32 Mar 26 13:43 vmlinuz ->
      boot/vmlinuz-2.2.18pre21-sun4cdm

and /boot looks like:
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       320037 Mar 26 13:43
System.map-2.2.18pre21-sun4cdm
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1024 Mar 26 13:40 cd.b
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         5244 Mar 26 13:43
config-2.2.18pre21-sun4cdm
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1024 Mar 26 13:40 fd.b
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          512 Mar 26 13:40 first.b
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          796 Mar 26 13:40 ieee32.b
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        12288 Mar 26 13:20 lost+found
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         7680 Mar 26 13:40 old.b
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        58368 Mar 26 20:23 second.b
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        55850 Mar 26 13:40 silotftp.b
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          512 Mar 26 13:40 ultra.b
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           27 Mar 26 20:22 vmlinuz ->
vmlinuz-2.2.18pre21-sun4cdm
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       879905 Mar 26 13:43
vmlinuz-2.2.18pre21-sun4cdm 

dfisk stuff;
  shortben:/home/john# fdisk /dev/sda
 
  Command (m for help): p
 
  Disk /dev/sda (Sun disk label): 9 heads, 48 sectors, 1544 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 432 * 512 bytes
 
     Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
  /dev/sda1             1        38      7992   83  Linux native
  /dev/sda2  u         38       417     81864   82  Linux swap
  /dev/sda3             0      1544    333504    5  Whole disk
  /dev/sda4           417      1544    243432   83  Linux native 
where sda is at scsi id3 and /dev/sda1 = /boot, /dev/sda2 = swap and
/sda4 = /.
There is a second disk /dev/sdb at scsi id 4 that is /usr, and a scsi
CD-ROM at scsi id 5 (see below from dmesg):

  scsi0 : Sparc ESP100A (NCR53C90A)
  scsi : 1 host.
    Vendor: HP        Model: C2235             Rev: 0B11
    Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  Detected scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 3, lun 0
  esp0: hoping for msgout
    Vendor: HP        Model: 2213A             Rev: C023
    Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 01
CCS
  Detected scsi disk sdb at scsi0, channel 0, id 4, lun 0
    Vendor: SONY      Model: CD-ROM CDU625     Rev: 1.0m
    Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  Detected scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 5, lun 0
  scsi : detected 1 SCSI cdrom 2 SCSI disks total.
  sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
  Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.11
  esp0: target 3 [period 200ns offset 8 5.00MHz synchronous SCSI]
  SCSI device sda: hdwr sector= 512 bytes. Sectors= 825012 [402 MB] [0.4
GB]
  sdb: Spinning up disk..................ready
  SCSI device sdb: hdwr sector= 512 bytes. Sectors= 1296512 [633 MB]
[0.6 GB]