On Wed, Oct 08, 2025 at 23:17:14 +0000, John Klos wrote: > Finally, I noticed that ofwboot.xcf can't boot a GENERIC kernel, which is > 12,997,380 bytes, but can boot after gzipping to netbsd.gz, which is > 5,815,530 bytes. Is it because of the size? Or does ofwboot.xcf expect > gzipped files? This is a recurring theme. There are some PRs and a few threads on port-macppc. As far as I can tell this is not size, but some numerology. In my experience using ofwboot.elf instead of (ofwboot.xcf) helps, but may be I've just been lucky with my kernel sizes :). The same kernel is booted fine by ofwboot.elf and fails to boot with ofwboot.xcf (which is exactly the same object code plus a jump around the header or something like that, IIRC). thorpej@ did some fixes related to the way kernel deals with mapping OFW memory once booted, that might be related as well. > The disk is set up with an HFS (not +) partition at the beginning of > the disk with ofwboot.xcf, netbsd-INSTALL.gz, and netbsd copied to > it. netbsd-INSTALL.gz booted fine, netbsd didn't, then when I > gzipped netbsd and copied it there, that booted. This is a Mac mini > G4, BTW. OFW in Mini G4 groks FAT and I've been using FAT partition for boot (just the ofwboot*, the kernels are in the netbsd root fs) for ages now. Plain MBR, no apple partition map. /boot can be mounted natively. -uwe