On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 06:59:33AM -0600, Duke Normandin wrote: > Boot> boot hd0a:/bsd > simply starts a non-ending boot loop. So I did a ???boot hd0a:/bsd.rd??? to > the installer.
If /bsd doesn't exist but /bsd.rd does, then this installation is broken in a non-obvious way. Re-installing may well get you a working system with a lot less time and effort than trying to fix the current install. > I did all the preliminaries then `mount -o ro /dev/sd1a /mnt???. > Then `installboot -n -v - r /mnt sd1???. No joy!! I got back > ???installboot: realpath: No such file or directory???. What am I missing? > TIA???.. I mentioned running installboot in case somebody else with a similar but different problem finds this discussion in the archives, (specifically a system trying to boot from hd0a instead of sr0a). This is not the issue you are facing. The reason for the error message from installboot is that the installer envionment is missing certain files in /usr/mdec that it needs. If a working system needs to have the bootstrap re-written, you can boot into it from another disk, mount the relevant partitions and invoke installboot to rewrite it. This is not really a task for someone who is new to OpenBSD, and in any case should not be necessary to get you a working system. I would just attempt a fresh install, and expect it to work.
