RE: Port to Sun 386i

 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Curtis H. Wilbar
> Jr. Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 3:06 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Port to Sun 386i
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >From: "Zach Lowry" <[email protected]>
> >To: <[email protected]>
> >Cc: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>
> >Subject: Port to Sun 386i
> >Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 11:21:22 -0500
> >
> > 
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> >Hello!
> >
> >I am soon to recieve a Sun 386i, which I notice has not been
> >ported to yet. Since for the past little bit I've been acquainting
> >myself with my Sun 3/60 and 3/80s, I feel comfortable saying that
> >I intend to port NetBSD to this unique machine. 
> 
> I have two or three of these... along with the rare 486i.  I think
> I have 1 386i/150, 1 or 2 386i/250, and 1 486i.
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^
                                      So, they DO exist...

> 
> >
> >I'm looking for advice, however, since I've bever done this sort
> >of thing before. Would it be best to start with the i386 port,
> >remove all devices except those explicitly available in the 386i
> >and then merge drivers for Framebuffers and the like from the sun3
> >port? From what I understand, the normal color and B&W
> >framebuffers on the 386i correspond to the cg3 and bw2, but
> >additionally there exists a cg5 card and a VGA card for DOS
> >emulation under SunOS. 
> 
> As the VGA card was only used during emulation, you don't need to
> worry about that.... it might be more trouble than it is worth to
> support that.  
> 

Check.

> >
> >I'm also aware that there existed memory add-ons in the form of
> >ISA cards, could anyone clarify on these boards, and would it be
> >possible to support them?
> 
> The only memory boards I am aware of go into special slots.  One
> has cache memory, the other does not.
> 

Ah, ok. From my copy of the FEH, it looked like ISA. 

> >
> >If anyone has any guidance/suggestions/additional hardware, please
> >let me know. 
> 
> I would think since Sun firwmare allows net booting, if the 386i
> boots using standard protocols, then the first step would probably
> be a kernel with minimal drivers probably only first support serial
> console.  Once that is made to work, porting drivers from other
> NetBSD distros, etc to support that various hardware....

I believe it's just like Sun3 Netbooting, and I've already set that
up for my 3/60. I'm curious to see how far the i386 kernel will get,
if it gets anywhere at all. 

> 
> Though, I've never done this kind of work before, I would think
> that might be the easier approach ?
> 
> Although, you'd have to have a port of the netboot image that 
> would work with
> the 386i hardware.... hmmm... not sure what would be easiest.  

Could the boot.net from Sun3 be compiled straight for i386?

> 
> Other than the Sun 386i uses an intel processor, and has an ISA
> bus, it has almost nothing in common with a 386 pc.
> 
> -- Curt
> 
> >
> >Thanks!
> >
> >Zach Lowry || Murfreesboro, TN || www.zachlowry.net
> >Linux / *BSD / Irix / Solaris / Apple / Unix Network
> >Administration  
> >
> >Registered Linux User #264589
> >14 Different NetBSD-Supported Machines
> >
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> 
> 

Zach Lowry || Murfreesboro, TN || www.zachlowry.net
Linux / *BSD / Irix / Solaris / Apple / Unix Network Administration

Registered Linux User #264589
14 Different NetBSD-Supported Machines


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