Rants & Ramblings

Yes, they're outdated and old but when did that ever stop anyone?

So, the first questions will probably be:

• What hardware is supported?
  
• What am I going to lose compared to Solaris?
  
• What will I gain over Solaris?

The answers for question one:

• NetBSD/sparc runs on the SPARCbook 3GX, 3TX and probably 3GS.
  
• the graphics chip is supported, including acceleration, for both the console and XFree86. X is currently limited to 8 bit but that's going to change.
  
• audio is supported, currently output only but that's going to change
  
• PCMCIA works. You can use any PCMCIA device supported by NetBSD which is quite a lot more than what you could do with Solaris. I'm using a wlan card for instance.
  
• CPU power management. No more overheating.
  
• hardware sensors are exposed via envsys. Currently that's internal temperature, battery- and DC-in voltage.
  
• pressing the power button will initiate a shutdown
  
• the usual Sun-hardware, like esp SCSI, lance ethernet and so on is supported.

... question two ...

• Support for more than 8 bit in X. I'm working on that one though.
  
• SunISDN. I have documentation for the ISDN part but no ISDN line so someone else will have to write the driver.
  
• Audio input. Coming soon.
  
• Suspend to disk. NetBSD has no generic suspend-to-disk support like Solaris does.
  
• the external monitor port doesn't work yet
  
• external mice don't work yet. The microcontroller detects them but doesn't forward any data for some reason

And question three:

• You can only run old versions of Solaris, usually 2.6 and sometimes 7. They won't get security fixes forever. NetBSD will support the SPARCbooks as long as it supports SPARCs.
  
• NetBSD boots much faster
  
• Solaris supports only a handful PCMCIA devices, NetBSD is MUCH better here.
  
• NetBSD gives you more control over the hardware ( think envsys )
  
• Our console is better. We use the blitter for everything while Solaris uses the PROM to draw everything in software. We have virtual consoles.
  
• binary packages for NetBSD/sparc just work.
  
• no need to update all the broken or outdated system tools with superior free versions or to install many of those that don't come with Solaris ( think tar, gzip, bzip2, gcc and so on )

What you need to run it:

• NetBSD/sparc -current. Grab a build from releng.netbsd.org
  
• kernel source. Get it via CVS or from releng.

First, install -current. The TADPOLE3GX kernel should just work.
Second, build a wscons kernel.
To do that add these things to the TADPOLE3GX config file in src/sys/arch/sparc/conf/:

options         WSEMUL_VT100
options         WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_RAWKBD         # can get raw scancodes
options         WSDISPLAY_CUSTOM_OUTPUT         # wsconsctl(8)

options         WS_DEFAULT_FG=WSCOL_BLACK
options         WS_DEFAULT_BG=WSCOL_LIGHT_WHITE
options         WS_KERNEL_FG=WSCOL_GREEN
options         WS_KERNEL_BG=WSCOL_LIGHT_WHITE

options         WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_PCVT           # emulate some ioctls
options         WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_SYSCONS        # emulate some ioctls

options         WSDISPLAY_DEFAULTSCREENS=1

options         SPARCBOOK_CMD           # enable screen switching with lAlt-Fn
options         FONT_BOLD8x16           # a somewhat smaller font

Remove the old console stuff since it will collide with wscons:

## Use a faster console than the PROM's slow drawing routines.  Not needed
## for headless (no framebuffer) machines.
options         RASTERCONSOLE           # fast rasterop console
#options        FONT_GALLANT12x22       # the console font
options         FONT_BOLD8x16           # a somewhat smaller font
options         RASTERCONSOLE_FGCOL=WSCOL_BLACK
options         RASTERCONSOLE_BGCOL=WSCOL_WHITE

And this has to go too:

zs1     at obio0                                        # sun4m
kbd0    at zs1 channel 0        # keyboard
ms0     at zs1 channel 1        # mouse

Add the actual drivers:

zs1     at obio0                                        # sun4m
zstty*  at zs1 channel ?        # mouse/keyboard

kbd0    at zstty?
ms0     at zstty?

wskbd*          at kbd? console ?
wsmouse*        at ms?

wsdisplay*      at pnozz? console ?

pseudo-device   wsmux                   # mouse and keyboard multiplexor
pseudo-device   wsfont

Probably add or remove PCMCIA drivers.

Now build the kernel, put it into / but make sure you don't overwrite the old kernel in case something goes wrong. Before trying to boot it make sure that:

• /dev/ttyE0...n and /dev/ttyEcfg exist. /dev/MAKEDEV should create them.
  
• you have entries for ttyE1-4 to /etc/ttys, disable the entry for /dev/console. They should look like this:
  

  ttyE0   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure
  ttyE1   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure
  ttyE2   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure
  ttyE3   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure

  
  
• you can login via network in case something goes wrong
  
• you have a line saying wscons=yes in your /etc/rc.conf

Boot the new kernel and cross fingers.
When things work you can set up X. First make sure /usr/X11R6/bin/X points to /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 ( it defaults to Xsun ), then run 'X -configure' as root, that will write an almost working config file into /root/XF86Config.new. Add 'DefaultDepth 8' to the "Screen" section and put the config file to /etc/X11/XF86Config. That's it.