Subject: COMPAT_SUNOS and the i386
To: None <current-users@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Thor Lancelot Simon <tls@cloud9.net>
List: current-users
Date: 03/04/1995 16:34:52
Actually, there was (briefly) an i386/ISA release of Solaris 1.mumble --
SunOS 4.1.3, I think.

I saw advertisements for it, though I never used or knew anyone who did. 
People with access to the SunOS 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 sources tell me that this port
is _not_ in the mainline source distribution, though other dead ports are, and
allegedly even work, like the sun2 port.

I have no idea what supported hardware was.

I have no idea if they ever shipped a copy to anyone, though I imagine they
did.  I considered buying it, though I knew it would die when Solaris 2 showed
up.

Is it even possible to build an i386 kernel with COMPAT_SUNOS?  Per the above
it's actually not a completely invalid option.  Besides, it should be possible
to run Sun 386i binaries.

I keep thinking that COMPAT_XXX should actually turn on *disklabel* support
for disklabels of type XXX, on any port.  This currently doesn't even work on
same-endian machines using the NetBSD disklabel, because the label might be in
a different location on the disk.  I keep writing code to deal with this and
then throwing it away because I have a feeling it should be a general
solution, not just a quick hack to let me mount my Ultrix disks on my -current
486 box.

Thor