I think that I'm finally ready to set up -current as a regular thing on
one of my machines (a plain Pentium laptop).  I've got the FAQ on
"NetBSD Documentation: Tracking NetBSD-current", but there are some questions
that I don't think are answered in there (please suggest the section if they
are...(^&):

 * The laptop is a 233MHz plain Pentium; no speed demon by present
   standards.  Should I consider building -current daily?  Or is that
   not a good idea even with a fast machine?  (I understand that the
   build may break---though if need be I can roll back to 1.6[.1] or
   a snapshot or the like.  Or should I maintain a thorough system
   backup for re-installing?  If so, the easiest backup target medium
   is an NFS-mounted partition on a 1.6 server; is tar good for a complete
   system backup, or should I consider using something else?)

 * I have a PCMCIA ethernet card that works.  Under 1.5.2, I believe
   that it "just worked" after a little kernel config file tweak.
   Under 1.6 (proper) it fails that is (was?) the very last probe
   test in the driver, causing the driver to bail out.  For 1.6, I
   deleted this test in my kernel and send-pr'd it (kern/18359).  I assume
   that the test does something meaninful but don't understand its purpose,
   and for my card the test gives bogus information.  (Removing the test
   allows the ne driver to accept the card, and it hums along nicely.)

   kern/18359 is still open.

   What's the best way to keep a local hack (yes, my change *IS* a hack,
   but it makes the driver work for me) in?  Or is it possible that someone
   has fixed this without finding/closing my PR?  (No, I'm not going to
   throw $35 to $50 at another PCMCIA ethernet card when I have one that
   seems perfectly okay except for a one-bit miscalculation that kills
   the device probe/config in the kernel; (^&.)

   Or, alternatively, can I nudge someone into looking into and helping me
   close (or closing on their own) that PR?  I will be running -current, so
   I can test changes against my laptop.  (^&

 * A little related to part of the above: The reason that I want to run
   -current is to do some belated work on window(1).  The hoops to make
   it all work on a 1.6 system were enough that I just want to put a
   development system on -current.  So, what's a good way (without my
   own branch on the repository and without write access to the main
   branch) to do this?  I'd rather synchronize at least periodically (if
   not regularly) as opposed to only after making changes.

   I have the means to set up my own repository, but am not sure how
   I would go about tracking *that* to the real repository to keep myself
   in synch.  Is that the way to go?  (I've set up CVS, but am not skilled
   enough with it to see the best way to do this---or even a clear path to
   *a* way to do this.)


Thanks in advance for advice.  As well, any other general advice on
points that I didn't think to ask about would be welcome.


-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/