On Thu, Apr 19, 2001 at 10:06:28PM -0700, R Smith wrote:
> I have an IBM RS/6000 model 250 (601e), that I would
> be happy to test bootdisks, etc. on.

seems to be a fair bit of interest in a port to these machines.
looking back through my netbsd-ports mailbox since i subscribed, there's
been about 15 or 16 threads that i can count on this very subject in the
past year.

the problem is documentation.  there isn't very much of it.  one guy
whose website url i cannot currently find managed to get a floppy-based
bootloader working, and displaying numbers on the 3-digit display on a
Powerstation 220.  (another mca-based rs6k.  i have 7 of them here)

i'd certainly love to get at least one of mine going on anything other
than aix, but i don't think it's going to get very far.  ibm claim they
can't sensibly afford to release the docs for this architecture.

most of the hardware in the 220 is fairly standard stuff though, it's
just a matter of the architecture-specific glue to make it all work.
unfortunately that's probabvly the hardest bit (i wouldn't know, i'm not
a kernel developer)

what sort of hardware does yours have?  a quick browse of the chipsets
on the mainboard should give you a fair idea...  in particular the disk
interface (i assume scsi, but what chipset?), serial interface, and
ethernet interface...

j.

-- 
"Bobby, jiggle Grandpa's rat so it looks alive, please" -- gary larson