There's a new snapshot up on ftp.netbsd.org in
pub/NetBSD/arch/alpha/970305.

This is the much-vaunted snapshot containing ELF shared libs i've been
talking about for a couple of weeks now.  8-)

Anyway, the README_FIRST file is below.  Some things have changed, in
addition to the new shared libraries, etc.

Thanks to Richard Henderson for doing Linux Alpha ELF support, and
then fixing all of the bugs found while building the NetBSD binaries.
Thanks to Matt Thomas for doing the initial port to NetBSD/alpha, and
for doing the port of John Polstra's ELF loader to NetBSD and to the
Alpha.  Also thanks to the various beta testers for telling me just
how bug free the code I sent them was.  8-)


As noted in the file below, the quickest way to get your existing
NetBSD/alpha system converted to using shared libraries is to upgrade
your boot blocks, then your kernel, and then get and untar the
toolchain binary tar file.


If you run into problems, please send mail to the list (rather than to
me personally); i'm going to be very busy for the next few days, and
won't have time to answer much personal mail until next week.

As noted below, the snapshot is built with an old version of the de
driver and a couple of experimental bug fixes.  If I sent you any of
the latter, make sure they're still applied to new sources you build.
I'm pretty sure the old version of the de driver (or maybe just a diff
to recreate it) was sent to current-users a couple of weeks ago.
I believe Jason said he had a new version and was going to integrate
it RSN.


later,

chris
========================================================================
NetBSD 1.2C (March 5, 1997) Alpha Snapshot README_FIRST.


THIS SNAPSHOT IS BUILT WITH ELF BINARIES, AND USES SHARED LIBRARIES!

I've included copies of ECOFF-format kernels (with the obvious names) in the
'bin' directory, as well as two tar files containing the contents of /usr/mdec
and their manual pages (one tar file has ECOFF binaries, the other ELF).

Probably the first thing you want to do is upgrade your boot blocks, then
your kernel.  The kernels distributed with this snapshot contain a couple
of not-yet-"released" experimental patches.  If you notice that the GENERIC
kernels work much better for you than kernels you compile yourself do, get
in touch with me (cgd@cs.cmu.edu) and describe your problem and I'll tell
you if you need one of these patches.  If I've previously sent you patches
for bugs, DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY until you've made sure that those bugs
are fixed in the -current sources!  Also, the kernels distributed with
this snapshot are built with an old version of if_de, because the new
version is not particularly stable on any of my systems.

Users wishing to rebuild their systems from source should grab
bin/toolchain.tar.gz and untar it from /.  It will upgrade an existing
NetBSD/alpha ECOFF- or ELF-toolchain system to have:
	(1) ELF libraries,
	(2) ELF shared libraries,
	(3) ELF shared loader,
	(4) toolchain binaries necessary to rebuild the system
	    from scratch (which are in turn built from the sources
	    in src/toolchain.tar.gz).
(These files are also present in bin/bin.tar.gz, and on the disk image.)
X11 libraries and shared libraries are not included in this file,
because they're already included in bin/x11.tar.gz and aren't really
useful without the rest of the contents of tht file.

The binaries in x11.tar.gz are made from XFree86 3.2A sources, and so
I can't reasonably distribute the sources for them.  If you run into
any problems with the binaries, tell _me_ about them, rather than
reporting them on an XFree86 mailing list, etc.  The server in
x11.tar.gz still only supports TGA frame buffers on NetBSD/Alpha, and
is not based on the xfree86 server hardware support.  If you wish to
work on the X server support in NetBSD/alpha, get in touch with me
(cgd@cs.cmu.edu) and I'll tell you the right steps to take to get the
sources.

Finally, note that the format of the disk image used for first-time
installation has changed.  (It no longer contains a swap partition.)
See the README file for more information.