I'm using, among other things that work fine, some PC164 Alphas
with Adaptec AHA2940UW ultra wide scsi controllers and Seagate
Barracuda 9 drives.  The disk driver in NetBSD 1.2D seems to work
fine, but as those already smiling know, there isn't any firmware
support in the SRM console to boot these devices when you get your
firmware from Digital Semiconductor....

So I set up my machines as diskless nodes, booted them, and went
about making file systems and populating them.  Naturally, I'd like
to use a root and other file systems from the local disks.

I suspect I do this by generating a kernel that knows where the
root and swap devices are, and hardwire them, then netboot that
kernel.

Is there an easier way to get this "mountroot" module which tries
FFS before NFS to notice there is a local root and use it?  The
diskless node doc for Alphas is a wee bit weak, I was wondering if
someone knows right off, before I research via source code....?

Anyone who knows when/if DEC might plan firmware that boots these
boards should feel free to share....  I hear that ITI makes a
board using an NCR chip that is supported both in the SRM and in
NetBSD.