Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU> writes:
> To me this suggests either that the older SRMs have some slightly different
> format for the nvram, that the newer ones then respect when they find (an old
> one won't take any notice of a new format it had never heard of of course)
> and then NetBSD is compatible with the old, but not the new

NetBSD doesn't modify the nvram at all.  The only thing it does to
read the nvram is call into the SRM console software with the defined
interfaces.


> or the old SRMs do some init of the nvram that the newer ones don't do, or
> don't do properly (that's the kind of bug I can believe would not be found
> easily by the SRM developers, as they quite possibly never tested on a system

> which hadn't moved up through the SRM versions in sequence).

I'd bet on this.


> That
> might be enough to distinguish the above cases, which would be useful, as
> if it is the first, we might be able to update NetBSD to handle whatever
> is newer, and if it is the latter, someone might be able to contact the SRM
> people and let them know of the problem.

It'd be nice if that actually solved the problem.  I'm not sure that i
believe that informing them will help, based on past experience.



cgd
-- 
Chris Demetriou - cgd@netbsd.org - http://www.netbsd.org/People/Pages/cgd.html
Disclaimer: Not speaking for NetBSD, just expressing my own opinion.