Subject: FAQ and installation guide
To: None <port-arm32@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Markus Baeurle <emw4maba@rghx50.gp.fht-esslingen.de>
List: port-arm32
Date: 08/06/1996 00:31:18
Hi there!

I am proposing the following changes and additions to the FAQ.
I could perform all these changes and post the reworked FAQ in case this is desired. Somebody to approve it (Manar?) could check my changes by comparing the old and my version with diff.
I have also had a look at the installation guide and have a list of things that should be corrected in it, too. Same question here: Should I say what should be done and rely on somebody else or change it and post my new version?
I would prefer the latter in both cases, but would need the help of others for some things (eg. I don't know exactly if RiscBSD is working on the A7000 now). 

OK, here are the things I noted down for the FAQ:
Remove large revision information or shorten it and move it to the end.
Underline the subject lines ("Basics of RiscBSD", "Availability", ...) for more
  clarity.
Update 1.2 (A7000 and VLSI 7500 board are now supported).
Write more for 1.3 (hardware requirements).
Change 2.1 to question about the 1.2 release.
Update 2.4. At least ftp.uni-stuttgart.de is a mirror now (and wasn't mortimer
   closed?)
Maybe name me as a German supplier for CD ROMs in 2.5?
Update 2.7 to describe how to subscribe to the mailing list and change the
   date for the RFD.
Update 3.1 (describes upgrading from alpha2) for upgrading to 1.2?
Remove 3.4 (question about usage of GCC 2.6.3).
Change 4.1 and 4.2 (ARM FPE is standard now).
Maybe update 6.1 (in case there's more info on it now)?
Update 7.1 (list of ported software, make it more informative).
Update 7.2, standard is gcc272 now.
Maybe update 11.1 to say that 16 Meg is recommended for efficient use.
Update 11.3, it stills names the old mailing list address.
Update 11.4: ALT key getting stuck and unselectable menus are also known bugs.

There should also be some information about partitioning drives connected to the various SCSI controllers, but I'm not competent enough for that, I'm afraid. This should perhaps rather go into the installation guide.

This could be Q8.6:
Q: I have plenty of memory, but gcc complains about "virtual memory exhausted"
   when it tries to compile a large source file.
A: There are limits in NetBSD to keep programs from using too much of the
   machine's resources. They can be viewed with "limit" ("sysctl -a | more"
   gives more information kept by the kernel).
   Type "limit datasize unlimited" or "unlimit" (this will remove all limits)
   to allow gcc to grab more than 16 MB. You can also put this in your shell's
   startup file, eg. ~/.cshrc.

This could be Q8.7:
Q: What are known kernel-related bugs in RiscBSD?
A: There are still several bugs in the kernel bsd-4444 which are known to the
   kernel team:
   * Writing to DOS floppies often results in files which give disk errors when
     reading them afterwards. Sometimes you can get readable files if you
     don't mount the floppy but use the mtools.
   * Due to timing problems, SLIP connections often suffer from silo and ibuf
     overflows. The former seem to have reduced in favour of ibuf overflows.
     This only reduces the performance of your serial connections.
   * Occasionally, one of the indirect block address fields in an inode would
     get trashed, which would result in the loss of the corresponding file.
     The trashing is now prevented, but the bug causing the wrong value still
     exists. This happens if you see a message saying: "ffs_update: bad indirect
     addr on entry...", so you can ignore it.
   * There are problems with printing running bsd-4444. They often result in
     a complete crash of the kernel. 

This could be Q9.2:
Q: How can I use my ATAPI CDROM under RiscBSD?
A: First you have to ensure that the device files in /dev are present:
      cd /dev
      mknod acd0a b 20 0
      mknod racd0c c 20 2
   You should then be able to mount a CD with:
      mount -r -t cd9660 /dev/acd0a /mnt
   Please note that ATAPI support is still in its beta stage.

This could be Q10.2 (I can also supply some harddisk performance figures, also from PCs):
Q: Why is my SCSI harddisk so slow?
A: This is due to the fact that the drivers for the Cumana and PowerTec cards
   are polling only at the moment. There were problems with interrupt handling
   which are almost fixed now, so these drivers should become interrupt driven
   soon.

This could be Q11.9
Q: I have heard that X11 doesn't work with the latest kernels. Is this true?
A: In general, yes. It may work for you. Some people report that they hardly
   noticed any difference and others can't do anything under X.
   This is largely dependant on the interrupt timings (ie the devices you have
   connected) so some people will rarely see and others will see it a lot.
   However, beta X sets for the 1.2 release are hoped to become available soon.

This could be Q12.5:
Q: I'm trying to compile an X program, but I get errors about "undefined
   references".
A: The order in which the libraries to be linked with are specified is
   important. In this example, -lm -lXpm -lX11 -lXext doesn't work,
   but -lm -lX11 -lXpm -lXext does.


MfG Markus