Hi everybody,

I'm new to this list and to NetBSD, I installed my first kernel just
last week. Reading the discussion between Benni and Leo about TT-ram
problems let me tell you about my experiences with NetBSD installation.

The hardware:
	machine : Atari TT
	memory	: 4M ST-ram, 32M TT ram
	monitor	: TTM195
	storage : 2GB IBM hd, ZIP drive, Apple CD-rom, 2xfloppy (HD)

My first attempt was to install NetBSD 1.2. I booted with the BOOTX
kernel because I was intending to install X11 later (4 views, you know
the story). Everything works fine except for some SCSI error
messages generated when I accessed to ZIP drive. In spite of the
messages the ZIP worked fine.

Next step: I binpatched the BOOTX kernel in order to get rid off the
"ST memory pool exhausted" message and because the FAQ told me this
would be necessary. I booted with the patched kernel and the "ST
memory pool" message is gone. Unfortunately a moment later the system
crashes and I find myself inside the kernel debugger: "panic: mmu fault".

The binpatch I used: binpatch -l -s _st_pool_size -o 8192 -r 999999 /netbsd

After some further attempts I decided to switch to the just released
version 1.2.1 hoping the problems would be gone. To make a long story
short: they didn't. There were even some problems recognizing my
second floppy drive. This was very frustrating since the whole thing
already took about 2 days consisting of endless hours downloading the
software over my modem and reinstalling it. So I decided to give it a
last desperate try and got the files from the arch/atari directory.

I installed them (including a BOOTX 1.2D kernel) and *poof* everything
works fine!! The binpatch, the floppy, no more ZIP drive errors ...

I'm posting this text now directely from my newly compiled Emacs 19.34
running under X! BTW: I use the "Xdaniver-2C" Xserver binary, the others
didn't work. Does the file "Xdaniver-atari-1.01.tar.gz" really contain
the source for "Xdaniver-2C"? (I looked through it and found almost
only Amiga stuff but nothing for the Atari) If not, where can I get
the source?

So Benni, did you try the kernel from arch/atari? Perhaps the will
work with your TT too. Apart from that when I bought my memory card I
browsed through some CDs to find memory test programs (for TOS). If
somebody is interested I could post them or maybe Leo can put them
onto the server.

I am a bit confused now about the different kernels. As far as I know
the 1.2.1 kernels should be newer (and better?) than the arch
kernels. At least the file date on ftp.netbsd.org is newer, but they
definitely don't work better --- at least not for me. I really would
like to compile my ow kernel now (still running BOOTX 1.2D) but I'm
afarid the 1.2.1 kernel sources won't give me a better one. Is there a
way to straight these thing out? Or --- if all else fails --- a way for
me to get the sources my currently used kernel is compiled from?

Greetings

Mike