On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:13:42 -0500 (EST)
Matthew Orgass <darkstar@city-net.com> wrote:

> On 2005-11-11 algould@datawok.com wrote:
> 
> > In the past, I've installed packages for my Nec MobilePro by having
> > swap and /usr/pkgsrc on a FreeBSD computer and using them via NFS.
> > In an effort to make it easier after installing NetBSD 2.1, I'm
> > considering whether it would be better to run swap and pkgsrc
> > locally by installing NetBSD to a 6GB microdrive or buying a cobalt
> > raq2 on ebay.  The raq2 would actually be cheaper than the
> > microdrive; and would provide yet another educational experience.
> > The larger microdrive would provide more resources for the
> > mobilepro on an ongoing basis.  I'm not sure what to decide.
> 
>   The main problem with storage on hpcmips is that you can't do DMA
> (this is particularly annoying on the Clio, where the internal CF
> slot is behind the battery and so not hot swapable anyway).  The
> microdrives and some flash cards are capable of DMA on an ATA/IDE
> interface, but no hpcmips machine (or other handheld) I know of has
> one.  NFS from a system that does DMA transfers could easily be
> faster than a directly attached disk, even with the recent
> performance improvement for CF.  The VR41XX series has direct mapped
> data cache, which hurts performance in many situations (I don't think
> the lack of FP hardware would affect compile speed, but I don't
> know).  Also, microdrives are less reliable than 3.5" disks.
> 
> Matthew Orgass
> darkstar@city-net.com

Thanks for the information.  I just purchased a not-used raq2 on ebay.
(The description said it belonged to a web hosting company that never
got started.)

Next questions:

Which pkgsrc should I use?  pkgsrc-2005Q3? or the file
pkgsrc file dated 11/05/2005?

Assuming I can get everything working right, what would be the best way
to make binary packages available to others?

Thanks,

Andrew Gould