Subject: Re: SONIC support in new kernels
To: None <port-mac68k@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Nico van Eikema Hommes <hommes@derioc1.organik.uni-erlangen.de>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 04/05/1997 19:27:09
    Hi,

>>> On my PB550C, with the kernel available at
>>>
>>>ftp://ftp.aa.ap.titech.ac.jp/pub/yanagisw/NetBSD/netbsd_PB550c_SONIC.tar.=
gz,
>>>
>>>done by Takeshi Yanagisawa, my PB can find the 550c's MAC address if I
>>> boot with extensions, especially the Onboard ethernet extension loaded.
>> Yeah.  That code, and my first cuts at the SONIC driver, loaded the MAC
>> address from the SONIC.  The newer, checked-in, code reads it from the
>> PROM and sets up the SONIC with that info.
>More specifically, the original code expected the MAC address
>to be the first location in the Sonic's CAM. The MacOS will place
>the ethernet address in the CAM if something has used the ethernet:
>if you had AppleTalk turned on or you ran a TCP/IP app which
>caused OpenTransport to load the ethernet driver.
>If nothing in the MacOS wanted to use the ethernet, the Sonic
>will not get initialized so we can't get the address that way.
>The -current driver reads the ethernet PROM instead, but the PB500
>PROM is not the same as the Quadras.

I'd like to experiment with this, since having MacOS initialize the SONIC
would be a reasonable interim solution for the Quadra users until the PROM
problem has been solved. Under System 7.1, the ethernet driver appears to
be loaded even when booting with extensions off (the transceiver LEDs flash
a couple of times).
The kernel mentioned above unfortunately is too PB550-specific to work on
my Quadra, so I will need to build my own kernel. I have the March 30
sources available and would appreciate if someone could send me the original
SONIC sources.

Thanks in advance. Best wishes,

           Nico


--
  Dr. N.J.R. van Eikema Hommes     Computer-Chemie-Centrum
  hommes@ccc.uni-erlangen.de       Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg
  Phone:    +49-(0)9131-856532     Naegelsbachstr. 25
  FAX:      +49-(0)9131-856566     D-91052 Erlangen, Germany