Hi

We've been trying out a few new OS's on an old beige Mac PPC 7500 (processor
upgraded), but we really want an xBSD running on it. Until last week it
was running Darwin. OpenBSD isn't ready yet, and might not support the
hardware, so I gave NetBSD a go, **about which I know nothing**.

Followed the instructions and created a boot floppy, booted the floppy
and found the whole installation process an absolute dream. Did the ftp
install from there, and was amazed at the speed of the downloads.
Overall, very impressed.

Next, lots of trial and error with boot commands at OF then eventually
got booted into single user mode and had to edit rc.conf - no mention
of how to re-mount the disk on the install instructions but I got
there eventually.

Next our first real boot. And disaster! Get as far as
Starting network
Hostname: gymnastics
Add net 127.0.0.0 gateway 127.0.0.1
Configuring network interfaces: writing to routing socket: Network is
unreachable
add net default 195.135.59.193 Bad file descriptor
the boot  carries on OK, so I tried manually setting the interface with
ifconfig but that fails with a
SIOCGIFFLAGS
error. I've got two network cards (standard preinstalled mac, and
DEC/tulip which was used for the install), and it matters not which one
is used -- the errors are the same.

So I downgraded from the latest BETA2 to the older 1.4.3 release in the 
hope that this was a bug in the beta version.

Flew through the floppy and OF bits this time, installation again seemed to 
go OK, but this time it won't even finish booting. Crashes at
wscons: wskbd0 glued to wsdisplay0 (console)
boot device: <unknown>
root device:

machine hangs at this point, although you can force a reboot from the keyboard.

Any ideas solutions to either problem? I'm happy to reinstall the beta if 
that's easier to fix. This is currently our only 'spare' machine and I'm 
very keen to get it up and running as a web and ftp server. There's a 
couple of Linuxes around that will do the job (the machine used to have 
Yellow Dog on it) but I'm keen to test BSD. Really would appreciate some help.

thanks
Gary

--
Gary Law, Systems Administrator, Sportev Ltd
39 - 43 Brewer St, W1R 3FD  tel: +44 20 7734 3511 fax: +44 20 7287 0773
gary@sportev.com