[ Apologies if you get this twice - the flying fingers sorta hammered the
  first attempt to send it. ]

Sigh.  I should probably stay *way* outta this, and I'll bet poor Dean is
feeling very much unloved at this point, but ...

Perhaps what needs to happen is an enumeration of the steps necessary to
get from where we are to the twin goals cgd outlined:

>       (1) to become completely 'native',
>       (2) to be clean.

Right now, it's fairly easy to build a bootable ECOFF NetBSD/pmax kernel
under Ultrix via gcc and Ultrix as.  I even got *mine* to work, so it can't
really be too tough.

I, for one, would be satisfied, for the moment, with a roadmap of what steps
one takes to get a NetBSD/pmax running native on a DECstation with an Ultrix
assist.  I'm willing to worry about how to bootstrap from bare hardware later
(your mileage may vary).

Several folks seem to have figured this out.  Unless Dean or somebody else
objects, I hereby volunteer to collect this information and create a docu-
ment that describes the procedures and contains the code necessary to get
NetBSD/pmax running native on DECstations with the help of Ultrix.  I'll
verify that all this works by actually doing it on my 5000/25 while creating
the documentation.

Only thing is, I'm sure I don't have all this information *now*, and I only
have the barest idea how to do it.  This may make me unsuitable for the task;
if you think so, please flame me.

OTOH, if you've done this already, and are willing to tolerate endless stupid
questions from me, please send me mail.  I've got the necessary hardware all
set up, and I'll make time to do the job with relative alacrity.

Dean, is this OK with you?  Or are you already working on this?

What do the rest of you think?  Do you view this as useful or a waste of time?

Terry R. Friedrichsen

terry@venus.sunquest.com  (Internet)
uunet!sunquest!terry      (Usenet)
terry@sdsc.edu            (alternate address; I live in Tucson)