> I just built a new kernel from:
> /pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.4.1/source/sets/syssrc.tgz
>
> but upon inspection I see it contains the old asc .c file.
>
> Since,
> /pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files/src/sys.tar.gz (25/12 @ 13:45)
> and
> /pub/NetBSD/arch/pmax/snapshot/1.4.2_ALPHA/source/sets/src.tgz
> 						(27/12 @ 12:00)
>
> are both development (the latter is a 1.4.2 ALPHA, what about
> NetBSD-current?), which should I use for a bleeding edge kernel?
> (Not necessarily a stable one.)

Well, the 1.4.2_ALPHA software should not be as much of a
"development snapshot" as the NetBSD-current.  So, if you want
bleeding edge, NetBSD-current would be it.  If you want stable code,
1.4.2_ALPHA is supposed to be the right upgrade path from 1.4, 1.4.1
etc.  Note that NetBSD-current and the "1.4 release branch" (which
will eventually turn into 1.4.2) are separate source branches, the
common ancestry is when the release branch for the 1.4 release was
created, something which happened a while before 1.4 was released.

> Also, there's this file:
> /pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release/tar_files/src/sys.tar.gz
>
> Since this a daily snapshot of the release branch, should
> I assume that it is of the 1.4.1 release?

No, I think this is a snapshot of the current "release" branch, and
at the moment that would be the "1.4 release branch", as identified
by the "netbsd-1-4" CVS tag (again, what will turn into 1.4.2 when
it's released).

At the moment the above file should be identical to what's in the
1.4.2_ALPHA snapshot, since I don't think there's been brought in
any new changes / fixes to the 1.4 release branch since December
20th or thereabouts.

> Why is there a 1.4.2 changelog in the directory if 1.4.2 is only
> alpha?

For documentation.  The copy of CHANGES-1.4.2 which sits in the
1.4.2_ALPHA directories is there to document the changes which has
been applied to the 1.4 release branch since the release of 1.4.1.
This is not the final CHANGES-1.4.2 file, i.e. there will be more
changes to the 1.4 release branch before 1.4.2 is released.

The file isn't called CHANGES-1.4.2_ALPHA because, well, I didn't
think of using that name, and the file which is being updated each
time a new change is applied is named CHANGES-1.4.2 (it also lives
in the top directory of the source tree).

> I see that there are no patches in:
> /pub/NetBSD/arch/pmax/patches/
>
> To what source tree would these patches be relevant?

Patches lying there should (ideally) bear a mark identifying which
source release they apply to.

> What source set should I use for the latest stable kernel?
> I would guess the NetBSD-release source, since I notice it
> contains the asc_ioasic.c 1.15.2.1.

Yes, that should be it.  Note, however, that there's also a binary
snapshot of 1.4.2_ALPHA for the pmax now, thanks to Simon Burge, so
you could try the kernel from there with relatively little effort.

About the framebuffer and compilation error issue I'll let someone
with more intimate knowledge of the pmax port reply.

Regards,

- H=E5vard