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Re: First FAQ draft, please read this



I skimmed through the current draft of the NetBSD/PowerPC FAQ, and it
looks like a good start.  However, a lot of the material is obviously
taken from other NetBSD FAQs and I found some of it irrelevant.  Also,
there are some inaccuracies I'd like to point out:

You should say "NetBSD/powerpc does not currently support the 601," 
instead of "NetBSD/powerpc does currently not support the 601."  It's
better English, and less likely to be misread. 

You should delete the section that a floating point unit is required,
because ALL PowerPC 6xx chips have a built-in FPU.

I doubt seriously that NetBSD will run in 2MB RAM on a PowerPC.  You
should find out what the true minimum to boot is, but I'd guess 4MB would
be (barely) enough. 

The section about MACHINE_NONCONTIG sounds like it was stolen from the
Amiga FAQ, especially the comments about "different types of RAM" and
"32-bit RAM".  If MACHINE_NONCONTIG is a valid option for the PowerPC
version, then leave it in, but remove the references to "different types
of RAM".  If it's not a PowerPC option, then remove the entire section.

The mention of OpenFirmware as a requirement should be stated more
prominently, perhaps briefly at the beginning of Chapter 3, and certainly
it needs its own section with full details later in the chapter.

As for the "rumours", it is true that _all_ PCI (not the older NuBus) 
PowerMacs have some OpenFirmware support, but it's unclear how much NetBSD
will need to be changed to support the differences in disk partitioning,
etc..  Also, Apple is moving to PPCP (the new name for CHRP) for _future_
models, but it'll be at least a year before PPCP becomes mainstream on
desktops. 

As for Be, it is rumoured that _future_ Be machines will have OFW.  No
existing BeBox supports OpenFirmware although *in theory* they could be
upgraded in software with a new flash ROM.  In reality, Be will probably
release a full CHRP machine in the future, with OFW support, but not
support OFW on the current BeBoxes.

I didn't read beyond Chapter 4, because I assume that is just pasted from
another NetBSD FAQ.  If so, maybe you should consider a "mini-FAQ" with
just the PowerPC-relevant sections, and point to a URL with the generic
NetBSD FAQ questions.  Anyway, good work on the FAQ!

-- Jake




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