Re: Indigo R3000, Indigo R4000 and Indy R5000

[Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner%web.de@localhost>]

Hi,

On 08/24/2018 11:57 PM, Naruaki.Etomi wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Dear Frank,
>
> Thank you for checking.

You're welcome.

> Perhaps you are the 2nd or 3rd NetBSD/sgimips Indigo R3K user in the world.
> I am glad that it worked well(with MAC address problem).

Me too, I actually didn't expect that an all zero MAC address would 
really work with (R)ARP and doesn't have some special meaning.

> Your Indigo R3K is very very rare.
> Because your Indigo R3K has WD33C93A SCSI controller.
> (Generally Indigo R3K has WD33C93B SCSI controller.)
>
> I think your Indigo R3K is production of the first lot.

Wow, a true classic and it is still running. :-D

> I'm not sure when I fix MAC address problem...
>
> While you’re at it, Could you check Indigo R3000 bootloader?
> I would appreciate it if you check it when you have the time.
> http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-bugs/2018/08/19/msg058576.html

Yes, I will also try that as soon as possible. I'll first have to check
if I can find another narrow SCSI disk that works in the disk sled. I
currently only have one and it contains a disk with IRIX on it and I
don't want to loose that.

Hey, maybe the machine will behave differently when booted from disk due
to some additional initialization done by the bootloader.

Say, could it also work to load the bootloader and the kernel from
network, i.e. similar to how OpenBSD can be used on older Indys whose
firmware can only use ECOFF binaries:

```
[...]
  On IP22-class systems, or if the PROM complains about the file format,
  such as:

	>> bootp()bsd.rd.IP22
	[...]
	Cannot load bootp()bsd.rd.IP22.
	Problem reading elf structure at offset -2004877312.
	Unable to execute bootp()bsd.rd.IP22

  ... then this means that the PROM is too old to know about the ELF
  file format the OpenBSD kernel is provided in. In this case, the
  kernel needs to be booted from the ``bootecoff'' boot block, which has
  to be put on the tftp server as well, with:

	>> bootp()bootecoff bootp()bsd.rd.IP22
```
from [1].

[1]:  https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.3/sgi/INSTALL.sgi

Cheers,
Frank