On Thu, 24 Oct 1996, Michael Ritzert wrote:

> Hi 
> 
> i own an old ss 1+ clone (opus 5120, board by lsi logics) and wish to
> replace my sunos 4.1.2 by either netbsd od linux. 
> 
> I expect either system to run smoothly on the box except support for
> the floppy controller (which i urgently need).
> 
> Most ss 1+ clones use an intel 80277 instead of the 80272 (I hope to
> get the numbers right from memory, what i definitely know is the first
> 4 digits identical and the last being a 7 for my machine).
> 
> Any help appreciated.
> 
	I _think_ netbsd is ok with both fd controllers - (but I'm no
	expert :) - download a copy of a netbsd/sparc 1.2 generic
	kernel & put it as /netbsd in your root, then boot -a the
	machine into 'netbsd' - if it finds & reports the devices ok
	you're probably in the clear :)
	(It'll choke on trhe sunos init etc, but it should give the boot
	messages ok :)

> BTW: i like to know if i can stick to my original file systems and
> thus avoid reformatting the drives.

	NetBSD can use standard sunos/solaris filesystems - you _can_
	fsck -c 2 them to convert them to 4.4bsd filesystems to
	give better performance & support for whiteouts, but you
	certainly dont have to! :)

	In fact if you have any other kind of unix machine on the same
	network you can boot the sparc diskless from it & test netbsd
	without having to touch the local disk at all (Ok, so it'll
	be slow running diskless, but it gives the idea :)


                   David/abs             (david@mono.org)

.---- I've been too drunk to love ----.--- I've been too drunk to remember -.
|          Too drunk to care          |     The hell of the night before    |
|  Looked like death, felt like Hell  |    I've been drinking myself blind  |
`------ Been the worse for wear ------'--- And still I'll drink some more --'