Has anyone out there been able to successfully create (and boot from)
an 8mm NetBSD/sparc 1.2 boot tape?

What size blocks does it use?  I know Suns used to be able
to boot from both QIC (streaming) and 1/2" (blocking) tapes, so
this should be possible in theory.

I guess the upshot of all this is that I'm trying to find a way
to boot and install NetBSD without having to fall back on SunOS.
This would be useful for those of us without CD-ROM drives or
network connections, and only one disk.

Not that I fall into this category, but it would rather nice.

I would envision the tape as having:

	- boot block (with '-a' set by default)
	- standalone disklabel
	- standalone copy (braindead; prompts for "From: " and "To: ")
		[look familiar to you Sun 3 aficionados?]
	- filesystem image for miniroot

with the rest of the filesets following.

Alternatively, and this would be MUCH harder, has anyone thought of/
worked on implementing a boot+root ROFS on tape?  It would consist of:

	- boot blocks (with '-a' set by default)
	- tape-based (necessarily RO) root filesystem.

...with the rest of the filesets following.

Food for thought; responses welcome.  If nobody's done the first one,
I'm thinking of attempting it, although the standalone disklabel
and copy programs are likely to be a lot harder than I think they'll
be (and I think they're gonna be a bitch).

				--*greywolf;