I posted the following to comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc.  I received no

unfortnately, many of us don't read news all that often, or
have time to read news often.  the mailing lists are almost
always much better.

      When I try the mount, I get the following error message:
   msdos: mount: Operation not supported by device

this is caused by the lack of support for the msdos file system
in your kernel.  you can add (as someone else has noted)

options MSDOSFS

to your kernel configuration file, and rebuild the kernel.


the is an alternative, BTW.   in netbsd-current, there is a
/usr/src/sys/lkm (loadable kernel modules, see lkm(4))
directory, that has many of the file systems that netbsd
supports, including msdosfs.  i'm fairly certain that if you
retrieve this directory from a netbsd ftp site, and put it in
your kernel source tree, you could build the msdosfs LKM and
use modload(1) to load it into the kernel.

   >   I also tried mounting it as readonly, I tried /dev/fd/0 (and others). 

you want /dev/fd0a, btw.

   >2) I cannot configure a second ethernet interface.

you really need to upgrade to netbsd-current for this, unless
you're prepared to either (a) back-port the code to 1.2, or
(b) find someone else to do it for you.  :-)

   >3) I cannot get to the boot prompt after halting the machine.
   >   In SunOS (and during the boot cycle) pressing <L1>a will take you to the 
   >   PROM boot prompt.  Issuing the halt command in SunOS will do the same thing.
   >   This does not seem to work with NetBSD.  Is there any way I can get to the
   >   boot prompt without turning off the power?

this should work.  both of them.  BTW, pressing stop-a isn't a
nice thing to do, and should be avoided as much as possible,
as it can lead to file system corruption, if used incorrectly.

does it simply do nothing ?  halt(8) should return you to the
prom.