David Gilbert wrote:
> 
>         How hard would it be for port-sparc to support IDE?  What a

Probably not terribly.  IDE is a fairly stupid interface, but at the
basic level there's IDE code around that works...

>         OK... it's disk is an IDE drive --- A Quantum Go*Drive.  It's
> ethernet is also strange --- comes up as an 'ni0' with SunOS 4.1.2.

'ni'?  What's the ethernet controller chip?  If it's using ISA parts
(IDE, the video controller you mention below), there's a fairly
good chance that the ethernet is an NS8390 or derivative.

> It also has a floppy.  If I were to get this working seriously, I
> would probably replace the 80 meg drive with a modern 1 gig (assuming
> there isn't some feature that I'm missing to do that).

There may be issues around the 500MB mark, or possibly some stupidness
in the bootprom that restricts it to certain disk sizes.
 
>         The system runs a CL GD 6410-32QC-AD video chip.  Will this
> mean that XF86 is my best bet for an X-window system?  It also has

You'll want to chat with Randy Hendry <randy@sgi.com> about the
CLGD-64xx
support.  It may be feasible to build an X server of some sort, but
expect it to be a Learning Experience. 8)

>         Do I have any hope of getting NetBSD on this?

That's a question only you can truly answer 8)
 
> Dave.

--
Mike Smith  *BSD hack  Unix hardware collector
The question "why are the fundamental laws of nature mathematical"
invites the trivial response "because we define as fundamental those
laws which are mathematical".  Paul Davies, _The_Mind_of_God_