> Hello,
> 
> After a successful install of version 1.2 on a Sparc5 I assumed that
> a Sparc20 would prove substantially the same. WRONG!!!
> Every attempt to boot from the NetBSD bootstrap file results in the system
> saying that the file does not appear to be executable.  I get this result
> from both the sun4 and sun4c files.
> 
> Hopefully someone can give me some answers to the following problems:
> 
> 1) Is there a basic imcompatibility between NetBSD 1.2 and Sparc20s
> (Rom version 2.5)?

	sparc5 and sparc20 are both sun4m machines, but differing sun4m
	machines have variations in the CPU and MMU modules (even between
	sparc 20 machines).
	
	However your problems seems to be unrelated to this.

	How are you trying to boot the ss20 - network? disk?

	You might want to try labelling & installing the disk on the ss5
	then moving back to the ss20.

> 2) What is the difference between the sun4 and sun4c boot files?
> 
	sun4 has the a.out header stripped for old sun4 proms, sun4c
	has the a.out heading present for sun4c & sun4m (I hope thats the
	right way round :) Since then then someone has unified the two
	by creating a fake a.out header that is 'executable'

> 3) On a different note;  are there any major problems with running on
> a Sparc 2?
> 
	Other than it being a slower machine than an ss5 or 20, none
	that I'm aware of (I run on an IPX & ss2)

		David