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Here is a plan from Pete for how we Sparcbook 2 owners can start porting
free OS's (e.g., Linux or NetBSD) to our hardware.

:-D J.
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	for rausch@beacon.com; Fri, 2 Apr 1999 15:26:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Pete Zaitcev <zaitcev@metabyte.com>
Message-Id: <199904022326.PAA01412@ns1.metabyte.com>
Subject: Re: Tadpole Sparcbook 2
In-Reply-To: <370536C7.EC4BE1B7@beacon.com> from "D. J. Rausch" at "Apr 2, 99 04:29:43 pm"
To: rausch@beacon.com (D. J. Rausch)
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 15:26:48 -0800 (PST)
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Only pity that I am working with JavaStations now. So I cannot
help with hands, I can only suggest. Still this is what I would do
(I assume you do not have OBP. Doubtful though. Sources say SB-1
has no OBP, but SB-2 does):

1. Gather as much info as possible from the current software.
Figure where the framebuffer is located in physical address space
and where the serial port is.
2. Write a small proggie which does nothing, but outputs a character
to the serial. It may be difficult to get right if you got sun4c -
MMU has no bypass mode there AFAIK. Use ASI 0x20 on sun4m.
2a. Alternatively, you may want to output a dot to frame buffer.

At this point you may want to ensure that you have no OBP indeed.
Print out (with your proggie) the value of %o0 upon entry. If it looks
like an address, then poke and check for romvec magic number,
in openprom.h. It may be there even if there is no user interface.

If you got romvec, attempt to bring up a kernel, fixing it instruction
by instruction. If you have no romvec, then you cannot avoid PROLL or
some other hack. But we shall see. Let the list know how you progress.

Good luck,
--Pete

> Well, I have the time and access to a test machine.  Where do I start?
> 
> :-D J.
> 
> > Do we have a person with a Sparcbook 2 who is willing to work the issue
> > through (as opposed to a user who installs distributions one after
> > another only to find out that they do not work)?

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