hi folks.


here's a mostly real, all natively built snapshot, that includes all
the most recent fixes for pretty much everything.  you can find it
in:

	ftp.netbsd.org:/pub/NetBSD/arch/sparc64/snapshot/20000814


i have not completed writing the install notes for sparc64 yet so
there is no standard NetBSD install docs, though most of the sparc or
any other ports verions apply mostly.  i will be uploading my netbsd
sources for this (which includes the toolchain meantioned below) as
soon as the sets are finished building.

included in this snapshot is a "ramdisk" image (it's not really a
ramdisk, cuz it has the kernel in *it* but when we support booting
a kernel > 4MB, we can do real ramdisk).  the best way to use this
image is to load it into some disk (or cdrom?  i dunno....) and boot
it.  the swap partition of solaris is a good bet, but it will mean
you can't re-partition easily... you just boot it and it should drop
you into sysinst.  from there, you install like any normal sysinst..
the MD portions for sparc64 are small and do not really affect how
the install runs.


additionally, i have uploaded my current toolchain binaries that are
necessary for building programs with this snapshot (there are very
few `toolchain' programs installed the base system, as most of them
cause more harm than good).  this is in arch/sparc64/toolchain, and
unpacks in to ./usr/local.  be sure to read the README in there for
some additional procedures necessary to properly use this toolchain.

there are still some issues with the toolchain:

	- collect2 causes lossage when groff(1) and other c++ programs
	link.  the solution for the groff family is to move collect2
	out of the way and only use ld proper.

	- building sha1.c with optimisation causes the compiler to use
	an extreme amount of memory, eventually failing.


what platforms are supported?  well, that's just the question.. we
have no idea how many platforms are now supported.  many more that
may be supported have never been tested.  to the best of my knowledge,
the current known list is:

	ultra1
	ultra2
	ultra5/10
	ultra250
	AXi motherboard

but most other systems should work also.  note that the PCI systems
do not have real console drivers (any sort), except for the OFW
driver eduardo wrote.  the scsi on the ultra2 and some higher-end
ultra1 models, SUNW,fas, is not yet supported.  if you test any
platform, please send the boot log to port-sparc.  that way we can
build the knowledge base of known to work devices.


see http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/sparc64/ for more information.


please log any problems via `send-pr'.


thanks!


.mrg.