From the SUN CD-ROM FAQ AT:

http://www.pimpworks.org/sun/general.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sun CD-ROM FAQ: General

How do I use the CD-ROM drive on <insert non-Sun operating system here>?

SparcLinux, NetBSD/sparc, OpenBSD/sparc, etc

To boot from a bootable CD-ROM, a Sun compatible (512 byte block) CD-ROM
drive is still required since it is the PROM which handles booting from a
CD-ROM drive, but once the system has been booted, any CD-ROM drive will work
(as the CD-ROM driver supports 2048 byte blocks).

It has been reported to me that the boot loader in Solaris 2.6 and later does
something very early on in the boot process to allow support for virtually
all CD-ROM drives. I suspect it will not be long before the same thing is
done for the bootloaders of the abovementioned operating systems.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...I don't see any copywrite, but obviously we shouldn't use this verbatim:

i.e.:

Q: Why won't my non-Sun SCSI CD-ROM drive boot the NetBSD/Sparc CD-ROM ?

A: Most UNIX workstations, including SUN, have a PROM that requires the
CD-ROM to support a 512 byte block size.  Most OEM Sun CD-ROM drives are set
to 512 byte block size by default.  Other 3rd party drives may have a jumper
to change the value from 2048 bytes.  Check with your hardware vendor --
those drives that do not will be unusable for booting, but will be useable
once the kernel is loaded for normal operations.


later -           | _BonaFide[] = { coder, author, | /~\ The ASCII Ribbon
Brian A. Seklecki | problem solver, scholar, BOFH, | \ / Campaign Against
                  | vegetarian, runner, NetBSD     |  X  Exchange, Outlook
                  | advocate, spiritual machine }; | / \ & HTML Email

PGP: 0111 4618 0111 4618 4AB2 24EB C853 6611 75C4 A91E A7A7 4973