Re: SS20 Experiances?

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

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Hello,

On Jul 31, 2009, at 11:47 AM, Sanford Barton wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Was thinking about throwing a new drive in my SS20 to try NetBSD 4 or
> 5.  Was wondering if anyone is using my config (or close) could give
> me a general idea of the end result.  My system has 2 x 200Mhz ROSS
> processors (RT626) or I can put in 2 x SM81. I also have 448mb RAM and
> CG-14 with 8mb VSIMM.

cg14 works fine bu SMP is currently broken.

> Some window managers and applications crash the CG-14 driver.  For
> example many Gnome 2.x apps and many window managers like Windowmaker,
> XFCE, etc. also crash X11.  CDE, fvwm, fluxbox, blackbox, and
> openwindows are the only ones I've ever been able to run with any
> stability with the CG-14.  This is with the 2002 Sol9 release and the
> latest recommended patch cluster applied.  The instability in X is my
> only sadness with this machine.

NetBSD's Xserver can use the cg14 as a dumb framebuffer with a  
hardware cursor. The only occasional problem is that some applications  
are dumb enough to always expect an ARGB visual while the cg14, like  
most Sun graphics hardware, is ABGR. THey are few and far between  
though and all you'd see is wrong colours, no crashes.

> So can anyone tell me what sort of system can be achieved with the
> later incarnations of NetBSD?  I see there is a non-accelerated cg14
> driver.  Anyone use it and can you appraise the performance compared
> to the Solaris driver in 24 bit X?

Slower, but not much. The SX doesn' seem to be all that fast.  
Unfortunately documentation doesn't seem to exist anymore :/

> I also see the SMP is available now on the SS20.  Is that hard to get
> working and does it perform well?  Can it be used with the 4.x release
> or is it a 5.0 only feature?

It should work in 4.x but got broken between 4.x and 5.x, a fix is on  
the way but it's not there yet.

> I'm not a developer, but I have a long history using the gcc tool  
> chain to compile packages, resolve dependencies and what not.  It's  
> a lot of work I understand, but if the end result is worth it, I'm  
> probably willing to give it a try.

pkgsrc takes care of most of that ( and it works on Solaris too )

have fun
Michael

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