Subject: Sun 3/80 Headless
To: None <port-sun3@netbsd.org>
From: Andy Ball <ball@cyberspace.org>
List: port-sun3
Date: 12/19/2000 20:46:02
Hello everyone!

Looking at the archive for this mailing list, it seemed a
little quiet.  I found myself wondering today whether anyone
else was subscribed.  Thanks to everyone for your responses,
to which I've replied below. For the record, I've subscribed
to the list, so posting there will suffice (there's no need
to Cc: me seperately)

Regards,
  - Andy Ball.

---------------------------<snip>---------------------------

[Nick Brok]

  NB> ...it is possible...You only must not connect a sun
    > keyboard...That's the way how my sun 3/80 works...

  Excellent News, thanks Nick!


[Jeremy Cooper]

  JC> NetBSD supports the 3/80 headless.  (In fact, that's
    > how the support for the 3/80 began).

  That provides an interesting peek into the world of
  porting to a new platform, I guess a UART is slightly
  easier to program than a graphics board!

  JC> It will also support the Quantum ProDrive, assuming it
    > is a SCSI disk.

  It is a SCSI drive.  Thanks for the info!


[Petter Lindquist (Pollen)]

  PL> Shouldn't be any problem...

  Thanks!


[David Brownlee]

  DB> Its been a while since I fired up my 3/80 (its in
    > another country right now :(

  Sounds familiar, I left a few machine in Britain when I
  moved here to the United States.  Most recently I've been
  kicking myself for not bringing my tape drive with me! =o)

  DB> ...the 3/80 is a little fussy about it being
    > terminated correctly.

  That's handy to know, I'll take care to double-check that.
  From what people are saying, it sounds as though the host
  adaptor isn't terminated, and sits in the chain between an
  internal drive and the SCSI port on the back (so both the
  drive and port should be terminated)...does this sound
  right?


[James Birdsall]

  JB> My 3/80 won't run unless something is connected to the
    > external SCSI port, whether it be a disk or just a
    > terminator.

  Definitely a handy hint!  Eventually I might add a
  'shoebox' with a tape drive, zip drive (since I have one
  laying around) and possibly a larger fixed disk.

  JB> Note that NetBSD experiences a memory leak in the
    > kernel on the 3/80 which causes it to panic after a
    > while of running under heavy load.

  Thanks, I'll try to dig up the patch for that.


[Mark Abene]

  MA> ...if memory serves, you'll want to use the boot.net
    > from NetBSD 1.3, as the boot.net from 1.4 and later
    > seems to be broken on older machines.

  I've heard that SUN machines are good at network booting,
  and my amazing powers of deduction suggest that boot.net
  might relate to that.  Is it commonly used to install
  machines as well as boot diskless (disk light?)
  workstations?


[J. Scott Kasten]

  JSK> ...but once up, and pointed at the newer sources, it
     > went ok.

  Sounds good, thanks!

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