Re. http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-help/2003/06/26/0001.html

The SUSE emulation package stuff is provided because NetBSD's GNU/LINUX
emulation is confined to kernel support (identification of GNU/LINUX
binaries and providing GNU/LINUX system calls to same).  GNU/LINUX
programs tend to want additional things (perhaps even as bizarre as
assuming that /bin/sh is BASH; but maybe also depending upon specific
programs, or specific quirks of GNU/LINUX shared libraries, etc.).

So if you want to run, say, the GNU/LINUX i386 version of Netscape (instead
of a native compile of Mozilla, Phoenix, lynx, etc.) you will need some of
the GNU/LINUX libraries.

The SUSE packages provide that support.

NetBSD does not, as far as I know, inherantly favor one GNU/LINUX
distribution over another.  It can't, in fact, because NetBSD's GNU/LINUX
compatibility is restricted to LINUX proper (i.e., kernel) compatibiliy.

If you really know and like Debian a lot, you can probably use the
Debian distribution's userland in place of SUSE.  (Do note that by
definition, a compatibility layer is probably always going to lag a
little.  To the extent that it matters at all, the SUSE uersland for
compatibility may have resulted in SUSE-related bugs/quirks being
shaken out of the kernel, so it *may* work slightly(?) better than
Debian userlands.  And, older GNU/LINUX userlands will probably work
more readily than newer ones.  At least, that's what I'd expect.)


As for apt and rpm, I guess that you can use them if you like.  I much
prefer pkgsrc, having used apt-get on a native Debian GNU/LINUX system.
Binary packages seem so weird (especially for the we-must-have-your-source
GNU crowd from which sprang rpm and apt).

At least a few people report using pkgsrc on GNU/LINUX systems because it
is so much better to use pkgsrc.  You might consider it for your hybrid
NetBSD & GNU/LINUX system, too.


I'm a little puzzled by the whole Debian NetBSD idea, though.  But far
be it from me to tell others what to do with their computers.  (^&


(Also, the question of why you want to run a GNU/LINUX userland on a NetBSD
kernel raises something else that I should mention: "LINUX" emulation
doesn't mean CPU emulation.  The one reason I've promulgated by
Debian for the Debian NetBSD project is to use NetBSD's portability to
run Debian on a wideer range of platforms.  This is all good and
well, but you should realize that if you are running GNU/LINUX binaries
on NetBSD, you'll need (a) LINUX emulation available on your desired
port, and (b) LINUX binaries *for* that port.  The Debian NetBSD project,
as I understand it, is natively compiling the Debian userland for
NetBSD kernels, so they can go places that Debian can't go with GNU/LINUX
binaries running on NetBSD kernels.  I am assuming that you are following
the baseline intent of "Debian NetBSD" and are running non-i386 hardware,
so you should read the options(4) man page for COMPAT_LINUX.)


Good luck.


-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/