Subject: Re: Boot Floppy Available
To: Chris G. Demetriou <cgd@pa.dec.com>
From: Wilko Bulte <wilko@yedi.iaf.nl>
List: port-alpha
Date: 10/21/1997 20:18:28
As Chris G. Demetriou wrote...

> > Maybe I'm annoying but: could you please build the same thing
> > with options JESUS_KNOWS so that I can try it on different systems
> > taht are not officially supported right now (4100, 2100, 1000, Jensen).
> 
> That doesn't make sense.  Generic kernel configurations (of which the
> ramdisk kernel is a derivative) include code which allows them to work
> on all systems supported by NetBSD/alpha.

OK, but my point is that it might be interesting to see how far it
gets while booting on a 'unknown' system. The kernel could/should spit out
a nasty warning I suppose, but (maybe I'm dreaming) e.g. a 4100 might look
like a smaller 8200. 



> If there's no support for a system, a kernel won't run on it (for very
> long at least; it'll print out a message that the system is
> unsupported, then halt).  You can't really do much more than that.
> "Support" for a system includes all of the low-level code which
> controls how it's I/O bus is attached, how interrupts are configured,
> how the console is configured, etc.

But are all machines completely different in this respect, or is there
some common ground? I have not studied this subject, mind you, but I'm
just curious.

> In other words, unsupported systems really are unsupported, and you
> can't run NetBSD/alpha on unsupported systems.  8-)

8-)
_     ____________________________________________________________________
 |   / o / /  _  Bulte  email: wilko@yedi.iaf.nl http://www.tcja.nl/~wilko
 |/|/ / / /( (_) Arnhem, The Netherlands - Do, or do not. There is no 'try'
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