Ray Phillips writes:
 > Dear NetBSD/Alpha:
 > 
 > Could you give me a little advice please?
 > 
 > I'm about to try to install NetBSD on a DEC 3000 400 machine (which has a
 > CD-ROM and a DAT drive but no floppy) and I'm wondering if upgrading to the
 > latest firmware (version 7.0 according to
 > http://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/readmes/dec3000.html) before
 > I do the installation is wise.  I assume that the answer is 'Yes' but DEC's
 > firmware release notes say that only some versions of Digital UNIX are
 > compatible with each version of the firmware, and I was wondering if the
 > same is true of NetBSD.
 > 
 > 
 > Raymond Phillips

Be very, very, very careful when upgrading the firmware on a 3000/400.
You need to make sure you have a new enough SROM chip, or an upgrade
from an old version of the firmware to a fairly new one will trash the
system & cause it to machine-check at power-on.  I'm fuzzy on the
exact details of which revisions cause the problem, but you can have a
look at: 
http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/tru64-unix-managers/9507/msg00317.html


Drew

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Andrew Gallatin, Sr Systems Programmer	http://www.cs.duke.edu/~gallatin
Duke University				Email: gallatin@cs.duke.edu
Department of Computer Science		Phone: (919) 660-6590