I wonder if anyone has any handy set of starter hints they would be
prepared to share, for setting up a cluster of network-booted SHARKs
from scratch. I have a number of Rev 5 SHARKs to set up from a Digital
(sorry, Compaq) UNIX host, and have started with the simpleminded basics
of booting one via DHCP, mounting its filesystem via NFS using the
downloaded NetBSD 1.4 sets. What I have so far works, after a fashion,
but I am sure I will be making many false starts which others have
eliminated before me.

Does anyone have any simple scheme for setting up root filesystems on
the boot host for multiple machines - I guess what is needed is separate
root (/, /etc, /var ) filesystems plus a single shared /usr ? I can see
this was the intention with the original DEC NetBSD distribution, but is
there any way to achieve that more-or-less directly from the 1.4 binary
sets?

I booted using the netbsd_netboot.SHARK kernel, which seems to make
sense and also works, at least after running "MAKEDEV std" on the boot
host. Failing to do this first resulted in the kernel giving "Warning:
no /dev/console". That does seem to make sense still, but it wasn't
mentioned anywhere I could see, so leaves me wondering if I am going
about things the right way... any reassurance, or instructions to the
contrary would be welcomed. Did I miss some completely different
(ramdisk?) file for install-booting?

What settings are appropriate in XF86config for the Shark? Generic VGA
chipset? I don't see anything more specific.

Apologies for the basic nature of these questions. I scanned through
FAQs, but could have missed much!

Thanks for any help. I've had these systems for a few months now and
would really like to get them running!

Graham Allan
Physics, University of Minnesota
gta@umn.edu