Subject: Re: How to install NetBSD into the ROM
To: None <chrome@real-time.com>
From: M. Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
List: port-hpcmips
Date: 12/30/2002 00:23:56
In message: <20021227094225.V12485@real-time.com>
            Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom <chrome@real-time.com> writes:
: I believe once upon a time someone on the linux-vr list got ahold of the
: necessary blank ROM chips for a z50 and a burner, but I don't know how far
: he got with it.

Not very.

: it'd be interesting if we could do it, but it seems like a very non-trivial
: task. figuring out how to build a bootloader would almost certainly be the
: first problem... each different computer probably has it's own hacked-up
: version of wince, specific to that hardware; and there's no guarantee they
: didn't do some funky tricks in the course of booting, simply because it
: didn't have to be portable or understandable to anyone else. (the curse of
: closed hardware+software).

Well, there are two ways to install onto the ROMs.  One is to just use
the builtin flash disk to store pbsdboot.exe + netbsd.  that's easy.
The other is to install new ROMs and write a boot monitor.  That's
insanely hard, and individual to each family of products (and maybe
even sub-family)...  Not likely worth it as the only real benefit is
reduced power consumption in sleep mode.

Warner