I have a Quadra 950 at my disposal. I'd like to get it running NetBSD as an
Internet server (web, email, ftp). I'm also a bit of a novice in
programming under NetBSD. I do have a pair of IIcxes running NetBSD, but I
haven't done any programming on them. (The most I've done is get mgetty
running on the IIcxes, but that was just by using the FreeBSD port.)

The major stumbling block for this computer is ADB and serial due to the
special I/O processors. Since this will be just a server and it's connected
to the network through Ethernet, these systems aren't needed.

The Mac OS tools work fine on this computer. I can get a properly formatted
drive set up with the software. I've installed version 1.3.1 of NetBSD. I
can use the installer and BBEdit Light to edit the configuration files. But
I can't get it to boot.

If I turn on serial console, the 950 stops right after the kernel is loaded
to RAM, so I'm guessing that the serial ports are the problem. If I try
without the serial consul, the 950 stops on an ADB initialization error.

I'm guessing that the ADB code is in the kernel, so the only way to get it
to ignore the ADB is to make a custom kernel. Since I do have the other
NetBSD/mac86k computers I guess I could compile a kernel on them. I see
that there is a HOWTO for kernel compiling, which I will try to follow.

Before I try this endeavor, I'm requesting comments and helpful hints. What
version of the kernel should I use? What other pit falls will I encounter?
Does anybody think this will work? Does anybody want to help?


Eric Damien Berna
Thiel Visual Design
Phone: 414.271.0775
Email: eric@thiel.com