Eric Damien Berna wrote:
> 
> 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.)

I think that there is a NetBSD package for that now, but experience is a
good thing ;-)
 
> 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.

That might work....

> 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.

You need to put the serial ports into compatibility mode, first.  That
should give you a working serial console.  I think there is a Serial
control panel to do this.

> 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.

I don't think that you actually need to pull it out.  Most ADB
initialization is ignored when you specify a serial console.

> 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?

A NetBSD 1.3.1 kernel will probably work as well as any other (unless
Allen has something special).  The major difficulty that I'm aware of is
that the esp driver doesn't handle the Q950's dual SCSI chain quite yet.
Allen Briggs was working on this at one point, but I don't know what the
status is (there was mention of it last week, I think, but I can't
remember what was said).  You might be able to get the machine to boot to
a usable networking point if the drive is on the internal SCSI chain, tho.

Good luck!

Later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                 cwood@ichips.intel.com
Component Design Engineer - PMD                 Intel Corporation
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I speak only on my own behalf, not for my employer.