Hi Gary,

> Hi
> 
> We've been trying out a few new OS's on an old beige Mac PPC 7500 (processor
> upgraded), but we really want an xBSD running on it. Until last week it
> was running Darwin. OpenBSD isn't ready yet, and might not support the
> hardware, so I gave NetBSD a go, **about which I know nothing**.

Me too :-) on a 7300/180.
> 
> Followed the instructions and created a boot floppy, booted the floppy
> and found the whole installation process an absolute dream. Did the ftp
> install from there, and was amazed at the speed of the downloads.
> Overall, very impressed.

Was NOT a dream for me, for some reason the ping command from the floppy
would simply not work. I broke into a sh and found ftp did work. So I
replaced ping with an echo of what a good ping should be and voila install
went smooth ;-)

> 
> Next, lots of trial and error with boot commands at OF then eventually
> got booted into single user mode and had to edit rc.conf - no mention
> of how to re-mount the disk on the install instructions but I got
> there eventually.

Ditto.

> 
> Next our first real boot. And disaster! Get as far as
> Starting network
> Hostname: gymnastics
> Add net 127.0.0.0 gateway 127.0.0.1
> Configuring network interfaces: writing to routing socket: Network is
> unreachable
> add net default 195.135.59.193 Bad file descriptor
> the boot  carries on OK, so I tried manually setting the interface with
> ifconfig but that fails with a
> SIOCGIFFLAGS
> error. I've got two network cards (standard preinstalled mac, and
> DEC/tulip which was used for the install), and it matters not which one
> is used -- the errors are the same.

Same here, so I jumped into the /etc/ifconfig.mc0 file and removed the
'media 10baseT' and rebooted and it worked (ping now works therefore this
was my likely install problem) hope this helps you !

> 
> So I downgraded from the latest BETA2 to the older 1.4.3 release in the
> hope that this was a bug in the beta version.

I did not go this far.

> 
> Flew through the floppy and OF bits this time, installation again seemed to
> go OK, but this time it won't even finish booting. Crashes at
> wscons: wskbd0 glued to wsdisplay0 (console)
> boot device: <unknown>
> root device:
> 
> machine hangs at this point, although you can force a reboot from the
> keyboard.
> 
> Any ideas solutions to either problem? I'm happy to reinstall the beta if
> that's easier to fix. This is currently our only 'spare' machine and I'm
> very keen to get it up and running as a web and ftp server. There's a
> couple of Linuxes around that will do the job (the machine used to have
> Yellow Dog on it) but I'm keen to test BSD. Really would appreciate some help.

Me too. Linux is easier, though putting NetBSD on this box has been very
educational. Has anyone successfully compiled MySQL on NetBSD ? (It's a
pthreads problem) What flags do I use ?

> 
> thanks
> Gary
> 
> --
> Gary Law, Systems Administrator, Sportev Ltd
> 39 - 43 Brewer St, W1R 3FD  tel: +44 20 7734 3511 fax: +44 20 7287 0773
> gary@sportev.com
> 
> 

REGARDS
Paul
<http://homepage.mac.com/poorly/>
--