Re: Status of the next68k port (SCSI controller/disk)?

[Michael Engel <engel%multicores.org@localhost>]

Hi,

> On 15. Jan 2023, at 17:31, Izumi Tsutsui <tsutsui%ceres.dti.ne.jp@localhost> wrote:
> 
>> I'm currently (with great help from the main previous developer) 
>> trying to get NetBSD to run on the Previous NeXT emulator.
> 
> Oh, excellent!

Thanks again :). I have Plan 9 running on Previous (though there is more 
work required to get the emulated network services to support 9p) and the 
Daydream/darkmatter Mac emulation, which works by modifying drivers etc. 
in original Mac ROMs, also works.

>> We already identified and fixed a bug in the DMA setup that kept 
>> the NetBSD network bootloader from receiving packets. Now,
>> the (current) kernel boots, but crashes/complains when trying to 
>> mount the root fs from either SCSI or via NFS.
>> 
>> Before we continue to spend time on debugging the SCSI 
>> emulation in Previous (which works for NeXTstep), I would love
>> to have an update about the state of NetBSD hardware 
>> support for the platform.
> 
> I dig out my NeXTstation slab and prepare a SoundBox cable for
> Brian Archer's custom Non ADB interface:
> http://www.asterontech.com/Asterontech/Welcome.html
> 
> Then it looks recent NetBSD/next68k GENERIC kernels including 9.3 have
> several problems:
> 
> 9.3:   Ethernet doesn't work, keyboard doesn't work, SCSI doesn't work
> 8.2:   ditto

> 7.2:   Ethernet works, keyboard doesn't work, SCSI doesn't work
> 6.1.5: Ethernet works, keyboard works, SCSI doesn't work
> 5.2.3: All Ethernet, keyboard, and SCSI work

Thanks a lot - by coincidence, I ran very similar tests last night on my 
mono non-Turbo NeXTstation. 

> So trying 5.2.3 binaries might be worth to debug emulators:
> http://archive.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-archive/NetBSD-5.2.3/next68k/

Good to see that my results are confirmed - so testing with 5.2.3 is the 
only thing that makes sense for now. I was quite a bit surprised that 
these regressions managed to stay undiscovered for such a long time,
but most people still running NeXT machines today will probably only
use NeXTstep or OPENstep...

I'll continue to work on the emulation and send updates to the mailing list.

Best wishes,
    Michael