[ I changed the subject to be more reflective of the contents ... ]

> > I have a ton of 5100s running Ultrix. ...
> 
> Hm.   I don't think we have any 5100 support yet.

That was a typo on my part. They're 5000/120s. As another note
mentioned, a different bootblock is needed, so I'm hosed anyway.

> In any case, you've described a desirable scenario, but what's wrong
> with doing it the way the '386 bootstrap is done now, and indeed the
> way that Ultrix installs are done?   That is to say, boot a kernel
> over the network which contains a miniroot that's enough to build a
> 4.4bsd filesystem and install a kernel there, and then boot that
> filesystem and install the rest of NetBSD?

Absolutely nothing is wrong, this'd be wonderful. But is it at all
doable right now with the current state of the pmax port? And the
bootblock is still an issue, of course.

> Retrofitting Ultrix filesystem support is indeed probably an SMOP, but
> it would only be applicable on DECstations.   Grafting old filesystem
> support into the main tree in order to support DECstations is bound to
> be unpopular with the core maintainers.   Also, since it won't get
> used much, it'll probably be flakey, which isn't desirable for an
> initial system install.

Well, how does this compare to NetBSD's use of the SunOS filesystem?
Is there no way to keep this just in the pmax part of the tree?  This is
curiousity, I haven't spent time perusing the source code to see..

> ... and fix fsck so that it
> successfully converts Ultrix filesystems to 4.4BSD filesystems.  I
> thought I saw a patch go by recently that does this.  When the system
> comes up after the initial install, it converts the root with fsck,
> and then you're native.

This is what led me to think that just supporting the ultrix filesystem
wouldn't be a lot of work in the first place. But, whatever.

Certainly net booting is a fine way to go.  Has anyone tried that?

Arnold