Hi all,

Over the past few months, I have been working on a port of
NetBSD/sparc to the Sun4m-series SPARCstations with the support of
Margo Seltzer at Harvard University. A preliminary release of this
port is now available for alpha-testing. I'm putting out this release
now to try to clean up support for the machines which I don't have
access to for testing; I've only been able to test it on the SS20 I
used for developing it. At this point, the port is stable on my SS20,
but I don't know how well it will run on many of the other Sun4m
platforms (SS4, SS5, SS10). It is known to work on the SPARCclassic.
Thus if anyone tries out the kernel, I'd appreciate hearing about any
problems they encounter (other than the known bugs listed in the
README file). The kernel is compiled with DEBUG, DIAGNOSTIC, and DDB
to help locate bugs.

The kernel binary for NetBSD/Sparc-sun4m can be obtained via FTP from
ftp://rioja.eecs.harvard.edu/pub/NetBSD-Sun4M/netbsd_sun4m.tar.gz

This tar file has a kernel binary and a copy of an updated libkvm; 
the remainder of the binaries and libraries are identical to those in the
NetBSD/sparc 1.1A distribution.

Source is not generally available by FTP at this point as it needs major
cleanup and release-engineering; it can be obtained upon request to 
abrown@eecs.harvard.edu. We're planning on an official (non-alpha) 
release sometime within the next month, at which point all source 
will be available.

Note that this port is still incomplete--several device drivers are missing, 
for example the new audio devices and the cgtwelve and cgfourteen framebuffers.
Multiple CPUs are not yet supported.

If you have any questions about the port, its status, or its future, feel
free to contact me at abrown@eecs.harvard.edu

I've attached the README from the ftp site where the port is located below.

Enjoy!

--Aaron


NetBSD/Sparc-Sun4m
==================

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE FILE BEFORE USING THE SUN4M PORT!

This site contains preliminary code for a NetBSD port to the Sun4m
architecture (SS5, SS10, SS20, etc). Please read the important
copyright and distribution information below.

The tar file in this directory contains a kernel binary that can be loaded
via SunOS 4.x or NetBSD bootblocks. At this point, the NetBSD bootblocks
do not work on some of the Sun4m machines, notably the SS20. Solaris
bootblocks will NOT work with this kernel, as it is in a.out format.
The tar file also contains copies of a new libkvm which contains changes
to sync with the new pmap structure layout in the Sun4m kernel. You'll need
to relink any static binaries with this libkvm to get ps and friends to work.
Note that this libkvm will NOT work with the existing sun4/sun4c kernels, 
so don't trash your old ones. Otherwise, all existing NetBSD/Sparc binaries
should run with this kernel.

Installation is the same as the existing NetBSD/sparc port, except the
new kernel and libkvm should be used. As mentioned above, you'll have to
relink some static binaries to get them to work. The kernel is relatively
generic, and is based on NetBSD-1.1A from January 3rd, 1996. It is not
a _SCSI3 kernel.

An old source tree from Sept. 1 is available in veryoldbadsrc. This bears
little relationship to the present kernel. Due to the need to clean up
the code, the source for the current kernel is not available for public
ftp. We plan to release it sometime within the next month. In the meantime,
source can be obtained upon request to abrown@eecs.harvard.edu.

Please note:

This directory and its subdirectories contain software designed to
add support for the Sun4M-class SparcStations (specifically the SS20)
to NetBSD. The code has not been fully tested, and is not guarateed to be
complete, or working, at any given time. 

The following machines have been tested, and are known to work at least
partially with the Sun4m port:
	* Sun SPARCstation 20, SuperSPARC-II CPU
	* Sun SPARCclassic, MicroSPARC-I CPU
The following machines are at least partially tested:
	* Sun SPARCstation 10, SuperSPARC-I CPU
The following machines have support in the kernel, but have not been tested
or debugged at all:
	* All machines with HyperSPARC processors
	* All machines with MicroSPARC-II processors (SPARCstation 5)

The following machines WILL NOT WORK with this Sun4m port:
	* All machines with more than one CPU installed

KNOWN BUGS:
These are the known bugs on an SS20 with SuperSPARC-II processor:
	* Ethernet and SCSI occasionally drop interrupts, resulting
		in disk hangs and strange NFS behavior under stress.
	* Many devices are not supported (audio, fancy framebuffers, etc.)
		and many "supported" devices haven't been tested (cgsix, etc.)

IMPORTANT:
Duplication or redistribution of this work-in-progress is prohibited
without express permission of the author. Please contact Margo
Seltzer at margo@eecs.harvard.edu for more information or requests.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS
OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE
USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.

This product includes software developed by the University of
California, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

This product includes software developed by Aaron Brown.
This product includes software developed by Paul Kranenburg.
This product includes software developed by Theo de Raadt.

Portions of this product are Copyright (c) 1992, 1993 The Regents of the
University of California. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 1996 The President and Fellows of Harvard University. 
All rights reserved.

Aaron B. Brown
Harvard University 
abrown@eecs.harvard.edu