[ Followed-up to port-sparc, since that's where it really belongs... 
  --thorpej]

On Mon, 8 Jul 1996 07:17:15 -0500 (CDT) 
 dbaker@dogbert.mit.edu (Daniel Baker) wrote:

 > Hi..  I am intrested in upgrading our Sparc2 Solaris box to NetBSD... 
 > Our main concern is for the tape drive.  This is our primary backup
 > production machine, as SUNs have wonderful tape handling.  So, I would
 > like to be sure of what NetBSD can do..

I know of several people using tape drives under NetBSD/sparc.  I don't 
personally do so, but on machines like the SS2, it should work Just 
Fine.  (Some earlier versions of the ESP SCSI chip used in the 
SPARCstation are a little buggy ... the ESP driver has undergone some 
improvement over the past several months, however, and many of the 
problems experienced on SS1+ machines might have gone away by now...)

 > Is there a list of SCSI tape drives that have been tested on a sparc?

In general, most SCSI tape drives should work.  There are several drives 
that are known to be buggy, but NetBSD works around their quirks in software.

 > Also, how well can NetBSD-SPARC handle tapes, etc, and can it run
 > AMANDA?

I know people who run Amanda under NetBSD.  Again, I don't personally do 
so, but I've seen comments from friends who do.

 > Your webpages don't seem to carry this information, so I'd appreciate it
 > if anybody could give me a hand.

Hmm, probably because it didn't seem that important to list :-)  On the page:

	http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/sparc/index.html

...under "Supported Hardware", there is:

	* Tape drives
		- most SCSI tape drives

 -- save the ancient forests - http://www.bayarea.net/~thorpej/forest/ -- 
Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939