My apologies for not first grep'ing the existing sparc-mail archive.

I've offered to help a friend install NetBSD on his newly purchased
used SPARC-2  (I'd talked him into NetBSD rather than the current Sun
OS product) and I thought I would try the process out beforehand to
improve the "demonstration."

So I'm trying to install ftp.netbsd.org:pub/NetBSD/arch/sparc/snapshot
on an IPX.  I'm using the PC port and have some experience on both
the Sun3 and VAX ports.  Actually at this point I'm just trying to boot
NetBSD "install" on an IPX (the only SPARC I personally have access to).

When I boot the install.floppy/ image I get some activity, a banner,
then after a short while a PROM gripe about a "short read."  Comes out
the same each time.  Since I don't know if it is an unreported I/O
error or some anal Sun PROM image size constraints... So I then tried a
net boot.

Unfortunately booting snapshot/base.tar.gz:usr/mdec/boot (processed as
per INSTALL.sparc) produces the PROM gripe "the image is not for this
CPU type" or something similar.  For the heck of it I removed the
header as per a sun4 and got "the image is not executable" (which didn't
surprise me from what I'd read in the INSTALL guide - as I am a sun4c)

I'd like to have some reasonably portable method available to me to help
this guy and I can't even get past first-base with some local hardware 
and a host of other systems to help (net-wise).

Anything obvious I'm doing wrong and what I can do?

-- Ken Wellsch
   kwellsch@math.usf.edu