I think this has been mentioned before, but I was just fooling around
with my old 1.3.1 SS-1 and thought I'd try the 1.4.2ALPHA kernel from
the sparc/snapshot directory to see if it worked any better than 1.4
did.  Unfortunately it doesn't:

ok boot /netbsd-1.4.2A-GENERIC -s
Booting from: sd(0,0,0)/netbsd-1.4.2A-GENERIC -s 
>> NetBSD/sparc Secondary Boot, Revision 1.7
>> (pk@flambard, Thu Mar 12 12:57:35 MET 1998)
Booting /netbsd-1.4.2A-GENERIC @ 0x4000
1843200+129816+174084+[100380+118574]=0x245a6e
console is ttya
Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
    The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

NetBSD 1.4.2_ALPHA (GENERIC) #1: Tue Dec 21 14:51:30 MET 1999
    he@ken.runit.sintef.no:/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC
real mem = 16728064
avail mem = 13611008
using 128 buffers containing 524288 bytes of memory
bootpath: /sbus0/esp0/sd@0,0
mainbus0 (root): Sun 4/60
cpu0 at mainbus0: MB86900/1A or L64801 @ 20 MHz, WTL3170/2 FPU
cpu0: 64K byte write-through, 16 bytes/line, sw flush: cache enabled
memreg0 at mainbus0 ioaddr 0xf4000000
clock0 at mainbus0 ioaddr 0xf2000000: mk48t02 (eeprom)
timer0 at mainbus0 ioaddr 0xf3000000 ipl 10 delay constant 7
auxreg0 at mainbus0 ioaddr 0xf7400000
zs0 at mainbus0 ioaddr 0xf1000000 ipl 12 softpri 6
zstty0 at zs0 channel 0 (console)
zstty1 at zs0 channel 1
zs1 at mainbus0 ioaddr 0xf0000000 ipl 12 softpri 6
kbd0 at zs1 channel 0data fault: pc=0xf015c6f8 addr=0x4c ser=80<INVAL>
panic: kernel fault
halted

Type  'go' to resume
ok 

Note that the PROM's input-device and output-device are both set to ttya 

I don't need to update my boot block first do I?  If I do will I still
be able to boot 1.3.1?

IIRC rumour is this is fixed in -current though so it still needs a
pull-up into the netbsd-1.4 branch.

I can download and try any other kernels but at the moment I can't build
my own because I don't even have a 1.4 sparc running here, just 1.3.2.

If I get really bored later I might try building one on 1.3.2 from the
1.4-release branch I sup daily, but I'm not planning to just yet....

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>      <robohack!woods>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>