Steinar Hamre wrote:
 > Oliver Fromme <oliver.fromme@heim3.tu-clausthal.de> writes:
 > > on it.  Without success so far.  It has OpenBoot 3.11.1 and
 > > 32 Mbyte of RAM (2 SIMMs à 16 Mbyte).
 > 
 > Now all javastations I have access to have OpenBoot 2.11. Things may
 > be different.

Yes, probably.

Meanwhile I have found out that Linux can be directly booted by
OpenBoot 2.x, without any additional bootloader.  OpenBoot 3.x
however requires the "PROLL" bootloader to load the Linux
kernel.  It kind of emulates parts of the 2.x OpenBoot.
I guess 3.x fails to boot NetBSD for the same reason.

The "PROLL" homepage says:
 | JavaStations come with two versions of PROM, 2.30 and 3.11.
 | Linux works with 2.30 out of the box.  In 3.11 Sun changed
 | virtual memory layout and discarded an important interface
 | (romvec).  Thus 3.11 is not compatible with Linux. 
 |
 | My solution for the PROM 3.11 problem is Proll.  Proll is a
 | PROM replacement which takes over the machine instead of
 | original PROM and presents a 2.x interface to Linux kernel.

The page is at  http://corp.metabyte.com/~zaitcev/linux/

 > > First of all -- contrary to the docs at netbsd.org -- it does
 > > not do RARP.  It does DHCP to optain its IP address.  This was
 > 
 > Are you sure your OpenBoot uses DHCP/BOOTP?

Yes, definitely.  I started an rarpd on my server box, just to
be sure, but it was never used.

 > Mine uses RARP/TFTP like a normal SPARC, then JavaOS itself uses
 > DHCP/BOOTP. (ofcourse sun *might* have changed this in newer
 > Javastaton OpenBoot to make it easyer for customers...)

Indeed, it looks like they changed it, for whatever reason.
(I don't think DHCP is particularly easier to setup than RARP.)

 > > surprising, but not a problem.  I set up an ISC-DHCP on a
 > > FreeBSD (i386) box, then installed a current NetBSD snapshot
 > > under /usr/rootfs and copied its usr/mdec/boot.net to /tftpboot
 > > (making a symlink to <IP>.SUN4M).
 > > [...]
 > 
 > The javastation have the boot-file (kernel) variable set to "/kona" or
 > someting similary stupid.

It seems to load whatever name I set the "boot filename" DHCP
option to.  For simplicity, I set that to <IP>.SUN4M, just like
a normal Sparc.  It really loads that file (I watched and
verified everything with tcpdump).

 > You _do_ know how to access OpenBoot on tha javastation?

To be honest, I did not.  :-)
I don't even have a serial console connected to it.

 > to get a pure serial console. I have found no way of using the
 > keyboard from OpenBoot, nor from NetBSD.

Ugh.  That's bad news.  I need to be able to use keyboard and
mouse, because I want to use the JavaStation as an X terminal.
The keyboard (a standard PS/2 one from a PC) works fine when
I boot Linux on the JavaStation.

That means I'm stuck with Linux.  :-(

Anyway, thank you very much for your assistance!

Best regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme, Leibnizstr. 18/61, 38678 Clausthal, Germany
(Info: finger userinfo:olli@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de)

"In jedem Stück Kohle wartet ein Diamant auf seine Geburt"
                                         (Terry Pratchett)