On Mon, Jan 29, 2001 at 10:36:06AM -0300, Martin A. Marques wrote:
	> I'm thinking about installing NetBSD in a Ultra5 (and maybe later in a 
	> ultra10).
	> What I want to know (and because I don't know much about BSD) is how the 
	> applications are packaged (pkg?), and if they are all built with a 64 bit 
	> compiler.

	NetBSD/sparc64 is 64bit native.
	You have binary packages available, which you can install with pkg_add.

I don't think anyone's building sparc64 package binaries yet.

The 64-bit kernel has a 32-bit compatibility mode that allows you to
run 32-bit NetBSD binaries.  To do that the easiest thing to do is
create an `/emul/netbsd32' directory and populate it with the 
NetBSD/sparc release.  You can then attempt to `pkg_add' sparc
packages.  There are still some things that do not work under
emulation.

	You can also fetch pkgsrc to install from sources. It's just a matter of
	typing 'make install' at the rigth place.

So you need to grab pkgsrc and type `make install' and cross your fingers
and hope.  Most software is not 64-bit clean (and running on Alpha does 
not qualify as 64-bit clean since little-endian machines do not catch
many data type errors).

	> Which compiler comes with the distro? Can I use gcc? Does it come with XFree 
	> and/or KDE?

	Compiler is gcc.

The sparc64 compiler is an enhanced version of gcc 2.95.2.  A number
of bugs in the standard gcc 2.95.2 have been fixed.

	But unfortunably there's no X server available for NetBSD/sparc64 yet.

There is an X server for TurboGX (`cgsix') SBus cards, but not for
VGA or UPA frame buffers.

	I think you can install KDE and use it remotely, though.

There are some interesting interactions between KDE and the
64-bit C++ compiler that cause it not to build.

	> And to finish, where can I get iso images of net-bsd to burn (and who much 
	> are them)?

	ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/iso/ (and mirrors).
	I'm not sure there's one for sparc64.

There is an image for sparc64, however you may have problems booting
from an ATAPI CDROM.  The 1.5 kernel has some issues with the pciide
driver that are fixed in -current.

Eduardo