> I've brought one of my Sun3s to work, so I can net-boot it, but I
> haven't brought my monitor, keyboard or mouse. (In fact, all of
> these are sitting quite a long way away at the moment <Sigh>).  Does
> NetBSD use a serial console on port A in the same way that SunOS
> will, so I can actually boot it up and get all the networking bits
> working so I can use it properly...

NetBSD selects the use of the serial console or the "real" console
from the value in the eeprom.

> (BTW, does a break signal from the terminal still halt the machine
> under NetBSD?  I'd imagine that is in hardware, but it might be
> possible to trap?)

I believe so (The NetBSD/sun3 I'm now typing this on uses the "real"
console so I can't easily check).  I think when break is detected
NetBSD/sun3 will drop into ddb, a kernel debugger.

> Also, is it possible to use Linux to netboot them?  We do have some
> Suns, but they're in another building so using them to netboot would
> mean a very slow 64k link between sites....

Recently there has been discussion on this list about people's
attempts to netboot Suns on their Linux systems.  Some folks have
reported success, hopefully they can share their experiences with you.
I gather that base Linux distributions do not come with utilities like
rpc.bootparamd which are required for netbooting Suns.

> Will the Linux bootpd do something like that?  It allows looking up
> of IP addresses, and provision of a boot file - probably for booting
> PCs or something, but would it also boot a Sun?

Nope.  Different systems use different netboot schemes.  Some use
bootp; but Suns use rpc.bootparamd.

> Alternatively, I could use one of the remote Suns to act as rarp and 
> bootparam server, and then get my Sun to mount its file systems from 
> somewhere local by providing a modified bootparam file.... ?

You could do this pretty easily.  The only time you'd need to use the
slow link is for booting, which isn't too often.  The Sun3 on my desk
has been up for over three weeks, which is when I brought it from 
home to work.

	--jtc