Before you start you might need to consider your disk configuration to sort out a quirk in SCSI-ID to SD-UNIT mapping that exists on Sun Sparcstations. Upon leaving the factory, SunOS and the OpenBOOT ROM map according to this table: SCSI-ID -> SunOS SD-UNIT 0 sd3 1 sd1 2 sd2 3 sd0 4 sd4 5 sd5 6 sd6 Unlike SunOS and the OpenBOOT ROM, a generic NetBSD kernel numbers scsi drives sequentially as it finds them. The drive with the lowest scsi-id will be called sd0, the next one sd1, etc. To ease the installation process, the default NetBSD kernel in the distribution is setup to match the Sun mapping above by hard-wiring scsi-id#3 to sd0 and scsi-id#0 to sd3. The remaining drives will be dynamically mapped to other sd* numbers. A truely generic NetBSD kernel is also provided as `/netbsd.GENERIC', which will do the standard NetBSD probe ordering. If your configuration differs from the default Sun setup, you can try to use this kernel to complete the installation. NOTE: this is also a concern when you start building your own customised kernels. Your OpenBOOT ROM may need some setup. make sure you boot from `new command mode'. If your machine comes up and gives you a `>' prompt instead of `ok', type: >n ok setenv sunmon-compat? false ok This is needed because the NetBSD kernel relies on functionality provided by OpenBOOT ROMs -- the ability to pass down Forth commands and have them executed in the ROM -- that appears to go away when the OpenBOOT ROM operates in `old monitor compatibility' mode. Also, you cannot use the security modes of the sparc OpenBOOT ROM. ok setenv security-mode none If you're installing NetBSD/sparc for the first time it's a good idea to look at the partition sizes of disk you intend installing NetBSD on. Asumming a classic partition scheme with root (`/') and /usr filesystems, a comfortable size for the NetBSD root filesystem partition is about 20MB; a good initial size for the swap partition is twice the amount of physical memory in your machine (though, unlike SunOS 4.x, there are no restrictions on the size of the swap partition that would render part of your memory unusable). A full binary installation takes about 60MB in `/usr'. Some network devices (i.e. the built-in `le' interface on sun4m machines) allow a choice between operating on a UTP or a AUI port. The `le' driver supports automatic detection of the port which is actually connected to the wire. If automatic detection is not available or not working properly in your environment, you may have to specify the type connection using the `media' parameter of ifconfig(8). During installation, you'll get the opportunity to specify the appropriate medium. Use ``10base5/AUI'' to select the AUI connector, or ``10baseT/UTP'' to select the UTP connector.