NetBSD/acorn32 Frequently Asked Questions

General Information

How do I get and install NetBSD/acorn32? (top)

Because of the large number of supported platforms, take a look at the installation guide in the latest Acorn32 distribution on ftp.NetBSD.org or one of its mirrors.

I've upgraded my Acorn machine to RISCOS 4.x. How do I boot NetBSD? (top)

The bootloader shipped with NetBSD 1.6 and later works under RISC OS 4. For earlier NetBSD releases there is a RISC OS 3 and RISC OS 4 compatible bootloader, including memfix for Kinetic based systems, available at ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/acorn32/riscos/.

How do I boot an NC? What do i need? (top)

To boot an NC is fairly straightforward using the new boot32 bootloader. On powerup the NC initialises itself and askes for its configuration on the LAN using bootp/dhcp. The easy way is to add a record to dhcpd.conf(5) for the machine and (re)start the dhcpd(8) service after adding dhcpd=YES in your rc.conf(5) file. The following will suffice for an NC machine called `elmo' as an entry (fill in the preferences):

host elmo {
  hardware ethernet 0:0:a4:11:7b:f6;
  fixed-address elmo.reinoud.kasbah;
  option routers 192.168.2.1;
  filename "/usr/export/elmo";
  option root-path "/usr/export/elmo";
}

Note that the filename option is needed for otherwise it sends the NC a strange file to load that fails due to “insufficient access”. Giving the home directory probably means nothing to the NC and it ignores it.

Secondly you need to export a NFS tree for the NC to work on in exports(5) and run nfsd(8) and mountd(8) by setting nfs_server=YES in your rc.conf(5) file. The following line will suffice for the NC:

/usr/export/elmo                -maproot=root   elmo

The final step is to place the bootloader called boot32,ffa in the directory /usr/export/elmo used in the template above and the kernel to be booted as either netbsd or netbsd.gz.

The following file needs to be made and called !NFSBoot,feb:

*NFS
*RMLoad boot32
*Wimpslot -next 3000k
*WimpMode 32
*desktop *boot32 netbsd
*BASIC

To check your NC's settings and such, you can uncomment the *desktop line and be dropped into the BASIC interpreter to use `*' CLI commands. Using the CLI itself is not possible on the NC due to an irritating little module called `CLIProtect' that i once managed to get unplugged but its not easily done.

I've seen !BtRiscBSD, !BtNetBSD and boot32. What to use? (top)

Use the new bootloader called boot32 when possible; its a RISC OS module currently in development. It ought to be able to boot all supported machines. If it fails for what ever reason please report it to the mailing list with as much details as possible feedback or write a problem report.

If it failed you can try the older bootloader !BtNetBSD, the predecessor of boot32. The oldest bootloader !BtRiscBSD ought not to be used anymore but for very old versions of NetBSD like 1.4.x and older and is currently not supported anymore.

How do I use wscons on my RiscPC or A7000? (top)

Wscons is the platform-independent workstation console driver for NetBSD. Standard RiscPC/A7000/NC kernels (1.6+) fully support wscons. The only limitation is that just one console screen is supported for now. The X server suplied with the 1.6 branch runs on this wscons interface.

Supported hardware

What processors are supported by NetBSD/acorn32? (top)

Put basically, NetBSD/acorn32 supports most Arm processors since the ARM 6. This includes the ARM 7500, ARM 6, ARM 7, StrongArm 110, and various processors in between.

What machines are supported by NetBSD/acorn32? (top)

NetBSD/acorn32 runs on the Acorn range of 32bit ARM computers and derivatives, such as the Castle Kinetic RiscPC and Acorn's own Network computer. A full list can be found on the main NetBSD/acorn32 page.

What if I have a processor/machine not mentioned above? (top)

Early ARM2 and ARM3 based Acorn machines are supported by NetBSD/acorn26. There are various other ARM NetBSD ports. For a full list check the NetBSD ports by CPU list.

On-board hardware (top)

Most standard Acorn hardware is catered for. This includes VIDC (video console), IOMD (general purpose IO), serial port, parallel port, mouse (both quadrature and PS/2), internal IDE interface, floppy disc and keyboard.

Ethernet interfaces (top)

NetBSD/acorn32 supports all those interfaces with machine-independent podulebus drivers, and also:

RISC OS driver name	Manufacturer	NetBSD driver name
Ether1	Acorn	ie0
EtherH NIC	I-cubed	ne0
EtherM NIC	ANT	ne0

EtherH and EtherM NIC drivers are presently the best performers.

IO cards (top)

In addition to those modules with machine-independent drivers, the following IO cards are supported:

Acorn SCSI (asc)
Cumana SCSI I (csa)
Cumana SCSI II (csc)
Alsystems Powertec SCSI II (ptsc) (maybe/apparently SCSI III)
MCS Connect32 (cosc)
Yellowstone RapIDE (rapide) (issue 2 - approximately 15% faster than internal IDE)
Simtec low-cost IDE (simide) (approximately the same speed as internal IDE)
ICS/APDL ARCIN v5 and v6 IDE (icside)

The speed of the SCSI drivers is presently relatively poor, whereas the IDE drivers perform well.

X Servers

I'm running on a RiscPC or A7000. What X Server should I get? (top)

The NetBSD.org xsrc distribution supports the RiscPC and A7000 display hardware. The server is called Xacorn32VIDC. It was first released as part of NetBSD 1.4.2 and is contained in the xserver set.

Okay I've got the new X server but it only works at the same resolution as my console. How do I change the resolution? (top)

For older NetBSD releases (-1.5.x) you need a utility called setvideo, for newer wscons consoles this is not possible yet. This is considered a missing feature and will hopefully be addressed soon.

This utility is available in source form from ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/acorn32/misc/misc-src-riscpc.tar.gz. Once you have compiled and installed setvideo and have installed a RISC OS monitor definition file in /etc/monitor.conf you will be able to use setvideo to change the X server colour depth and resolution by running it before starting the X server with startx.

Networking (and Network Booting)

My EtherM card sometimes hangs after booting. What should I do? (top)

This is a known problem, and appears to be a flaw in the card design, that stops the interface being turned off when it should be. All we can recommend is rebooting until it works.

Help! My RiscPC's etherH card won't configure under NetBSD/acorn32. (top)

There are many fixes for this. The best one seems to be to either configure the card or reset the card in your !Boot file under RiscOS. (I found the latter to be more reliable with older cards, however most people seem to prefer configuring the card and then letting NetBSD reset it).

Performance

Certain operations seem really slow. What can I do? (top)

Recently there has been lots of speed improvements in NetBSD/acorn32. If you are adventurous try out a NetBSD-current kernel. The slowness is to do with the way the memory cache was implemented. Things should be getting better as people work on this code, so just hang in there!

I'm seeing random crashes in applications/the compiler. What is happening? (top)

Your machine probably has a hardware fault which may or may not be correctable depending on the cause.

Possible causes of this problem are:

Out of tolerance or bad memory. Try replacing or removing memory and see if the problem persists.
Acorn RiscPC computers may be suffering from a motherboard timing problem. This timing problem problem is due to an unnecessary capacitor on the board and can be provoked by heavy memory usage, since NetBSD is a much more intensive user of memory than RISC OS. People with x86 second processor cars and Kinetic upgrade cards have experienced similar problems in RISC OS as these pieces of hardware can cause similar stress on the RiscPC memory subsystem.
It may be a buggy StrongARM processor. All StrongARM processors prior to revision S have a bug in the handling of LDR instructions on a page boundary. An LDR instruction in this position can cause a bad page fault. If you have one of these processor (and you have exhausted all other portential causes) this may be the cause of your problem. At one point Simtec were taking orders from people to upgrade bugged processor to a newer revision.

On my RiscPC, SCSI transfer rates suck. What should I do? (top)

Use IDE. This isn't a frivolous answer. The NetBSD/acorn32 SCSI driver for the RiscPC isn't very responsive. This is being investigated and worked on (as time permits etc. etc.) and should be resolved at some point.

Getting More Information

What Mailing Lists are there to help me out? (top)

Consider subscribing to <port-acorn32@NetBSD.org> (the main NetBSD/acorn32 mailing list exclusively for NetBSD/acorn32 things), <port-arm@NetBSD.org> (for all arm ports), and <current-users@NetBSD.org> (this is for people willing to try out new and updated kernels, the latest NetBSD has to offer). More information on NetBSD mailing lists is available.

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