Hey John, I have a further question.
I'm unable to download this until the 1st of the month (broadband internet connections in Australia are criminally limited) - so I figured I may as well be informed.
While it's not as though the 68030 has much that can be done in the way of code path optimisations or special instructions implemented in hardware (as the x86 has MMX and SSE) ... does gcc's -m68030 option imply -msoft-float? I'm most likely going to recompile NetBSD on the IIvx when I get bored, and I want to know if it will be necessary to specify -mno-soft-float (as of course the IIvx possesses a TQFP 68882 on the logic board in all configurations) ...
Also, how much trimming can I reasonably do to the kernel? I am aware that the OpenBSD codebase on powerpc for instance has some strange and very arcane/cryptic dependencies - as it was based off NetBSD I wouldn't be surprised to learn that due diligence is necessary in working on NetBSD also.
Also, where can I get X sets (I've read about the NetBSD 1.2 and 1.3 releases having a monochrome X server by default, something called a SLOTMAN kernel, support for "video LKM" (loadable kernel modules?) ... is the color X server integrated in mainline now? Is there any level of support for various NuBus cards? Is there some sort of up-to-date hardware compatibility list? Is it even worth having the 24AC in the IIvx - will I be stuck with the Brazil framebuffer video, etc...
And now a slightly more important question - I read from a post of yours to a mailing list that the only UNIX that supports the floppy on the II-series macs is A/UX - of course, not an option for me. Has this been rectified since? Will NetBSD willingly talk to, and perhaps even do something useful with, my floppy drive? I don't really have the option of USB flash drives, I don't have a SCSI zip drive anywhere (oh wait, I might... hrm...), CD-ROMs are inefficient and wasteful for one-time transfers, and networking is going to be a PITA to get working (my house is wired peculiarly) ... not to mention I like to occasionally make Mac OS floppies from images using dd, and it would be cool to do on actual Mac hardware }
Furthermore, how is serial support? Will I be able to hook up a StyleWriter II for instance and have it print using CUPS or printcap? Is the IIvx' audio supported? (Amazingly, my board, though mildly fallen to capacitor plague, appears to function flawlessly, including audio!) While I appreciate the impossibility of decoding mp3s in realtime at the bitrates I use, perhaps cat'ing AIFFs to /dev/dsp will still work?
I hold no illusions that by its very nature running a modern OS on a IIvx will be an inherently limited experience, but I would like to know just where the limits lie, so that I won't be so frustrated by them, and so that I can most suitably make use of the machine.
Regards,
-- Horst.