NetBSD/sparc

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About NetBSD/sparc

NetBSD/sparc is based on work done at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory by the Computer Systems Engineering group under DARPA contract BG 91-66, which later appeared in the 4.4BSD-Lite distribution from the University of California, Berkeley. It was imported into the NetBSD source tree on October 2, 1993. Special thanks are extended to the LBL Computer Systems Engineering group for their work. Without which, this port would not exist.

For frequently asked questions and links to Sun hardware information, see the NetBSD/sparc FAQ.

For newer UltraSPARC-based machines, see NetBSD/sparc64.

NetBSD/sparc News

2006-07-03:   NetBSD running on JavaStation Espresso
Julian Coleman reported that together with Valeriy E. Ushakov he was able to make NetBSD boot in single-user mode on a JavaStation Espresso.
2006-02-28:   XFree86 in 16 and 24bit
Michael Lorenz announced that the pnozz(4) frame buffer now supports 8, 16 and 24bit color with full acceleration. See his message to the port-sparc mailinglist for more details.
2005-04-09:   Binary packages for pkgsrc-2005Q1 available
Manuel Bouyer has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD-2.0/sparc from the pkgsrc-2005Q1 branch into ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc-2005Q1/NetBSD-2.0/sparc/.

Archive of NetBSD/sparc news items

Supported System Models

Systems for which support was added in NetBSD 2.0 are marked (2.0).

Note:Models marked '(SMP)'can have multiple CPUs but NetBSD/sparc does not use more than one CPU prior to release 2.0

  • Sun sun4m machines (all known SuperSPARC, hyperSPARC, microSPARC, and TurboSPARC CPUs are supported):
    • Sun 4/600 (SMP)
    • SPARC Classic
    • SPARC LX
    • SPARCstation 4
    • SPARCstation/server 5
    • SPARCstation/server 10 (SMP)
    • SPARCstation/server 20 (SMP)
    • SPARCstation Voyager (See the FAQ regarding PCMCIA support)
    • Sun 'Fox'
    • JavaStation-1 (a.k.a. "Mr. Coffee" or JavaStation JJ) (2.0)
    • JavaStation-NC (a.k.a. Krups, JavaStation JK, or JavaStation-10) (2.0)
  • Sun4m compatibles (including):
    • Axil 245 (SS5 clone), 311, 320 (SS20 clone)
    • Cycle C C Cycle 5-IP
    • DTKstation/Classic+
    • RDI,PowerLite-85, RDI,PowerLite-110, RDI,BriteLite
    • Ross sparc 20
    • SS5/170 Transtec
    • TATUNG micro COMPstation 5
    • Twinhead TWINstation 5G (SS5 clone)
    • TWS,SuperCOMPstation-20S
    • Tadpole SPARCbook 3GS and 3GX
  • Sun sun4c machines:
    • SPARCstation/server 1
    • SPARCstation/server 1+
    • SPARCstation/server 2
    • Sun ELC
    • Sun IPC
    • Sun IPX
    • Sun SLC
  • Sun4c compatibles (including):
    • Aries Research Inc, Parrot II (SS2 clone)
    • Opus/5000 (SS1 clone)
    • Opus/5250 (SS1 clone)
    • FORCE SPARC CPU1e/4 VME Board (SS1 clone) (NetBSD doesn't support VME boards on this model)
    • FORCE SPARC CPU2e/4 VME Board (SS2 clone) NetBSD doesn't support VME boards on this model
  • Sun sun4 machines:
    • Sun 4/100 series
    • Sun 4/200 series
    • Sun 4/300 series
    • Sun 4/400 series

Supported Hardware

See the supported hardware page for a complete list.

  • All on-board and most optional Sun brand framebuffers (all framebuffers work for text console usage)
  • All Sun brand built-in and optional network interfaces
  • Most Sun brand SCSI interfaces
  • All floppy drives
  • All on-board serial ports
  • Most input devices (keyboards, mice, trackballs)
  • Audio on sun4c and some sun4m models
  • PCMCIA devices with Voyager or sbus nell interface (see FAQ)
  • PCMCIA devices with Tadpole ts102 ( SPARCbook 3GX and 3GS ) in -current
  • DBRI audio in -current (output only so far)

System Models Not Supported

  • sun4d-class machines (partial support)
  • sun4u-class machines (These are covered by NetBSD/sparc64)
  • Solbourne machines
  • JavaStation models not listed above

NetBSD/sparc Information

Mailing Lists

Current Releases

Future Releases

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