Subject: REVIEW: Amiga NetBSD
From: [email-masked] (Markus Illenseer)
Date: 10 Sep 1993 21:49:19 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Amiga NetBSD, kernel version #635

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Amiga NetBSD is a freely distributable Unix (R) environment for Amiga
computers.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:	The Regents of the University of California, Berkeley
		and many contributors.

		Amiga port by Markus Wild of Zurich, Switzerland, with major
		contributions from Bryan Ford and Mike 'mykes' Schwartz.

LIST PRICE (approximate)

	Freely distributable under the NetBSD disclaimer; see the COPYRIGHT
NOTICE section, below.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	NetBSD is still under construction, so the following information may
change.

	SYSTEM HARDWARE

		An accelerated Amiga (68030) with a working MMU (memory
		management unit).  This includes most accelerator boards
		(e.g., Commodore A2630), the Amiga 3000, and others.  NetBSD
		does NOT currently support the 68040 processor; the MMU code
		needs to be enhanced first.  NetBSD is untested on the 68020.

		The stock A4000/030 and A1200 computers have no MMU and so
		will not run NetBSD.

		Requires at least 2 MB of contiguous RAM.
		8 MB or more of contiguous 32-bit RAM is recommended.

		Requires at least 10 MB hard drive space for a minimal setup.
		100 MB hard drive space needed for a full installation.
		Actual use of NetBSD may require much more space; for
		example, a serious developer may need 500 MB or more.

	HARD DRIVE SUBSYSTEM

		Amiga NetBSD supports the following hard-drive systems:

			Amiga 3000 and 3000T internal SCSI host adapter.
			A2091 SCSI host adapter for A2000.
			GVP Series II SCSI host adapter for A2000 and A500.

		Currently NOT supported:

			Any PIO adapter such as Oktagon and ALF.
			Any IDE adapter such as in the A4000.

		Almost every SCSI hard drive is known to work with Amiga
		NetBSD.  This includes the range of Quantum drives, Seagate,
		Wren, DEC, Fujitsu and IBM.

		SCSI tape drives (QIC, DAT) and SCSI CD-ROM drives (ISO and
		Rockridge extension) are supported.

	GRAPHICS

		Standard Amiga ECS chip set.
		Retina Graphics Board.

	SOFTWARE

		The loader works with almost any version of AmigaDOS.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 2000 with A2630 accelerator board
	4 MB of 32-bit RAM, 4 MB of 16-bit RAM
	Commodore A2091 SCSI adapter with Quantum P80S and Syquest 40MB
	It was also tested with 1 and 2 MB Chip RAM on this A2000.

	Amiga 3000 with 2 MB Chip RAM, 8 MB Fast RAM
	Fujitsu M2623F (400MB) and a DEC DSP 3105S (1GB) SCSI drive.

	On both Amigas, AmigaDOS 2.04 and Kickstart 37.175 was used.
	On both Amigas, the Amiga NetBSD kernel #635 was used.
	For some further tests, a A2065 Ethernet board was used.

INTRODUCTION

	["TTY-fighters attacking!" Con Solo shouted.]

	For your own interest:  I may use technical words which are very
common in Unix environments but meaningless to people who have never used
such a system.  Amiga NetBSD may help you to enter the world of Unix, but
you will need third party help, such as Unix reference books and guidelines.

	Amiga NetBSD is the first freely distributable Unix for Amiga
systems, and enables the user to run a fully qualified Unix environment on
his own machine.

	NetBSD takes over the Amiga, so it is not possible to run it
concurrently with AmigaDOS.  So in this review, you will see references to
the "Amiga side" and the "NetBSD side" to indicate which operating system
(UNIX or AmigaDOS) must be running to accomplish a particular task.

HISTORY OF AMIGA NETBSD (technical)

	NetBSD is based on the last public release of BSD 4.3 (the
networking-2 release) by the University of Berkeley, as well as integrating
some ideas from 386BSD.  The Amiga port is largely based on the initial HP300
code distributed with 4.3BSD-NET2, and has become part of the official
NetBSD source tree.  Further NetBSD ports in the line will include support
for Mac, Sun3 and Sparc.

	This port was done by Markus Wild in June 1993, and is based upon the
original HP port.  As Markus Wild has a great deal of knowledge of Unix
systems, his first efforts were to compile the basic tools needed for the
Unix environment.  This was done on the AmigaDOS side with GCC 2.4.3, which
he ported himself to AmigaDOS some time ago.  His famous ixemul.library
finally found a successor.

	After doing the initial port of the kernel (the basic operating
system of Unix environments), the next problems were the basic root
filesystem and hard drive support.  Here, Markus was aided by the Amiga Mach
port, worked on by many other people, which had a working SCSI driver but no
freely distributable Unix server.

	All in all, this was a lucky constellation, and Amiga NetBSD was
ported in less than a month!

	Having compiled the entire root filesystem, followed soon by an easy
port of GCC 2.4.5 was very easy, the kernel could then be compiled under
NetBSD itself, along with the rest of the environment.  Amiga NetBSD has been
published and distributed over the Internet to interested developers and
supporters.  A mailing-list was created, and bugs, features and wishes have
been discussed.  Amiga NetBSD has a living future.

OVERVIEW

	You may wonder why a Unix environment is needed for the Amiga.
Well, this is a serious question, but there is no real answer.  The users and
developers of Amiga NetBSD have various uses for it:  interest in doing the
port, use of Unix programs at home, easy support and easy access to
University resources, etc.  They share their love of pure Unix environments.

	Currently, Amiga NetBSD takes over the Amiga, so it is not possible
to run AmigaDOS programs under NetBSD using all the resources of Intuition
and Exec.  This may change.

	It is possible to mount Unix File System (UFS) partitions on the
AmigaDOS side, but currently they must be read-only.  This helps you to copy
files from NetBSD to AmigaDOS.  It is a future goal to be able to mount
AmigaDOS filesystems on the NetBSD side.  This would allow the two sides to
share common resources (i.e., TeX fonts, compiler include files, and much
more).

	Amiga NetBSD is a true multitasking and multiuser operating system
and allows system sharing in an intelligent way.  Running in conjunction with
existing Unix environments (i.e., at a university), it is possible to
connect the Amiga running NetBSD to networks via Ethernet and PPP using a
true TCP/IP stack protocol.

	The friends of the X11 windowing systems have yet to wait.  X11 is
far from being ported to Amiga NetBSD.  First, shared libraries have to be
ported, to make X11 usable and reliable in disk space and memory wasting.
Hopefully, the shared libraries will be ported from a public domain
implementation for shared libraries for Sun3 systems.  X11 on Amiga NetBSD
will require a third party graphics board such as the Retina or Picasso II,
but a monochrome version would be feasible for the standard Amiga display.
It is almost impossible to run full color X11 on Amiga ECS or AGA at a usable
speed.

	Amiga NetBSD is not binary compatible with any other UNIX system
yet.  Future NetBSD versions will support various third-party binaries
though, such as SunOS, HP-UX and possibly Amiga Unix executables.

	Supported drivers are:

	o	SCSI for hard-drives, QIC tapes, CD-ROM, and DAT tapes.
	o	ECS console driver with overscan resolution (VT200).
	o	Retina console driver with different resolutions (VT200).
	o	ASCII keyboard (qwerty) driver, possible to load localized
		keyboards.
	o	Mouse with up to 3 buttons (no real use yet).
	o	Joysticks with up to 3 buttons (no real use yet).
	o	Internal serial port up to 38400 baud for terminal or modem.
	o	Internal parallel port for printers.
	o	A2065 and Ameristar Ethernet boards.

	Currently not supported:

	o	Floppy driver.
	o	Audio (at least for more than a simple audio bell).
	o	Multi-serial boards such as the A2232 and GVP I/O Extender.

INSTALLATION

	[Vitamin enriched for your reading pleasure!]

	This is a very delicate problem.  Amiga NetBSD is not intended to be
installed by a novice in terms of hard drive systems on Amiga.  You
definitely need to know how to work with AmigaDOS HDToolBox and must have
heard of "Blocks per Track" and "Cylinders per Track."

	But first, where to get Amiga NetBSD?

	Before getting any of the archives, PLEASE get the FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) List, which should reside at the same places as NetBSD
itself.  This list informs you how to install Amiga NetBSD, how much space is
needed, how to set up your hard drives, and much more.

	If you have Internet access, you can ftp the needed archives from
ftp.eunet.ch (the main site for Amiga NetBSD) from the directory:

		/software/os/bsd/NetBSD/NetBSD-Amiga.

Also, many of the Aminet ftp sites mirror the NetBSD archive.  PLEASE DO
CHECK your local mirror.

	NetBSD is LARGE. You will need at least 20MB of "gzip-ed" archives to
have a standard NetBSD environment... and even more if you intend to work on
the kernel.

	If you have no Internet access, then it is a LOT more difficult to
get Amiga NetBSD.  Maybe you should ask someone to help you on Usenet
(comp.unix.amiga), either by sending you a tape or letting you copy it
directly from his/her hard drive.  It's worth the effort.

	You do not need a tape drive, but this is recommended, as it eases
the process of installing NetBSD.  If you have either Ethernet or PPP access,
you probably will want to get only the basic root filesystem at first.  This
includes tools for Ethernet and PPP running TCP/IP; thus, you can get the
rest of NetBSD using a (local) network.

	Also, the basic root fileystem contains a Kermit transfer program,
so it is possible to get the needed archives via modem or a null-modem cable.

	You need an 8MB partition for the root filesystem which is
distributed as an image file (the old "chicken and egg" problem!).  This file
has to be copied directly(!) onto the hard drive into the desired partition.
This is a very dangerous operation which may destroy your other hard drive
data if done incorrectly, so it should be done only by experts.

	You may find the "dcp" tool helpful.  This copies data like the
distributed filetodev tool, but does not require the difficult calculations
that filetodev does.  This tool is available via ftp on the above-mentioned
sites, too.

	If you are careful, and if everything runs fine, you can start the
kernel using the supplied "loadbsd" tool:

		loadbsd latest.vmunix

	You will hopefully see the Copyright information, and then some
numbers about your system memory.  Then the kernel's built-in autoconfig
logic detects the installed boards, such as graphics boards and SCSI host
adapters.  Finally, the root filesystem should be detected and the system
boots into single-user mode.

	You are running Unix on your Amiga now!

	Now you need to play system administrator on your very own system.
You need to format the other disk partitions and copy the /usr tree from the
distributed archives.

	Let me mention the Amiga NetBSD FAQ again.  This list describes
almost every step which is needed to get a running system.

	Once you have done the initial installation, the rest is easy to do.
Get the bsdsrc archive if you intend to compile the kernel yourself.

DOCUMENTATION

	The documentation which is needed to install Amiga NetBSD is the
above-mentioned Amiga NetBSD FAQ. This FAQ can be obtained via ftp on the
NetBSD ftp sites.

	There is no documentation but the standard man pages.  These online
manual pages help you to use the basic tools, such as the shell or formatting
disks.  The problem is that you need to have NetBSD running first.

	As Amiga NetBSD is a full flavored and full grown Unix system, you
need third party documentation to provide help for system administration and
basics.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

	I dislike the installation process.  This is a very important point,
if you intend to install NetBSD on a hard drive where NetBSD is not the only
stuff.  The tool 'dcp' (device copy) eases this process, but still, it is a
delicate point.  There is nothing that can be done yet to simplify that
process.  The problem is that you can't format the root filesystem from the
AmigaDOS side; thus, you need to copy an image of that partition.  Once a
floppy driver is made, this process will most probably be done via a boot
disk, such as the PC-Linux SLC distribution.  This may change in near future.

	I do like the very incredible fact that Amiga NetBSD is STABLE.  My
Amiga runs Amiga NetBSD for weeks now, and I have not had any kernel panics.

	And as it is FREE, there seem to be many more productive users and
developers than ever for an Amiga Unix system.

	At the last big Amiga event in Germany, the Amiga Internet and Usenet
Meeting '93 in Bielefeld, Amiga NetBSD was used on 5 of the attended 100
machines.  During the meeting, the Ethernet driver was introduced, and the
first networking tools, such as ftp, telnet and even IRC were used at the
meeting itself (with about 70 machines connected to the local network).  And
PPP was used by Markus Wild to upload his sources to the Internet.

	This text was written and submitted to comp.sys.amiga.reviews using
NetBSD on an Amiga 3000 connected to the Internet with a A2065 Ethernet
board, using the standard sendmail tool.

	I do like the fact that I can compile almost every neat UNIX tool
such as gnuplot, tcsh, emacs, TeX with almost NO effort.  Mostly there is
even no change in the Makefile needed -- just compile it!

	What i also like is the fact that I can learn to administrate a
Unix System of my own.  This is harder than one may expect.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	I have been using Unix environments for more than 6 years now:
mostly as a standard user, but also as software developer and system
administrator.  This was mostly at my University and a company I worked for
some years ago.

	Comparing Amiga NetBSD to any other Unix platform is an interesting
problem.  Let's start with the Unix systems available for the Amiga:  Amiga
Unix and Amiga Minix.  Unfortunately I must say, I have not worked with
either of these systems enough to do a full comparison.

	Amiga Unix is a the best SYSTEM V R4 port I have ever seen before the
Solaris OS for Sun Sparcstations was shipped.  It is a commercial product and
comes with printed manuals.  It has many advantages to Amiga NetBSD as yet,
because it is older and has been used for a long time now.  It is stable but
has its problems.  The most famous Amiga Unix system is amiga.icu.net.ch
(formerly amiga.physik.unizh.ch, the original Aminet ftp site).

	Amiga Unix has switchable consoles and supports multi-serial cards,
X11, and audio features.  It does not support SCSI host adapters other than
A3091 and A2091 (a GVP driver seems to be available though).  It also
supports floppy drives.  But it looks like those features will be implemented
into NetBSD pretty soon, too.

	Amiga Minix is a very good port of Minix based upon the theory of
Tanenbaum.  I don't know if one can actually compare Minix to NetBSD:  I
believe one shouldn't.  Minix was developed to show how to make an operating
system.

	Amiga Linux is still under construction.  The group around Hamish
MacDonald has some advantages over the NetBSD community, as they do have a
working floppy driver for example, but as yet they have not implemented SCSI
drivers.  They also have to deal with the "strange" features of the original
Intel 386-based kernel code.  I wish them good luck:  we can use the
competition.

	It is not possible for the NetBSD community to make use any of the
Linux code due to their use of the GNU copyleft.  NetBSD is distributed under
the Berkeley copyright (see end of article for a copy), which essentially
allows free use of sources, as long as the University and its contributors
are granted proper credit in any documentation and/or advertisements.  So the
consequence of this is that the Linux-groups can use NetBSD code if they
want to, but not vice-versa.  Amiga Unix sources can't be used, as they're
copyrighted by Commodore, although they would be a quite useful to get
support for the multiport serial board, for example.

	Amiga Mach seems to have died due to the lack of a freely
distributable Unix server.  As CMU has had problems distributing their own
server, Amiga Mach never had a working environment.  Luckily the work made
for Amiga Mach could be used for NetBSD.  Also, it looks like the entire
Amiga Mach group has switched to NetBSD; anyway, Niklas Halquist still
intends to port the Hurd Unix server.

	This leads us to compare Amiga NetBSD with other Unix platforms,
such as Sun OS, Ultrix MacUX and AIX.  This is a very difficult task, and I
don't really want to do this.  Simply let's say that NetBSD is as easy to
handle as Sun OS (for Sun3) and more simple to use than Ultrix (Digital).  It
is funny to see that Amiga NetBSD is more stable than IBM's AIX ever was,
but AIX is by far more complex of course.
	
	I should at least say that Sun3's are the platforms to which NetBSD
actually can compare best.  Both are based upon Motorola M68K CPUs, and both
do not require very special hardware.  Of course, Sun OS is older and wiser.
It has shared libraries which makes life easy, because resources aren't
wasted by static links and thus expensive hard drive and RAM space.  A
Sun3/60 or Sun3/80 has almost the same amount of RAM and speed as a normal
A3000.  Once NetBSD has grown up, I probably will compare those systems
regarding resources once more.

	Why I don't want to compare those Unix implementations?  The machines
they run on are some 100 times faster than any Amiga.  These other Unix
implementations are enhanced to deal with very specific hardware and are
intended to run for several users at the same time without problems.

BUGS

	I was not able to find a major bug.  I am steadily in contact with
Markus Wild, the original porter, also with the Amiga NetBSD mailing list.

	The problems with the 68040 MMU, as well as software support for the
missing FPU instructions of the '040, have been elaborated.  A working
version can hopefully be expected real soon.

	As I am writing this, kernel version #635 is available.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	No such support.

	You need to have Usenet access at least, if you want to stay in
contact with NetBSD developers.

WARRANTY

	None. Absolutely none. Even if you destroy your hardware.

CONCLUSIONS

	The product offers a fair way to turn your Amiga system to a real
Unix workstation:  a true multitasking and multiuser system for a cheap
price.

	Professionals might consider this product as a big advantage for
their needs.  And as it is freely distributable, it has to be compared to the
original Amiga Unix, of course.

	On a scale of 0 to 5 stars, I give Amiga NetBSD 4 stars.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
	Sun OS is a registered trademark of SUN.
	Ultrix is a registered trademark of DIGITAL Equipment.
	AIX is a registered trademark of IBM.
	Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore International.
	386BSD is a registered trademark of Williams & Lynne Jolitz.
	MacUX and Finder are registered trademarks of Apple Computers Inc.
	Gameboy is a registered trademark of Nintendo Inc.

	This is the original disclaimer under which NetBSD and especially
Amiga NetBSD is distributed:

/*-
 * Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
 * All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
 *    must display the following acknowledgement:
 *	This product includes software developed by the University of
 *	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
 * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
 *    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
 *    without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
 * ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
 * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
 * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
 * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
 * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
 * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
 * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 * SUCH DAMAGE.
 *
 */

	This review is Copyright 1993 Markus Illenseer.  All rights reserved.

	Include standard disclaimers here.  The author of this text is not
responsible for anything if you get into some serious problems due to this
text.  Reprints of this review in magazines is permitted, if the author's
name is mentioned. The author would like to have a copy of the media
(magazine) too.

	You can contact me at:  [email-masked]

---
[Will our crew find the distress signal? Will Amix ever be released? 
Is "Max Toy" his real name? Stay tune for the second installment of 
AmigaTrek-The Next de-Generation] 
-- AmigaTrek3.1 Usenet 1988 by Mike Smithwick

Markus Illenseer

---

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