NetBSD 7.1 on the Atari TT

[Icky]

Well this weekend I fancied watching paint dry and thats what I did.

I decided to have a go at installing NetBSD on the Atari TT. Little did I know that this task was going to take around 40 hours to complete.

I found two sources to help with the install:

• http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD ... STALL.html

• http://netbsd-ataritt.wikia.com/wiki/Ne ... tari_TT030

The install started off well with the two install boot floppies then the slowdown began. The install I chose pulled all the install files from the NetBSD atari port ftp site. All worked fine with the NetUsbBee card but I left it running over night and it was just finished in the morning.

Rebooting after installation then resulted in several points where the first boot was generating certs for the ssh tools and also the font cache was updating for over 4 hours.

That said now its first boot is complete NetBSD boots and is useable. I still have a way to go to get the X Windows up and running but I intend to share the 4GB image online for others to use and not have to go through the pain of a long wait.

Boot screen after memory test:

IMG_2659.JPG (2.06 MiB) Viewed 3260 times

Logged in (this was the first login before setting up user account):

IMG_2657.JPG (2.1 MiB) Viewed 3260 times

Currently the TT is compiling several packages for the X Windows to work. Will keep you posted as to the progress and when I have an image to share.

[rpineau]

Nicely done.

[stephen_usher]

Wow... 10 meg of ST RAM? How much TT RAM?

Still, nice to see a modern UNIX running. The X server will take quite a few days to compile. I remember doing so in the 90s on a Sun SPARCstation 10 under SunOS 4.1.x, and that took about 3 days.

[Icky]

Wow... 10 meg of ST RAM? How much TT RAM?

Still, nice to see a modern UNIX running. The X server will take quite a few days to compile. I remember doing so in the 90s on a Sun SPARCstation 10 under SunOS 4.1.x, and that took about 3 days.

10MB of ST-Ram was one of the first upgrades I performed on my TT - see post here viewtopic.php?f=15&t=357

I currently have 128MB of TT-Ram on a MegTT board.

Thanks for the heads up - I guess my TT is going to be on for a few days

[Icky]

A bit more progress...

I have the X Windows running now on the native Atari TT video

Seeing this screen on the TT was a great step forward

IMG_2660.JPG (4.34 MiB) Viewed 3215 times

I finally go the twm window manager running too

IMG_2664.JPG (1.97 MiB) Viewed 3215 times

On the web I found Izumi Tsutsui has compiled an accelerated binary of X for the ET4000 card but as I have an ATIMach64 I am looking to compile a binary to get this working. Izumi Tsutsui's files: - ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/ts ... ari.tar.gz. When done I will have the image of NetBSD where the default is the TT native display and swapping the X symbolic link to the relevant graphic card compiled X binary will allow the use of the various graphics cards.

[Steve]

Very cool man! I will definitely give you images a shot once you're finished. I'm glad to hear you'll do an et4000 version too, awesome!

[Icky]

Very cool man! I will definitely give you images a shot once you're finished. I'm glad to hear you'll do an et4000 version too, awesome!

Thanks - As with most of us here I am trying to do this round my day job. The compiling on the actual TT is taking way too long. I have just built up a NetBSD VM instance so I can do cross-compile building of the sources with a bit more CPU speed.

I am in the process of getting the ET4000 up and running and will post a screenshot as soon as I am there.

My lofty goal is to try and get NetBSD running with a Gnome or KDE desktop. I am not sure if it will be useable.

[Icky]

A little update:

I have been spending time building a VMware NetBSD 7.1 environment so that I can do a cross build.

So far I have managed to build complete distro fileset for the Atari TT and have started to optimise the kernel.

Currently I am working to build the various X files and get the ET4000 card working.

I had to do this as rebooting, building etc on the TT was painful.

[tuxie]

That’s great, will test it on my tt with IDE HDD and Our fastram card, would be a goal to get the lightning usb working using netbsd

[Icky]

That’s great, will test it on my tt with IDE HDD and Our fastram card, would be a goal to get the lightning usb working using netbsd

Are you the tuxie I am currently in contact with to obtain a Thunder and Storm card?