Subject: What to do with an HP9000 D330?
To: None <port-hp700@netbsd.org>
From: Monroe Williams <monroe@criticalpath.com>
List: port-hp700
Date: 07/28/2003 14:50:03
I intercepted this machine on its way to the dumpster. It was
apparently being disposed of because its boot drive is going bad, and
nobody liked it enough to be bothered to fix it. When the drive isn't
making a disturbing clicking noise, the machine seems to boot into
HPUX, but there's no login prompt on the console and I don't have any
configuration information (logins, passwords, network settings, etc)
anyway. Here's what I've been able to tell about the machine from the
boot monitor and visual inspection:
160MHz PARisc CPU (according to <http://hwdb.parisc-linux.org/>,
probably a PA7300LC)
8 EISA slots
512MB memory
wide SCSI card (not sure which one)
5 x 4.2 GB SCSI drives
cdrom drive
DDS2 tape drive
dumb terminal console (no video)
I'd like to get NetBSD running on this machine, but from what I see on
the hp700 port page it doesn't appear to be supported yet. This
mailing list also doesn't look very active compared to the ones for
other ports I follow (sparc, mac68k, macppc, and i386).
What are my chances of getting NetBSD running on this thing? Would
installing another OS that looks more likely to boot
(<http://www.parisc-linux.org/>, <http://www.openbsd.org/hppa.html>) be
of any use, or would I be better off cross-compiling from another
NetBSD system?
Thanks,
-- monroe
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Monroe Williams monroe@criticalpath.com