Hello,

> First, is this going to work with any LC040, or only the non-buggy (mask
> revision 2E71M and later) ones?  My impression is that, due to an errata
> on the early LC040s, -msoft-float is insufficient to allow machines
> equipped with those processors to run NetBSD.  Is this no longer the case?

They are two different issues. Whether or not the floating point unit
functions no longer matters, since all attempts at floating point math are
done by software in all instances. No FPU calls are made. Therefore, this
will work with the buggiest LC040s.

> Second, assuming that it's still the case, does anybody have information
> on what exactly fails?  Most importantly, is there a quick way to test if
> a system has a good or bad mask revision?  Last I knew, the easiest way to
> test was to run SoftwareFPU or just try NetBSD.  Is there any better
> method out there now?  Assuming there isn't, does anybody have some leads
> I could follow to figure out what exactly is failing and a way to easily
> test it?

Assume it's the buggy one, maybe? I have a stack of 15 LC040s, mostly from
Quadra 605s and Quadra 630s, and ALL of them are the buggy masks. I have
never seen the supposedly non-buggy mask revision.

Other than that, yes, you could just run NetBSD.

> Of course, if I've missed something, by all means, let me know.  I've
> looked through the list archives and didn't see an answer, but if it was
> there, feel free to send me on my way with a thwack upside the head.
> The documentation, though, seems decidedly out of date with the current
> state of things, so it's hard to know what's been done.  Hopefully,
> somebody can fill me in!

Yes, we need documentation. So, in a nutshell, we have NetBSD 1.6.1
(release from August) compiled with soft-float patches for mac68k and for
Amiga. We also have 2,000 soft-float binary packages. And we plan to have
NetBSD 1.6.2 snapshots when that is ready, too.

Does anyone want to help design a web page with documentation and links?

John Klos
Sixgirls Computing Labs