-- `mount' doesn't seem to know about the new clean flags -- first `fsck'
       says that a filesystem doesn't need to be checked, and then `mount' says
       that it does.

i saw this once when i had mismatched kernel, fsck and mount
binaries, but it hasn't appeared since.

    -- Another requirement for running many SunOS binaries is to symlink
       `/etc/termcap' and `/usr/lib/termcap' to `/usr/share/misc/termcap' (I
       don't really know that both links are necessary; I just made them both.)

i would guess just /etc/termcap is nessicary -- my sunos boxes
don't have one in /usr/lib.

    -- The SunOS `tcsh' sorta half-worked, but had big trouble with signals.  I
       succeeded in rebuilding it, but to do so I had to bring over the SunOS
       `vfork.h' -- no such file seems to exist in NetBSD.  Shouldn't it be
       there?

nah, just delete the reference to vfork.h -- which tcsh are you
using ?  6.06 works just Fine out-of-box for me on netbsd/sparc
(though, the R5(?) xmkmf that i used on a netbsd/hp300 box missed
the -lcrypt switch).

    -- I had to manually turn on `clocal' on the serial ports before I could use
       `tip'.  How is this normally handled?  I.e., should I just add the
       appropriate `stty' commands to `/etc/rc.local', or is there a better way?

man ttys

    -- I can't untar the X11-R6 binary (`X11R6pl11.tar.gz') that I downloaded
       from Gatekeeper.  Yes, I'm using GNU tar, and yes, the file checksums
       correctly.  Tar gives messages like it gives when a gzipped tar file has
       been FTPed in text mode -- maybe that happened before the checksum was
       computed?

hmm..  i'll see what i can do about this.  i'm running it just fine; have
you tried ftping it from ftp.netbsd.org ?  that is where i had it placed
first.

   My most serious problem at the moment is this.  I just spent a few hours
   trying to get my SLIP dialout to work.  The SLIP code that comes with NetBSD
   seems to be a fairly early version and not to support dialouts (in particular,
   there's no support for it in `tip').  The CSLIP-2.6 version of `tip' works,
   sort of, but the CSLIP-2.6 `sliplogin' doesn't -- it gets "Inappropriate ioctl
   for device: I_PUSH".  I guess this is a STREAMS call, which is some System V
   thing that SunOS happens to support, but I'm hazy on this.  Anyway, the NetBSD

this is probably missing sunos compatibility.

   I guess I can switch over to PPP, if Netcom will cooperate, but this is a pain.

ppp is much simpler to set up.  :-)
   
   There are some difference in the tty driver vis-a-vis SunOS that are causing
   some minor problems.  Programs like `tip' can't open the serial port if CLOCAL
   is not set, but, seems to me, it *shouldn't* be set on modem lines.  I tried
   making `tip' open the port with O_NONBLOCK, but that is not sufficient -- it
   can open the port, but then can't write to it.  I guess it will have to open
   the port with O_NONBLOCK, immediately set CLOCAL, then clear CLOCAL once
   dialing is complete (but only if it really did dial, and didn't just connect
   to the port).  Really, I think I prefer the SunOS interpretation of CLOCAL,
   which appears to be just to generate SIGHUP on an on-to-off transition of DCD
   and to ignore DCD otherwise.  But NetBSD's behavior is at least consistent
   with its documentation.

i prefer it this way, myself;  i can have a process sitting on the modem
waiting for carrier, but without having actually opened the line.  make
this process a getty.  then, seeing it isn't being used for incoming,
i can use it for dialing out, which will cause the above process to wait
even more.  at least, that's the idea  :-)(
   
   Another problem is that I can't rebuild any of my executables that use X11-R5
   libraries, because the latter were compiled under SunOS, and it doesn't work
   to build a NetBSD executable that references SunOS libraries.  As I mentioned
   a few days ago, the SPARC X11-R6 binary distribution on ftp.netbsd.org appears
   to be corrupted.  My other choice would be to rebuild X11-R5 under NetBSD, but
   that looks like a project and a half.

R6 is pretty stable on netbsd/sparc -- pl11 with the small patch that
should be with the tar file you got has been working well for me since
i built that tar.
   
   I'm not sure how much more time I want to put into attempting to switch over
   to NetBSD.  From my point of view, it still seems pretty rough -- of course, I
   exercise some aspects of the OS that not everyone cares about.  If relatively
   easy solutions appear to these problems, I might keep trying, but otherwise
   I'll just call it a learning experience and maybe give it another shot in a
   year or so.

well, what goals are you trying to achieve with the switch over to netbsd ?

who and what do you have to support ?  how critical ?

.mrg.