NetBSD/sparc64

About NetBSD/sparc64

NetBSD/sparc64 is a NetBSD port to Sun's 64-bit UltraSPARC machines. The first binary release for sparc64 was NetBSD 1.5. NetBSD/sparc64 supports many systems, including Sbus-based UltraSPARC systems and PCI-based UltraSPARC systems using UltraSPARC I, II, IIi, and IIe CPU types.

NetBSD/sparc64 supports both 32-bit and 64-bit kernels. A 32-bit kernel runs all NetBSD/sparc binaries. A 64-bit kernel runs 64-bit binaries, and has support for running most 32-bit binaries as well, with the exception of some low level kernel groveling tools. Additionally, NetBSD/sparc64 is able to run Solaris 64 and 32 bit binaries with emulation. See compat_netbsd32(8), compat_solaris(8) and the pkgsrc package emulators/netbsd32_compat16.

Martin Husemann and Andrey Petrov are the maintainers for NetBSD/sparc64.

For frequently asked questions and links to Sun hardware information, see the NetBSD/sparc64 FAQ.

For older 32 bit SPARC-based machines, see NetBSD/sparc.

NetBSD/sparc64 News

2011-11-08:   add PCI-E

sparc64: Add support for PCI-E based systems Ultra25/45, pyro(4) ported from OpenBSD. [mrg 20111108]

2011-07-29:   add ex400 and ex500

sparc64: Add support for Enterprise systems (Ex[45]00) systems, from OpenBSD. [mrg 20110729]

2011-03-15:   fujitsu support

sparc64: Add initial support for Fujitsu SPARC64 systems, not yet stable. Mostly from OpenBSD. [mrg 20110315]

2009-11-30:   add ultrasparciii

sparc64: Add real UltraSPARC-III* CPU support. [mrg 20091130]

2009-10-02:   new lom driver

lom(4), sparc64: Add a driver for LOMlite lights out management hardware monitor and watchdog timer. [nakayama 20091002]

2008-10-27:   cc -m32

amd64, sparc64: Add support for "cc -m32", including all 32 bit libraries shipped with NetBSD. [mrg 20081027]

2008-03-15:   SMP mostly working

Takeshi Nakayama has committed fixes to -current that make SMP actually work (his machine has survived a build.sh -j 4 run). See his mail for the announcement.

2007-05-07:   Binary packages for pkgsrc-2007Q1

Havard Eidnes has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 4.0_BETA2 from the pkgsrc-2007Q1 branch to ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2007Q1/NetBSD-4.0/sparc64/. For more details, please read his announcement.

2007-03-18:   Binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 3.0 updated

Julian Coleman has announced that updated packages from a bulk build of pkgsrc-2006Q4 on NetBSD/sparc64 3.0.2 are now available at: ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2006Q4/NetBSD-3.0/sparc64/

2007-01-25:   Binary packages for pkgsrc-2006Q4

Havard Eidnes has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 4.0_BETA2 from the pkgsrc-2006Q4 branch to ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2006Q4/NetBSD-4.0/sparc64/. For more details, please read his announcement.

2006-11-24:   Binary packages for pkgsrc-2006Q3

Julian Coleman has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 3.0 from the pkgsrc-2006Q3 branch to ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2006Q3/NetBSD-3.0/sparc64/.

2006-10-24:   Stable again

The stability problems caused by the SMP changes (see below) have been solved. SMP is still not working, unfortunately.

2006-10-07:   SMP progress - but not success yet

Matthew Green and Martin Husemann have started to merge quite old changes originally written by Andrey Petrov into current. Matthew Green also added ddb support for SMP kernels on sparc64. Unfortunately SMP kernels do not work yet, and it seems that some of the changes had side effects even for uniprocessor kernels. One example of this is probably PR 34741. This means that -current is not as stable as you might expect for sparc64, but that there is progress on SMP. Stay tuned.

2006-07-28:   Binary packages for pkgsrc-2006Q2

Julian Coleman has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 3.0 from the pkgsrc-2006Q2 branch to ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2006Q2/NetBSD-3.0/sparc64/.

2006-05-19:   More binary packages

Julian Coleman has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 3.0 from the pkgsrc-2006Q1 branch to ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2006Q1/NetBSD-3.0/sparc64/.

2006-05-07:   Binary packages for pkgsrc-2006Q1

Havard Eidnes has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 2.0.2 from the pkgsrc-2006Q1 branch to ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2006Q1/NetBSD-2.0/sparc64/.

2006-03-28:   Binary packages for pkgsrc-2005Q4

Havard Eidnes has uploaded binary packages for NetBSD/sparc64 2.0.2 from the pkgsrc-2005Q4 branch to ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages-2005Q4/NetBSD-2.0/sparc64/.

2006-03-02:   Support for Atheros wlan devices

Atheros wlan devices require a binary-only HAL, linked into the kernel with the driver proper. After David Young imported a new HAL, a version for NetBSD/sparc64 is now available, tested, and known to work.

2006-01-30:   New bootloader required

Dennis Chernoivanov recently reworked the bootloader/kernel protocol. This means that you need to install a new bootloader before updating a kernel. Instructions can be found here. The new bootloader will, of course, boot older kernels as well.

Archive of NetBSD/sparc64 news items

Supported System Models

Clones based on any of these systems should also work

Supported Hardware

Unsupported Hardware