NetBSD/next68k

About NetBSD/next68k

NetBSD/next68k is a port of NetBSD to the 'black' 68k NeXT hardware.

It currently only runs on 68040 NeXT systems using non-ADB keyboard and mouse. There is experimental support for turbo NeXT machines (33Mhz) in NetBSD-current.

Darrin B. Jewell is the maintainer of NetBSD/next68k.

NetBSD/next68k News

2009-04-29: NetBSD 5.0 released: NetBSD 5.0 has been released. More information is available in the 5.0 release announcement.

2008-10-13: NetBSD 4.0.1 released: NetBSD 4.0.1 has been released. More information is available in the 4.0.1 release announcement.

2007-12-19: NetBSD 4.0 released: NetBSD 4.0 has been released. More information is available in the 4.0 release announcement.

2006-11-04: NetBSD 3.1 released: NetBSD 3.1, the first maintenance release of the netbsd-3 release branch, has been released with binary distributions for 53 architectures. More information is available in the 3.1 release announcement.

2006-05-09: binary packages for m68k available

About 1000 packages built from the latest branch pkgsrc-2006Q1 by Greg Oster are now available at ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/packages-2006Q1/NetBSD-3.0/m68k. The packages can be used on all ports based on m68k.

For some more details, see Greg Oster's announcement

2005-12-23: NetBSD 3.0 released: NetBSD 3.0 has been released with support for 57 architectures. More information is available in the 3.0 release announcement.

Archive of NetBSD/next68k news items

Supported System Models

Only non-ADB keyboards and mice are supported.

NeXTcube (NeXT_X15 - 25 Mhz 68040)
NeXTstation, a.k.a. slab (NeXT_WARP9 - 25 Mhz 68040)
NeXTstation Color, a.k.a. color slab (NeXT_WARP9C - 25 Mhz 68040)
NeXTcube Turbo (NeXT_TURBO_MONO - 33 Mhz 68040 )
NeXTstation Turbo, a.k.a. turbo slab (NeXT_TURBO_MONO - 33 Mhz 68040)
NeXTstation Color Turbo, a.k.a. color turbo slab (NeXT_TURBO_COLOR - 33 Mhz 68040)

Supported Hardware

Serial interfaces
- zs; Zilog 8530 serial ports, which can be used as the system console if desired
Framebuffers
- nextdisplay; 2 bpp mono (NeXTcube, NeXTstation, and NeXTstation Turbo)
- nextdisplay; 16 bpp color (NeXTstation Color and NeXTstation Color Turbo)
Network interfaces
- xe; On-board 10 Mbps ethernet
SCSI interfaces
- esp; On-board ESP100A SCSI controller
Input devices
- nextkbd; non-ADB keyboard
Miscellaneous
- Battery-backed real-time clock

Available Projects

Anyone else interested is more than welcome to lend a hand - particular projects of interest include:

Better installation tools, now that SCSI works
ADB keyboard and mouse support
Support for non-512 byte sector disks since NeXTSTEP disks are typically formatted this way
Bring der Mouse's X server into the tree
68030 support in locore.s
Floppy driver & support for floppy install
NeXT/OPENSTEP binary compatibility (using COMPAT_DARWIN as a starting point)
Optical drive support (Canon MO drive)
NeXTprinter support
NeXTdimension support
sound support
DSP support

NetBSD/next68k Information

NetBSD/next68k FAQ
Bug database summary for m68k cpu specific and NetBSD/next68k specific problem reports.
The NetBSD Diskless HOWTO

Mailing Lists

The NetBSD/next68k mailing list, covering NetBSD's port to 68k based NeXT 'black' hardware:
[ subscribe | archive ]
The NetBSD/m68k mailing list, covering all of the m68k-based NetBSD ports:
[ subscribe | archive ]

Current Releases

NetBSD/next68k 5.0 via FTP
NetBSD/next68k 5.0 Install Notes
NetBSD/next68k 4.0 pre-built binary packages via the NetBSD Packages Collection
NetBSD 5.0 release announcement
NetBSD/next68k changes to 5.0
changes from NetBSD 4.0 to NetBSD 5.0
NetBSD FTP Mirror sites
NetBSD on CD-ROM