BSD for AT?

[Robert Seals]

[Note the newsgroup change.]

In article <13702 at ico.ISC.COM>, rcd at ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn) writes:
> Some time back, probably more than a year ago, I heard of the beginnings of
> a project to put a BSD system on the PC/AT.  (I mean a regular 286 box.) 
> 
> If you speak for the project, please post.  Otherwise, if you have
> information about it, EMAIL to me and I'll summarize in a posting.

Well, I don't fit into either category, so I post. I was going to
post a similar question today anyway.

The Sun 386i with SunOS 4.0 is an example of an Intel architecture
running a BSD-derived system*. Unfortunately, it's somewhat proprietary
(the call of capitalism has won you, Bill joy (;). There are certain
problems running Unix on chips <= 80286, which have been detailed elsewhere.
But now that I have this nice 20MHz 386 box on my desk, I want 4.3!!!

* If DEC offers Ultrix on the Shackmate, that'd be another.

The best thing would be GNU, and recent versions of gcc have included
installation for 386 systems, but so far I think they assume that
the machine is already running some kind of ATT-style Unix. Granted,
I could go and spend the $200 (or whatever) for the official base
386 Unix TM, and then the $292,346 for the development and text tools,
but hey, I'm in research! We don't have that kind of money!!

So, Chris, what kind of nighmare is involved in porting 4.3tahoe
to a generic 80386 box? Hmmm?

And I want it SOON!

rob