Support for Additional Architectures

[wtchappell]

I'd really like to use this on some weirder architectures - understanding that KVM won't generally be available and that the images will run quite slow.

The major issue with doing this and this repository isn't the installation steps - those are basically the same between NetBSD platforms. The problem is figuring out how to PXE boot each architecture - which often requires variations from what is currently done for x86_64. There are often detailed instructions - however.

I've noticed some patches in the base madworx/qemu image; but I admit I'm not familiar with QEMU's source code and which patches I might need versions of for other system emulators.

Would this be something you're interested in experimenting with/accepting contributions around? For various masochistic reasons I'm particularly interested in trying this on SPARC64 though I'd love to see support for any oddball platform; I've already tried a very naive version PXE booting SPARC64 using the ofwboot file NetBSD provides but haven't had much luck yet.

[wtchappell]

Also, are you aware of anita? It seems useful as a reference, if nothing else:
https://wiki.netbsd.org/projects/project/anita-vms/

[madworx]

We'd love to support more hardware architectures -- it's actually in the README.md :D I do know about anita, but for our current installer performs the same tasks TMM. Also tagging @tnn2 into the discussion since he has more experience with SPARC64 than me :)

[tnn2]

As long as QEMU's openboot implemention supports networking (so that it can fetch the stage one boot loader over tftp and provide network support for it) it should be doable. Otherwise that needs to be fixed first. Note that it should use ofwboot.net, not owfboot.

[Thomas1664]

Please add arm support!