From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 18 21:16:31 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0EA7F16A43D for ; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:16:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rink@beastie.il.fontys.nl) Received: from mx1.stack.nl (hexagon.stack.nl [131.155.140.144]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7D3A643D45 for ; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:16:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rink@beastie.il.fontys.nl) Received: by mx1.stack.nl (Postfix, from userid 65534) id 7CA775C16B; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:16:28 +0200 (CEST) Received: from mail.il.fontys.nl (sukke.il.fontys.nl [IPv6:2001:4128:1000:1000::45]) by mx2.stack.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id E35285C108; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:16:24 +0200 (CEST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.il.fontys.nl (Postfix/VSRI) with ESMTP id 524221704F; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:20:08 +0200 (CEST) Received-Locally: from mail.il.fontys.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (sukke.il.fontys.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 48955-07; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:20:07 +0200 (CEST) Received: from beastie.il.fontys.nl (beastie.il.fontys.nl [194.26.13.37]) by mail.il.fontys.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:20:07 +0200 (CEST) Received: by beastie.il.fontys.nl (Postfix, from userid 1678) id 13C672844D; Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:16:22 +0200 (CEST) Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:16:22 +0200 From: Rink Springer To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20051018211534.GA59335@il.fontys.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="EP0wieDxd4TSJjHq" Content-Disposition: inline X-Editor: Vim http://www.vim.org/ X-Info: http://rink.nu/ X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE i386 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11 X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at il.fontys.nl Cc: ed@fxq.nl Subject: FreeBSD/xbox in 7-CURRENT: Proposed plan X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:16:31 -0000 --EP0wieDxd4TSJjHq Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi everyone, As the hype of FreeBSD/xbox has mostly cooled down, I'd like to bring this support to 7-CURRENT without having to rely on external patches. In order to do this, I propose the following plan (priority 1 is highest, 3 is lowest): 1) I intend to clean up the patches as to eliminate 'options XBOX'; with minor effort I can make the port smart enough to auto-detect whether its running on an XBOX by simply looking at PCI ID's as outlined at http://www.xbox-linux.org. This means the FreeBSD/i386 and FreeBSD/xbox kernels will be identical, which makes releases a lot easier. 2) Port the Linux forcedeth.c driver to FreeBSD. This would mean a GPL-ed driver in the tree; but since no one has specs or wants to release them (trust me, I've tried), I feel this is our best way. And nForce-motherboard owners would benefit from this very much as well. Once we have a working driver, the forcedeth.c maintainer Manfred Spraul claimed to be willing to talk about a possible BSD license; possibly Nvidia will do the same to their modifications in the code. 3) The kernel would still need one device missing from GENERIC, and this is the 'xboxfb' framebuffer driver. I wish to merge it as a VESA-like module so it can benefit from the syscons(4) framework. However, this isn't as easy as I hoped; for the time being, I'd like to stick to the 'xboxfb' driver which will only install itself if running on a XBOX. Assistence on this is very welcomed. A currently patched Linux Cromwell BIOS (I am planning to continuing working with the team to clean up the code and make a 2.41 release) is capable of booting FreeBSD kernels from CD, network and UFS filesystems, so there is little trouble in getting your XBOX to boot FreeBSD... Would the FreeBSD project accept this plan to import FreeBSD/xbox within the FreeBSD/i386 port, bringing support into -CURRENT without the need for any patches? Of course, suggestions are very welcome; I'd like to see this in CURRENT :) --=20 Rink P.W. Springer - http://rink.nu "God, root, what is difference?" - Pitr, Userfriendly --EP0wieDxd4TSJjHq Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFDVWYmb3O60uztv/8RAm9hAJwNxvf/Zu4G4NQQ+gJ7gNAXF0sgdQCgxt9F jwgJ8dXf0bPyRhp1EoSyxfo= =Ac5Q -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --EP0wieDxd4TSJjHq--