From owner-freebsd-ia64@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 6 18:52:31 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ia64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C4BB1065696 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:52:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xcllnt@mac.com) Received: from asmtpout026.mac.com (asmtpout026.mac.com [17.148.16.101]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2BEE98FC1F for ; Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:52:31 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Received: from macbook-pro.jnpr.net (natint3.juniper.net [66.129.224.36]) by asmtp026.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-8.01 (built Dec 16 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0KSP004418BD4G10@asmtp026.mac.com> for ia64@freebsd.org; Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:52:26 -0800 (PST) From: Marcel Moolenaar Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:52:25 -0800 Message-id: <595329F2-46F2-4393-B8E3-0923694D250D@mac.com> To: ia64@freebsd.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1076) Cc: Subject: 2009 Update X-BeenThere: freebsd-ia64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the IA-64 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:52:31 -0000 All, Anton Shterenlikht reported various problems when he tried ia64 and I'm pleased to announce some updates: 1. The kernel panic relating to inconsistent high FP registers has been fixed. This also means that the following message will not appear on the console anymore: XXX: bogusly disabled high FP regs Versions fixed: 9-CURRENT Fix will be merged to 8-STABLE after 8.0-RELEASE 2. The failures in perl when threading has been enabled have been identified as a compiler bug relating to the use of statements in expressions. In other words, the expressions of the form: ({ ... }) All test failures were eliminated when these were recoded as proper inline functions. The perl port has not been fixed at this time. A definite confidence booster for the threading support on ia64 and yet another nail in GCC's coffin. 3. I'm working on getting KDE 4 to build again. It's currently failing in optional packages. The base KDE 4 infrastructure is up and running and Konqueror (the web browser) seems to work quite well, though tends to dump core after a while. It would be looked into. 4. GNOME built and ran fine before, but it's possible that things have changed. I'll keep playing with it. Future work: 1. I got a VNC server for ia64 building and running, but I can't reproduce it at this time, so no fixes for the ports yet. With a VNC server, a whole set of new programs can be ported and tested better. 2. I'm planning to change PAGE_SIZE to 16K instead of 8K. It be good for performance. More on this later. 3. More compiler and debugger work. GCC is really not good for ia64. I'm planning on refocusing some of my attention towards compiler work. Related to this is the debugger. GDB is not lacking severely on ia64. Note that I don't plan to fix GDB. Neither will I fix GCC. I'll be looking elsewhere. Overall good news. However, the state of GCC and GDB for ia64 is still a big problem in my opinion. FYI, -- Marcel Moolenaar xcllnt@mac.com