From owner-freebsd-arm@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 5 15:33:23 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 49146B92 for ; Mon, 5 Nov 2012 15:33:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tim@kientzle.com) Received: from monday.kientzle.com (99-115-135-74.uvs.sntcca.sbcglobal.net [99.115.135.74]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 03D168FC08 for ; Mon, 5 Nov 2012 15:33:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: (from root@localhost) by monday.kientzle.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) id qA5FXCKm006695; Mon, 5 Nov 2012 15:33:12 GMT (envelope-from tim@kientzle.com) Received: from [192.168.2.143] (CiscoE3000 [192.168.1.65]) by kientzle.com with SMTP id 9df7f5h6u9ypjd6iqma6k7zxz2; Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:33:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tim@kientzle.com) Subject: Re: announcing the availability of packages for the Arm architecture Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1283) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 From: Tim Kientzle In-Reply-To: <5097263F.5090802@jetcafe.org> Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2012 07:33:12 -0800 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <1D4ECD72-D01D-48D3-B837-735176CC49D3@kientzle.com> References: <1351606727.1120.17.camel@revolution.hippie.lan> <5097263F.5090802@jetcafe.org> To: Dave Hayes X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1283) Cc: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the StrongARM Processor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:33:23 -0000 On Nov 4, 2012, at 6:36 PM, Dave Hayes wrote: > On 10/30/12 07:18, Ian Lepore wrote: >> All in all, I have the impression that not many people "use" freebsd = on >> arm at all. >=20 > Just getting to the point of "using" it is quite time intensive. I ran = out of time trying to get my dreamplug to where I want it. These issues = were in my way (this was some time ago, check the list for dates): >=20 > - install requires non-trivial patches and kernel config There are a few people working on build systems to simplify this. My scripts work pretty much "out-of-the-box" for RaspberryPi and BeagleBone now and should be easily extensible to other platforms. > - building ports on the device itself is dog slow (I likely need to = put a swap partition on a usb stick to do that since the machine has no = swap in the first place) FreeBSD ports team is now building packages for ARM. > - no qemu support to use faster machines to emulate arm to build ports > - cross compiling ports is too dangerous A lot of people are looking at cross-compiling. I think we'll see some progress there in the next few months. > ... most developers here seem to be on -current (I believe this is = version 10),=85 The inexpensive new boards coming out are only supported on -CURRENT right now. > Maybe the Raspberry PI estrus will change that?=20 I think it could. One big barrier to FreeBSD on arm has simply been that each new board only attracts a few developers. And each new board requires new drivers, new boot sequencing, etc, etc. It's an immense fragmentation problem. I've been trying to talk up FreeBSD-on-RaspberryPi since I think that could attract enough of a user base to really become a mature platform.=20 Even if you prefer a "more beefy" system like the DreamPlug or PandaBoard or =85 , consider getting a RaspberryPi as well and tinkering with that for a little bit. It's only $35. Tim