From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Nov 3 10:59:13 1995 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id KAA23438 for hackers-outgoing; Fri, 3 Nov 1995 10:59:13 -0800 Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id KAA23377 for ; Fri, 3 Nov 1995 10:57:04 -0800 Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id LAA04815; Fri, 3 Nov 1995 11:53:51 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199511031853.LAA04815@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: RFD: VFS, non-Intel architectures To: phk@critter.tfs.com (Poul-Henning Kamp) Date: Fri, 3 Nov 1995 11:53:51 -0700 (MST) Cc: terry@lambert.org, hackers@FreeBSD.org In-Reply-To: <2258.815397332@critter.tfs.com> from "Poul-Henning Kamp" at Nov 3, 95 12:15:32 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 3346 Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Trimmed Cc: to hackers. > > > As some of you know, I am doing a port of FreeBSD to the Motorolla > > Ultra 603/604. > Good. > > > Part of a port to a different platform has always been support of > > the native file system for that platform. > > Yes, as something you added later :-) > > My bogometer is in warning mode, in particular since the PowerPC idea > (though you are probably on a RS6k/P40) was to be able to run (if I > remember right from the glossies): > > NT > AIX > Solaris > OSF/1 > MacOS > > > So implying that the "crumbly VFS code" is holding back your port because > you cannot make a JFS is "BullShit, first grade". No. I am running a Motorolla Ultra 603 with AIX. Not IBM Hardware. > > I would like to invite discussion on these proposed VFS changes. > > Sure, just do make it sound like you cannot possibly do anything until > it has been done. That's not true. I can do things. I will just lose the ability to keep other peoples changes to FreeBSD as part and parcel of my local code base. > It seems to me that you are attacking the porting owrk from the wrong end. > > Since you quite obviously havn't thought much about how to attack this > task I volounteer to educate you a bit here: > > I would suggest you start out by (re)reading a couple of the classic > papers on porting unix to another platform for hints and ideas, > Bell Labs for instance had a couple of classics that it seems you > have never understood (assuming you ever actually read them). > > My personal suggestion to you would be: > > Make a kernel that the AIX bootloader can load, which only contains > panic ("Kilroy, Really ???\n"); > For instance using netbooting, which I'm sure the P40 is capable of. > (3 weeks). Done. Though I don't use a P40, the ROS code for the Ultra leaves the system in the same state regardless of if it's a P40 or not. > Make that kernel work so far that it can execute /sbin/init from a > compiled in MFS filesystem. > (8 weeks). I can do this already as well, though I admit to some PTE bugs. > Make your device drivers for disk and network work and work well. > (8 weeks). I'm having problems with the console code and am waiting on PPCBug documentation. > Make a couple of FFS filesystems and make the user-land work. > (6 weeks). Works from floppy already. > Then add JFS compatibility, if you really need it. > (4 weeks). In progress. > If I had paid you to port FreeBSD, and you came to me with this "I > need to fix the VFS" crap, you wouldn't even have had time to print > your resume before you left. Lucky I'm doing it for no cost to you, I guess. > I wish I could afford to buy another computer right now, and I would > love to produce a port before you do. > > I'm sure I could beat you to it, considering that I know nothing > about the Power, havn't done it before, have a job and a family, > and don't have to write N*10K emails all the time. > > Come on Terry, show us, prove that you can deliver what your mouth > keeps babling about, show us a kernel that boots on a Power at Xmas > and have a complete selfhosted port ready by easter... > > "but mom, he's not wearing any clothes..." 8-P. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.