Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 13:09:17 +1100 From: John Birrell <jb@cimlogic.com.au> To: Lyndon Griffin <lgriffin@bsd4us.org> Cc: freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "base" system Message-ID: <20000120130917.B5137@freebsd1.cimlogic.com.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSO.4.10.10001191901360.5052-100000@ns.bsd4us.org>; from Lyndon Griffin on Wed, Jan 19, 2000 at 07:10:31PM -0500 References: <Pine.BSO.4.10.10001191901360.5052-100000@ns.bsd4us.org>
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On Wed, Jan 19, 2000 at 07:10:31PM -0500, Lyndon Griffin wrote: > In going over all the posts the past two days, I think it would be best if > we use NetBSD as our "base" system. This gives us a number of advantages: > * leveraging knowledge of previous porting efforts (FreeBSD/axp) > * possibility of using NetBSD's cross-compiler port (in fact, there is > not an openbsd-sparc target for gcc/binutils/gdb in the distributions) > * leveraging platform dependent code from netbsd/sparc > * for the most part, those that have expressed opinion on which to > use seem to want netbsd > > I think that pretty well closes the case. Let's call this a decision and > move forward from it - any objections or concerns? Yes, well just a suggestion. 8-) The issues that needed to be addressed to port FreeBSD to the Alpha were different from those related to porting FreeBSD to Sparc now. Back then, the FreeBSD source tree was very x86-centric and work was required to handle multiple architectures. Then there was the issue of 32-bit versus 64-bit. There was also the problem that FreeBSD was still using the old tools, with no support for ELF. All that has changed and FreeBSD has come a long way. I think you'll find that it will be easier to build cross tools using the Cygnus sources that match the tools that are already in FreeBSD's tree. With those tools, you should be able to go directly to porting the FreeBSD kernel by setting up an Intel machine to netboot the Sparc and building on an x86 machine running FreeBSD. After the cross-tools, you will have to setup the Sparc machine headers using the NetBSD sources as a guide, but aiming to end up with something that is compatible with the FreeBSD/i386 and alpha equivalents. The low level Sparc code should come from NetBSD, IMHO. Just be careful to respect the copyrights in the files you refer to. -- John Birrell - jb@cimlogic.com.au; jb@freebsd.org http://www.cimlogic.com.au/ john.birrell@cai.com john.birrell@opendirectory.com.au To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-sparc" in the body of the message
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