From owner-freebsd-sparc Thu Nov 26 12:19:31 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA01312 for freebsd-sparc-outgoing; Thu, 26 Nov 1998 12:19:31 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu (delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu [128.135.5.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA01305; Thu, 26 Nov 1998 12:19:25 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from ecameron@delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu) Received: (from ecameron@localhost) by delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id OAA06216; Thu, 26 Nov 1998 14:19:15 -0600 (CST) Message-ID: <19981126141915.B6011@bsd.uchicago.edu> Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 14:19:15 -0600 From: Erik Cameron To: Gary Palmer Cc: Eivind Eklund , eddy@ISI.EDU, Paolo Di Francesco , freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: What we need References: <19981126131454.A5740@bsd.uchicago.edu> <28778.912110828@gjp.erols.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.93.2i In-Reply-To: <28778.912110828@gjp.erols.com>; from Gary Palmer on Thu, Nov 26, 1998 at 03:07:08PM -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On the subject of getting a booting kernel, I agree... As far as getting userland working and compiled, though, libc is pretty important... :) Which is what we were discussing. I agree that a booting kernel would be of far more use, but everybody's gotta do something... What's your feeling on crosscompiling from a FreeBSD/intel machine? -e On Thu, Nov 26, 1998 at 03:07:08PM -0500, Gary Palmer wrote: > Erik Cameron wrote in message ID > <19981126131454.A5740@bsd.uchicago.edu>: > > > > The real problem I've found with this is is the (relatively) large > > amount of assembly code involved in building libc; libc being the > > first thing to work on, IMHO. > > From memory, half the assembly stuff in libc is optimized versions of > speed-critical components (ntohl,bcopy, etc). I seem to remember their being C > versions as well. This isn't true for everything (such as the syscall > interface), but it cuts down on the ammount of work that needs to be done. > A bunch of the .S files you see being compiled/assembled when you make libc > are syscall veneers that are machine generated from a single copy of the file. > So, yes, assembly is required to build libc, but not as much as you might > think. And to be perfectly honest, the biggest hurdle is going to be the > kernel, not libc, and I think thats where your focus should be. You can boot > and debug a kernel without ever needing a libc. > > Gary > -- > Gary Palmer FreeBSD Core Team Member > FreeBSD: Turning PC's into workstations. See http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/ for info > > -- erik cameron -- bsd/is support services support engineer, unix frood, sysadmin, etc. ecameron@bsd.uchicago.edu | karl is silly To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-sparc" in the body of the message