Re: How to start porting to a new ARCHITECTURE?

[Shachar Shemesh <shachar@debian.org>]

David Given wrote:
> You've got two major tasks ahead of you:
>
> - - port gcc
>
> - - port the kernel
>
> - - cross-compile a basic userland
>   
Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition.

Actually, there is one more major headache, which is porting a boot
loader. Probably uBoot or something similar. Memory needs to be set up
so it can be accessed by the kernel, the kernel (and initrd) pulled from
the flash, and flow passed into it.

If the system uses hardware controllers that exist elsewhere, the kernel
port may be easier than that. It may be that the system has an ethernet
controller that is already supported under Linux. Of course, the startup
code and everything else under the "arch" directory will still need to
be handled, but at least as far as the drivers are concerned, some work
may be saved.

Shachar