Re: m68k, debian-installer, and DevFS

[Wouter Verhelst <wouter@grep.be>]

Op za 01-03-2003, om 00:16 schreef Petter Reinholdtsen:
> [Wouter Verhelst]
> > As some of you are already aware, there's a problem wrt m68k in that
> > there's no decent 2.4 kernel for m68k yet. As such, creating an m68k
> > debian-installer image that actually works is a bit problematic right
> > now, since debian-installer depends on DevFS quite a lot, while DevFS
> > will only be found in 2.4-kernels.
> 
> It is good to see someone working on the non-i386 ports of d-i.  It is
> really needed.  How hard is it to get 2.4 kernels working in m68k?

That's a good question. There are actually some 2.4 kernels out there
for m68k, but they don't boot with recent glibc implementations.

I don't know the technical details about this; what I do know, is that
it will be hard for Debian to support 2.4 on m68k anytime soon.

> Why is it not done yet?  It has been a while since 2.4 arrived.

Lack of manpower, mainly. Interested kernel hackers are always welcome
to join the Linux/m68k effort. And yes, I'm interested, but I'm not
skilled enough to hack kernels (or C libraries, for that matter :-)

> > To work around this issue, I've been thinking of emulating DevFS in
> > user space (with some tricks that involve /etc/modules.conf, for
> > those interested). However, as I'm not going to implement every
> > possible piece of hardware 'out there', I'd like to know what
> > hardware debian-installer searches for, and only implement
> > that. This will obviously include hard disks and their partitions,
> > but what more?
> 
> I believe autopartkit/libpartedq uses /dev/discs/*.  I have no idea
> what the different parts of d-i needs in /dev/.

thanks.

-- 
wouter at grep dot be
"An expert can usually spot the difference between a fake charge and a
full one, but there are plenty of dead experts." 
  -- National Geographic Channel, in a documentary about large African beasts.