Re: Hello

[Dan Walrond <djw@compsoc.dur.ac.uk>]

On Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 09:48:12PM +0100, Michael Ritzert wrote:
> Hello Dan,

Hi.

> a few weeks ago i posted about NetBSD-Debian, but i did not get any reply :-((

Oh well, there doesn't seem to be many people involved. So if we're it,
we many as well start something.

> Well, IMHO the first thing to know is about the concepts of the other port.s.

Indeed. It's probably best we fall in line with the other *BSD port,
especially the NetBSD ports on ia32 and alpha.

> Which parts of NetBSD are needed and which parts of debian?

Obviously the kernel. I and think there's something else like glibc.
Hopefully someone will be able to deny or comfirm that, as I can't
remember off hand.

> Will, for
> example, NetBSD-debian simply be a NetBSD bootdisk (i.e., an
> absolutely minimal BSD system) + debian package system + netbsd
> software in debian packages? Or is a larger base system
> necessary/desirable?

Interesting... Personally the full Debian userland would be nice. Maybe
including the NetBSD version of some tools would be a good idea.

> Is there any concept of this? Are the two
> existing ports identical in this respect or do they differ?

That's something I can't answer. Hopefully someone on the list can.

> Which
> versions of NetBSD and Debian sources do we base on?  I have a cdrom
> image of NetBSD 1.5.2 an a full Debian 3.0/intel including sources.
> Would this be an appropraite basis to start with?

I have NetBSD 1.6 which I downloaded last week. Debian 3.0 seems a
sensable start.

> Then the prerequisits:
>  
> a) Hardware
> 
> do You have a 2nd machine to build the port? If no, two bootable disks
> would be very useful - one for the development system, and one to test
> the installation.

The system I have is a SS20 with one 1Gb drive and two 2G drive. A
cd-rom drive but no floppy drive.

> b) Software: in which host environmentwill You build the port? NetBSD,
> Linux, Solaris (Intel/Sparc/whatever -- setting up gcc as a cross
> compiler is a bit laborious but not difficult)

So far I have installed NetBSD 1.6 onto the sparc, downloaded the dpkg
source from CVS. I need to sort out perl as I don't appear to have
dumper.pm installed. So I haven't even created the configuration file
yet.  I would like to install it from the NetBSD packages but I haven't
spent time working that out properly. I've ran 'sup' but that's about
it. apt is so nice ;)

> BTW: my testing system would be a sparcstation 2; i would like to
> build things on my Ultra1/Solaris box

Is it a problem if we build software on different OSes for cross
compiling? Might actually be easier to cross compile. I would probably
install linux on one for the other disks.

Dan