Re: Debian GNU/NetBSD: anyone still interested in development?
gl@decadence.it a écrit :
> Hello :)
>
> Some times ago I became interested in Debian GNU/NetBSD port and I
> would like to try on one of my Alpha machines, a DEC 3000 AXP which is
> not supported by Linux (Turbochannel based Alphastation).
>
> I asked for some testing images but after a brief talk with Micheal
> Weber I understood that the development of Debian GNU/NetBSD was
> someway at a dead point (or at least I understood so).
>
> It is clear that there is not a real demand for a NetBSD port neither
> from the NetBSD user base, nor the Debian user base.
> Still, I think that it could be useful, so I started some research to
> find out what are the main difficulties in porting and wheter I could
> help in this process.
>
> I worked some days in summer holidays, and some more these winter
> holidays.
> Finally I have a comfortable system to work on (a 4-way AlphaServer
> 4100 with enough disk space) and things got easyier (and faster!)
> After some initial mistakes (compiling Debian packages in NetBSD native
> environment) I set up a Debian chroot and compiled packages in the
> chroot with a raw GCC installed in /usr/local.
>
> Development is now at a point that the Debian system could be booted
> stand alone from SRM and many packages, libraries and tools are binary
> compiled directly from Debian sources with little or no patches at all.
> There are a few alien libraries in /lib* copied from NetBSD on the
> Debian system.
> The total count is for 260 packages compiled in *-netbsd-alpha.deb
> packages including a bleeding (but working) NetBSD libc package.
>
> Now I have to decide if all this work has been a funny hobby, or if I
> should take it seriously.
> I have the interest in going on, some time to be dedicated to this work
> and enough luck to compile packages with very little patches (and
> little NetBSD knowledge!)
> It should be a positive influence of GNU/kFreeBSD work! :)
Well that could be, but note the GNU/kFreeBSD port is using a GNU libc
which help a lot to build Debian package without patches.
> As time goes on, Debian is becoming more and more complex and porting
> to other kernels should be come more and more difficult so I think that
> at least a minimal working set of Debian should be achived now.
>
> I would ask you all for some guidelines and advices in development, and
> development directions too.
Well first you should think about GNU/NetBSD versus GNU/kNetBSD, ie
using a NetBSD libc or a GNU libc. Both have some advantages, but using
a GNU libc helps a lot to build Debian packages without any patches. But
that also means some porting work on the GNU libc side
Then I wonder if the choice of the alpha architecture is a good choice
for now. I have nothing against alpha, but if you are seeking for some
help, or even some users, i386 would be a lot better. Even
kfreebsd-amd64 is not really used compared to kfreebsd-i386. Also an
architecture i386 means that users can try this system in an emulator
(for example QEMU).
For the development guidelines, I would say the first goal is to have
all the essential as well as build-essential packages ported so that you
can have a clean developement environment. Then you can try to setup an
autobuilder to get more packages built.
A few tips now. I adive you to take notes of what you are doing. Take
notes of the ugly hacks you are using for now (or even better avoid
them), and keep a list of them. It is very frustating when you find
something is not working due to an ugly hack you have written 1 or 2
years before and you have forgotten. I also advise you to use a version
control system to store your patches and your notes, this is very useful.
If you have other questions, don't hesitate to ask them.
Cheers,
Aurelien
--
.''`. Aurelien Jarno | GPG: 1024D/F1BCDB73
: :' : Debian developer | Electrical Engineer
`. `' aurel32@debian.org | aurelien@aurel32.net
`- people.debian.org/~aurel32 | www.aurel32.net
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