Re: Dropping sparc32 for lenny
Clint Adams wrote:
>
> > Perhaps I'm missing something in the big picture, but isn't the only
> > difference between debian-sparc and debian-sparc64 the kernel? The userland
> > is 32bit in both.
>
> Almost. For etch we had somewhat of an embarrassing situation as a few
> released packages won't work on 32-bit SPARC processors. We have no
> mechanism to alert or prevent users from installing them where they
> won't work, and no one working to re-add support for older CPUs.
> For more information, see http://wiki.debian.org/Sparc64Only
Possibly also packages which work on 32-bit but have issues with on 64, e.g.
iptables.
> If we change the toolchain to default to compiling V8plus code, we will
> once again have consistency in the sparc port. Then if there are people
> interested in maintaining a separate sparc32 port, with or without
> fixing the packages which won't build, they could do so. I am not
> interested in doing so.
I would be if I had the time and the reference materials to allow me to build up
the skills, neither of which are true.
If the people begind LEON really have a good general understanding of the
architecture- rather than just implementing the subset they need- perhaps they
could look after the kernel, making it comparatively easy for somebody in the
wider community to handle the rest.
--
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk
[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]
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