Re: sparc64 debian netboot chicken and egg
On 05/14/2018 10:46 PM, Dennis Clarke wrote:
> Oh no worries. I get it that this is a moving picture and nothing is
> carved in stone. I just wonder if there is a way to get back to a full
> primary architecture with sparc64 as opposed to a lab project port.
It is absolutely possible and has been a subject of discussion for years
now. The main blocker is that Debian has not found any hardware sponsor
for new SPARC servers.
We were in negotiations with Oracle about hardware donations and it
looked quite promising at some point. Unfortunately, this never resulted
in actual hardware being shipped to Debian.
To explain the background real quick: One of the main criteria for an
architecture to become release architecture is that Debian has full
access to new hardware for this architecture, preferably in the form
of donated hardware that can be hosted at Debian's hosting locations.
This is to make sure the hardware doesn't fall apart as long as the
port is an official release architecture.
Since we only have old SPARC servers available that are long out of
warranty, we have no choice but to remain restricted to Debian Ports.
So, if you want sparc64 to become a release architecture, help us
find a hardware sponsor. FWIW, I already contacted Fujitsu but
never got a positive answer either.
>> Oracle Linux is compiled for sun4v, so lots of classical 64-bit SPARC
>> machines are not usable.
>
> Won't work on the new S-class systems either. Any day now I expect John
> Fowler to walk out the door with a cheque in his hand .. no idea.
Aren't the S-class systems based on a variant of the M7 CPU? I would
be surprised if the new Sonoma machines couldn't run Oracle Linux.
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
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