Bug#615938: Improvements to the "Ports" page: non-linux & arm stuff
Hi,
2011/3/1 Adrian von Bidder <avbidder@fortytwo.ch>:
> +++
> diff --git a/webwml/english/ports/index.wml b/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> --- a/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> +++ b/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> @@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
> <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
> <li><a href="#released">Released ports</a></li>
> <li><a href="#unreleased">Ports that haven't been released yet</a></li>
> - <li><a href="#nonlinux">Non-Linux ports</a></li>
> <li><a href="#various">Various port-like projects</a></li>
> </ul>
>
> @@ -30,9 +29,9 @@
> </p>
> <p>
> Debian is an operating system (OS), not a kernel (actually, it is more
> - than an OS since it includes thousands of application programs). To
> - prove this, we have our first three fledgling non-Linux based ports, listed
> - <a href="#nonlinux">at the bottom of this page</a>.
> + than an OS since it includes thousands of application programs). Accordingly,
> + while most Debian ports are based on Linux, there also are ports based on the
> + FreeBSD, NetBSD and Hurd kernels.
> </p>
> <p>
> <em>Warning</em> — this is a page in progress. Not all ports have
> @@ -176,8 +175,6 @@
> Port to Atmel's 32-bit RISC architecture, AVR32.
> </p>
>
> -<h2 id="nonlinux">Non-Linux ports</h2>
> -
> <h3><a href="hurd/">Debian GNU/Hurd (<q>hurd-i386</q>)</a></h3>
> <p>
> The GNU Hurd is a totally new operating system being put together by
> +++
>
> * The ARM EABI port is actually what armel is, so:
>
> +++
> diff --git a/webwml/english/ports/index.wml b/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> --- a/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> +++ b/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> @@ -208,14 +208,6 @@
> <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/";>bazaar</a> fashion.
> </p>
>
> -<h3><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/ArmEabiPort";>ARM EABI Port</a></h3>
> -<p>
> - EABI is the new <q>Embedded</q> <acronym lang="en"
> - title="Application Binary Interface">ABI</acronym> by <a
> - href="http://arm.com/";>ARM Ltd.</a>.
> - EABI is actually a family of ABIs and one of the <q>subABIs</q> is GNU EABI for Linux.
> -</p>
> -
> <hr />
>
> <p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> Many of the above computer and processor
> +++
>
> * armhf is not mentioned yet:
>
> +++
> diff --git a/webwml/english/ports/index.wml b/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> --- a/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> +++ b/webwml/english/ports/index.wml
> @@ -93,7 +93,8 @@
> First officially released with Debian 2.2.
> This port runs on a variety of embedded hardware, including the NSLU2.
> Armel is the more efficient successor for the <q>arm</q> port, which is
> - compatible with the ARM EABI.
> + compatible with the ARM EABI. These ports target machines with ARMv4 based CPU
> + and without a floating point unit.
More accurate ARMv4t. The old OABI port ('arm') supported ARMv4.
> </p>
>
> <h3><a href="mips/">MIPS CPUs (<q>mips</q> and <q>mipsel</q>)</a></h3>
> @@ -160,6 +161,15 @@
> A fairly new port to Hitachi SuperH processors.
> </p>
>
> +<h3><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/ArmHardFloatPort";>armhf</a></h3>
> +<p>
> + A lot of modern ARM boards and devices ship with a floating-point unit (FPU),
> + but the current Debian armel port doesn't take much advantage of it. The armhf
> + port was started to improve this situation and also take advantage of other
> + features of newer ARM CPUs. The Debian armhf port requires at least an ARMv7
> + CPU with Thumb2 and VFP3D16.
> +</p>
> +
> <h3><a href="http://www.debonaras.org/";>armeb</a></h3>
> <p>
> Port to big-endian ARM machines, especially to Linksys NSLU2.
> +++
I would consider `armeb' as a dead port.
> * NOTE (and no patch): arm/armel mentiones that the NSLU2 is supported,
> armeb mentiones that same machine (implying perhaps that NSLU2 was not
> supported by regular arm ports at some time?) I have no idea what the
> status of armeb is - the web page is still up, though doesn't look very
> nice and points to something apparently sarge based. Clarification would
> be nice.
There was a presentation which contains a bit of the history of Debian
ARM ports done at FOSDEM this year:
<http://people.debian.org/~zumbi/talks/fosdem2011-arm/>
There was some binary blob (microcode) in big-endian mode to make work
Ethernet on the NSLU2.
armeb, the big endian port was supposed to save some cycles on this
slow machines and be more friendly with that blob, but later in time
seems to be that armel was good enough and Debian+(binary blob) is
distributed a side of Debian:
<http://www.slug-firmware.net/>
I hope it clarifies things a little more.
Best regards,
--
Héctor Orón
"Our Sun unleashes tremendous flares expelling hot gas into the Solar
System, which one day will disconnect us."
-- Day DVB-T stop working nicely
Video flare: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100510.html
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