Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 23:16:22 +0200 From: Rink Springer <rink@stack.nl> To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Cc: ed@fxq.nl Subject: FreeBSD/xbox in 7-CURRENT: Proposed plan Message-ID: <20051018211534.GA59335@il.fontys.nl>
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--EP0wieDxd4TSJjHq Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi everyone, As the hype of FreeBSD/xbox has mostly cooled down, I'd like to bring this support to 7-CURRENT without having to rely on external patches. In order to do this, I propose the following plan (priority 1 is highest, 3 is lowest): 1) I intend to clean up the patches as to eliminate 'options XBOX'; with minor effort I can make the port smart enough to auto-detect whether its running on an XBOX by simply looking at PCI ID's as outlined at http://www.xbox-linux.org. This means the FreeBSD/i386 and FreeBSD/xbox kernels will be identical, which makes releases a lot easier. 2) Port the Linux forcedeth.c driver to FreeBSD. This would mean a GPL-ed driver in the tree; but since no one has specs or wants to release them (trust me, I've tried), I feel this is our best way. And nForce-motherboard owners would benefit from this very much as well. Once we have a working driver, the forcedeth.c maintainer Manfred Spraul claimed to be willing to talk about a possible BSD license; possibly Nvidia will do the same to their modifications in the code. 3) The kernel would still need one device missing from GENERIC, and this is the 'xboxfb' framebuffer driver. I wish to merge it as a VESA-like module so it can benefit from the syscons(4) framework. However, this isn't as easy as I hoped; for the time being, I'd like to stick to the 'xboxfb' driver which will only install itself if running on a XBOX. Assistence on this is very welcomed. A currently patched Linux Cromwell BIOS (I am planning to continuing working with the team to clean up the code and make a 2.41 release) is capable of booting FreeBSD kernels from CD, network and UFS filesystems, so there is little trouble in getting your XBOX to boot FreeBSD... Would the FreeBSD project accept this plan to import FreeBSD/xbox within the FreeBSD/i386 port, bringing support into -CURRENT without the need for any patches? Of course, suggestions are very welcome; I'd like to see this in CURRENT :) --=20 Rink P.W. Springer - http://rink.nu "God, root, what is difference?" - Pitr, Userfriendly --EP0wieDxd4TSJjHq Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFDVWYmb3O60uztv/8RAm9hAJwNxvf/Zu4G4NQQ+gJ7gNAXF0sgdQCgxt9F jwgJ8dXf0bPyRhp1EoSyxfo= =Ac5Q -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --EP0wieDxd4TSJjHq--
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