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Date:      Wed, 19 Jan 2000 01:03:59 -0600
From:      "Mark Tempel" <mtempel@visi.com>
To:        "Lyndon Griffin" <lgriffin@bsd4us.org>
Cc:        <freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: hello ello llo lo o
Message-ID:  <003501bf624b$5c2c0040$49ec62d1@dirac>
References:  <Pine.BSO.4.10.10001182134040.20767-100000@ns.bsd4us.org>

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Lyndon Griffin" <lgriffin@bsd4us.org>
To: <freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 9:01 PM
Subject: Re: hello ello llo lo o

> >From the "for what it's worth" department:
>
> Good info, Jason.  Thanks.
>
> I would like, if there are no strong oppositions, to take ownership of the
> FreeBSD/SPARC(32) porting efforts.  I must stress that this is only for
> the 32bit SPARC architectures, as I am not yet fortunate enough to own any
> sun4u machines.  I don't know to what extent the two can co-exist in a
> single port - based on the various other distributions (OpenBSD, NetBSD,
> Debian, and RedHat), I think this may be a smart move.  Comments on that
> are welcome, and we can certainly open it up for discussion on a new
> thread.

If you are willing to take ownership of this port, I have no objections.

> In the next few days, I will set up a dedicated area on my web site to
> handle port status information, FAQ, etc.  I'll post the URL here.  I can
> also set up a CVS server there and start tracking -current.  Even if I'm
> not heading up the show, these are valuable resources for any project.
>
> I think leveraging existing code from any available (by available, I mean
> borrowing from Net-, Open-, and Free- existing code base) source is the
> quickest route to a running system.  We can re-engineer anything not
> specifically FreeBSD-core compliant prior to designating a release.

I have been reading the alpha port mailing list archieves for the past
couple of days.
It appears that they started by having a few (maybe one) people start
looking into
porting the kernel while alot of other people were busy building the
userland on
a system bootstrapped off of a NetBSD install.

Look for the post in the Jan 11 1998 archieves. The message is from John
Birrell with
the subject: Bootstrapping FreeBSD/Alpha.

He basically gives a roadmap on how to do this (the userland) work.

I noticed that work using a cross compiler was abandoned ( I think)....
Any Comments?  Am I wrong about this?

> I must admit that I have almost -zero- experience as a SPARC coder.  In
> other words, I have no clue what I'm getting myself into, here.  The
> really twisted thing is that is my reason for doing it.

I have worked on several software systems both in my life as a student and
in my
professional life, but I too am new to something of this magnitude.

> Can I get a sound-off of those who are ready to start working immediately?
> It would probably be a good idea to post the "team" information on the
> status page.

I have a SS5 and was planning to try to bootstrap a userland development
environment
off of NetBSD (following the steps John Birrell used on the post I mentioned
above) over
the next few weeks.  I have never done this before so I am not sure about a
timeline for
completion of the initial tasks involved in this.

I believe that there have been several starts on this project in the past.
If I am duplicating
work foolishly please let me know.

I am open to (and am hoping to hear) any comments.

Thanks,

Mark Tempel
mtempel@visi.com



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