Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:37:53 +0100 From: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> To: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Where is FreeBSD going? Message-ID: <p06002035bc2327dc196b@[10.0.1.4]> In-Reply-To: <20040108102730.GA55397@xor.obsecurity.org> References: <3FFC03E5.7010305@iconoplex.co.uk> <200401071429.i07ETZMI068819@grimreaper.grondar.org> <20040107200838.GD86935@freepuppy.bellavista.cz> <xzpy8si7nv6.fsf@dwp.des.no> <20040108102730.GA55397@xor.obsecurity.org>
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At 2:27 AM -0800 2004/01/08, Kris Kennaway wrote:
> It's certainly true that we're lacking in build hardware for some
> non-i386 platforms (particularly sparc64), and this made it pretty
> tricky to build packages for 5.2 on those architectures (a full
> sparc64 build takes at least a month). I've heard some rumours of
> donated equipment waiting to be installed, but I don't know what the
> status of that is.
I've got a SPARC64 box sitting downstairs, waiting for me to
install it. Actually, I've got four of them. I was planning on
using one for FreeBSD support, one for NetBSD, one for OpenBSD, and
one for Solaris. I was also thinking about using the OpenBSD/sparc64
box as a primary firewall (until I can get something better), but I
imagine that NetBSD really doesn't need much more sparc64 support
right now -- maybe I could reconsider using that one for sparc64
package support.
> Likewise, a 5.2 i386 build takes about a week, which means that the
> freeze *cannot* be shorter than this, even if everything goes
> perfectly (which, in practise, never happens). This time around, the
> freeze started on 23 Nov and was lifted on 3 Dec. That's 10 days,
> which is about as good as you could hope for. If we could build
> packages in - say - a day, we'd be able to cut the freeze time down
> further, although I expect the duration would become limited by the
> speed at which problems can be corrected.
Sounds to me like a reliable RAM disk for temporary files would
be very helpful. There are at least one or two PCI card models that
I think can take up to 8GB, and which I know work with Linux. If
they don't already work with FreeBSD, I would imagine it shouldn't
take too much work to fix that.
> Every now and then we get offers of access to a machine here or a
> machine there to help with building packages. The main problem with
> donating machine resources is that there's limited space in the
> freebsd.org equipment racks, and the package build system currently
> needs LAN-equivalent connectivity between the machines. To be useful
> we'd either need a full cluster of faster machines located somewhere,
> or to find time to rewrite the build scripts to work efficiently with
> remote build resources.
Hmm. I would seriously consider donating one or two sparc64
boxes to the project (once I confirm they work ;-), but I would want
to make sure that there is space to support them. Otherwise, I would
be willing to run them from my basement. Of course, that's precisely
the problem you already have.
I've done a bit of script hacking in the past. Do you have any
idea what would be required to hack these scripts to suit?
Alternatively, I might be able to get you some additional build
resources somewhere else. In fact, I think this other place is
probably already quite familiar with FreeBSD, and they might be
surprised to hear about this need -- should I contact them?
--
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be>
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E-(---) W+++(--) N+
!w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++)
tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++)
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