Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 12:30:29 -0400 (EDT) From: BSD Bob <bsdbob@weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu> To: heinig@hdz-ima.rwth-aachen.de Cc: freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Status of FBSD sparc porting? Message-ID: <199909031630.MAA01804@weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu> In-Reply-To: <37CFC28D.7063AF7A@post.rwth-aachen.de> from Gerald Heinig at "Sep 3, 1999 02:43:57 pm"
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> BSD Bob wrote: > > > Hello.... > > > > I have been running FBSD for about 5 years, and am relatively comfortable > > with it on x86 machines. But, I also run several sparcs of various > > flavors, at home. What is the status of the FBSD Sparc port? > > Bob, > > The FreeBSD Sparc mailing list has been a bit quiet recently - people on > holiday or too busy etc. I can only really speak for myself here, since I'm > not in regular contact with anyone else on this list, but it seems that most > people (me included) are still getting clued up ie. looking for doco. I've > read a lot of the "The design and implementation of the 4.4BSD lite > operating system" book and have got hold of the Sparc hardware manual plus > other docs from Sun about writing device drivers which contain hardware > details. By the way, I'm talking about the Sparc32 port, NOT Ultrasparc! > What would help me (and maybe others on the list) is an answer to the > following questions: I run veddy dinosaur sparcs, so the 32bit is fine for me. > 1) Is it better/more sensible to use the NetBSD code or even Linux stuff to > find out how to do things or is it better to get your own docs and solve the > problem yourself? Personally, I'd much prefer to "roll our own", although > it's probably far more work and considerably more difficult. However, we'd > all learn more that way. Anyone have any ideas on this? My preference would be to look at 1) the 4.4BSD code for the sparc release (anyone got a source license from SCO that could touch base on that?), 2) the OpenBSD 1.0 port, 3) the OpenBSD 2.5 port, the NetBSD port, and lastly, the Linux port, in that order. I would compare the cannonical historical source (4.4BSD) vs Lite vs say 2.2.8-current and see if we can work up a working kernel that could overlay a SunOS system, and run. We know most of the rest should work, and can borrow from comparisons of the OBSD/NBSD/Linux sources, to make our own. The OBSD 1.0 was built from sources on a running SunOS system, and there is nothing wrong with following suit to start ours along. Gradually weed out and replace code with our tweaks, in theory, and it might work. How practical it is to do it that way, ...... dunno.... > 2) Anyone have a copy of the IEEE 1275 OpenBoot standard document? What bugs > me personally is: how, *exactly*, does the device tree as created by the > Boot Prom get passed to the program that's being booted. Another one is: how > do I output characters to the console or read input characters from the > keyboard via the PROM? Does it use function calls (if so, what > addresses/arguments) or interrupts (interrupt no./calling convention)? and > so on.. Gee, funny you should ask.... a unix friend gave me a copy of that, IFF I can still lay hands on it. Let me see if I can find it in the bilges. > 3) Is there a rough overview of what happens and where, when the FreeBSD > kernel starts up? I'm looking for something like the description of the > Minix source code in Andrew Tanenbaum's "Operating systems: design and > implementation". The book by Karels/McKusick/Bostic/Quarterman is too > high-level (ie. not enough detail) and the source code is too much detail. > Does something like this exist? Dunno, offhand. > I tried installing NetBSD 1.4 on my SS10 but that gave no joy and I was told > that 1.4.1 would fix the problem. I haven't had time to give it a try yet. > That's the status as I see it. I have always had excellent success with OBSD on sparcs. Maybe NBSD will be fixed this round. I have taped it off for testing. > Cheers, > Gerald Bob To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-sparc" in the body of the message
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