Re: L4Re with GCC 9; Repositories and Roadmaps

Dear Paul,

> I doubt that you will have read (or wanted to read, at least in full) the articles
> I wrote about extending the MIPS support in L4Re and Fiasco.OC to the Ben
> NanoNote [1]

I've skimmed through some of your texts quickly. It is definitively an interesting reading and your observations might be certainly helpful for porting any OS to the NanoNote. Thanks!

> but is there any relatively in-depth documentation describing
> approaches to supporting new hardware in HelenOS?

There is a wiki page about writing HelenOS device drivers [1]. Regarding porting of HelenOS to a new platform, the best source of inspiration and guidance are the master theses that have concerned with similar assignments: UltraSPARC III, IV, T1, T2 [2], SPARC V9 [3]. In the code base of HelenOS, there is also this "abstract 32bit little endian architecture" that is a good starting point for supporting a completely new architecture (instead of scavenging an existing architecture support).

[1] http://www.helenos.org/wiki/DeviceDrivers
[2] http://www.helenos.org/doc/theses/pr-thesis.pdf
[3] http://www.helenos.org/doc/theses/jj-thesis.pdf

> I think that it is pretty inexcusable for a lot of new systems not to be
> portable.

I agree completely. Portability has always been one of the primary design guidelines of HelenOS.

> Anyway, thanks for the recommendation, and if there is anything in
> particular that you feel a broader audience should know about HelenOS,
> please feel free to weigh in. My focus has been on L4Re specifically, but
> there are always possibilities to learn from what other systems do.

Well, we have a nice web site with resources (but the documentation can always be better :)) and I believe the source code is well-commented. We have a welcoming community on the mailing list and on the IRC channel.

If I should mention one URL that I would suggest as a starting point, then this is it: http://www.helenos.org/wiki/FAQ


Best regards

Martin Decky