Re: NetBSD/landisk imported

On Sat, Sep 02, 2006 at 03:30:26 +0400, Valeriy E. Ushakov wrote:

> I have imported NetBSD/landisk port by NONAKA Kimihiro.  It's basicly
> 20060223-nbsd-landisk.tar.bz2 with minor tweaks to catch up with
> -current.

I've got several question as to why it was imported as a separate port
and not as part of evbsh3, so let me clrarify this.  Eventually I
would like to fold landisk support into evbsh3, but importing landisk
patch ~as-is as a sepated port has IMO some advantages.

The landisk patch has been around for quite a while now.  As it was
not integrated in the cvs, it was bitrotting slowly (e.g. kauth
changes, more stringent checks that gcc4 does, etc).  This things are
much easier to deal with in a timely and coordinated fashion when the
port is in the cvs.  It's also easier for potential users to run the
port when they can build it right out of the official tree w/out
having to do the re-integration and playing catch-up with -curernt
(and *each* user was forced to deal with that).  People can also get
snapshots from the autobuild cluster now.

Another reason is that we all only have so much copious free time on
our hands.  With the port in the tree it's easier for people to
contribute and efforts can be coordinated (I would welcome any help
in improving our sh3 ports, landisk or others).

SuperH hardware is not easy to come by outside Japan.  Not for a
hobbyist anyway - last time I checked I managed to find only two
companies that were selling superh eval boards in Europe, and they
costed an arm (no pun intended :) and a leg - istr the cheapest was
just under 1K euro.

I don't have a dreamcast but I imagine it's quite awkward to work with
as you need to get the network adapter, you need to burn kernels onto
a CD-R (not RW!) to boot it, etc...  Not convenient for a development
machine.

Pocket and handheld pcs based on superh are no longer produced as
Microsoft killed superh support in wince.  You can still get Jornada
680 and 690 from eBay at about $120 "buy now" (may be less now), but
it's not a terribly fast machine (133MHz sh3) and has limited
connectivity.  690 is still quite nice and is the superh machine most
easily obtainable outside Japan.

Landisk is an affordable consumer box (USL-5P - the diskless version -
is $116 on amazon.jp) with decent 266MHz cpu, onboard ethernet and USB
connectivity.  That makes it a very convenient development box.  So if
we want to attract people to help with NetBSD/sh3 hacking and make it
easy for them to contribute it makes sense to support the most
convenient sh3 platform in the tree :).

But as I said, I would like to fold landisk support into evbsh3.  Our
sh3 ports in general could use some better modularization.  But that
work can now be done as time/resources permit (and with cvs hisotry in
place) while landisk is readily supported by the separate port.

For a while landisk machines will be supported by both landisk and
evbsh3, and when evbsh3 accretes all the functionality separate
landisk port can be removed.


Thanks.

SY, Uwe
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