%% Porting Debian to PA-RISC and IA-64 %% Copyright 2001 Bdale Garbee %% %% Presented at the Colorado Linux Info Quest, Denver, Colorado, USA. %% %% %% Abstract: %% Porting Linux to a new CPU architecture is an interesting mix of %% exasperation and the joy of discovery. To deliver a complete %% distribution requires effort in each of the kernel, toolchain, and %% application development spaces. This talk will provide an %% overview of the process, then compare and contrast Debian's %% ongoing efforts with PA-RISC and IA-64. Along the way, %% unique tools and processes Debian uses to maintain more %% actively supported architectures than any other Linux %% distribution will be explored. %% %% %% Define the fonts we will use %% %deffont "standard" tfont "Arial.ttf" %deffont "typewriter" tfont "Times_New_Roman.ttf" %deffont "fixed" xfont "terminal" %% %% Default settings for special lines %% %default 1 leftfill, fore "black", back "white", bimage "background.bmp" %default 2 size 7, vgap 10, prefix " ", font "standard" %default 3 size 2, bar "gray70", vgap 10 %default 4 size 5, vgap 30, font "standard" %% %% Default settings for indented lines %% %tab 1 size 5, vgap 40, prefix " ", icon box "green" 50 %tab 2 size 4, vgap 40, prefix " ", icon arc "red" 50 %tab 3 size 3, vgap 40, prefix " ", icon delta3 "blue" 40 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page %nodefault, font "standard", fore "black", back "white", bimage "background.bmp" %center Porting Debian GNU/Linux to PA-RISC and IA-64 Iterate Until Done (Dead?) %size 6 Bdale Garbee %size 5 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Overview What is Debian? What Porting Involves Tools Debian Uses for Porting Status of PA-RISC and Itanium Ports Some Observations %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page What is Debian? %center %size 8 A distribution for Windows Users! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page What is Debian? %font "typewriter" `The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system.' %font "standard" More specifically, Debian: is one of the most popular GNU/Linux distributions runs on the most architectures is a completely open volunteer organization is quite international is the largest GNU/Linux distribution works with companies to develop and maintain software is Focused on Freedom is well represented in the free software world %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Bug Tracking System and Policy Manual Since 1994 Debian has had a public bugtracking system on the Internet. This is an open system to which people can submit bugreports, features requests and other comments. It is used primarily email-in, web-out. One important success factor for Debian is the integration of all the different packages. This is coordinated through the policy document, which gives guidelines for building and maintaining packages. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page A Few Debian Statistics 6 released architectures alpha, arm, i386, m68k, powerpc, sparc 3 ports in progress ia64, mips/mipsel, hppa only disribution also working with the HURD 809 maintainers 4428 source packages 6728 binary packages %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Package Count Over Time %center, newimage "packages.gif" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Number of Developers Over Time %center, newimage "developers.gif" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page What Porting Involves Toolchain Compilers Binary Utilities Libraries Kernel User Space Applications Installation Toolkit Need a "Can-Do" Attitude Lots and lots of Iteration %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Tools Debian Uses for Porting Packaging System Granularity Strong Dependencies Policies Build Daemons IRC %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page How a Build Daemon Works %center, newimage -scrzoom 70 "wb-diagram.eps" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Dealing With Build Daemon Email Successful Given Back Not For Us Failed for Build Dependency Failed for Source Problem %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Status of PA-RISC and IA-64 Ports IA-64 Large Community Investment Farther Along Kernel and Toolchain are Useful and Stable 1539 of 4428 Packages Installed (35%) PA-RISC Modest Project Size HP/Linuxcare and Volunteers Kernel Useful but Incomplete Toolchain Stabilizing 394 of 4428 Packages Installed (9%) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Some Observations IA-64 introduces new size issues beyond alpha/sparc64 Circular dependencies suck Hack it, then pitch it The config.sub/guess Mess Broken build dependencies Every port had a "toss it and start over" event, except IA-64 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page Acknowledgements HP Technical Computing Division Linux Systems Operation (particularly the Linux Development Lab) Agilent Technologies Debian Developers Randolph Chung Brendan O'Dea Ryan Murray Ben Collins Wichert Ackerman %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %page To Learn More %center %size 10 http://www.debian.org/ %size 8 Debian BOF 2:30-4, Conifer 1 HP BOF 4-5:30, Conifer 2 Debian Booth in Vendor Area