<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Hello everyone,<div><br></div><div>It's been a long time, since the last postings on this mailing list. It's nice to see that some people in the project are still active. Thank you also for the current status updates.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 10:03 AM Jan-Benedict Glaw <<a href="mailto:jbglaw@lug-owl.de">jbglaw@lug-owl.de</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi!<br>
<br>
On Tue, 2023-03-21 13:02:32 -0800, babydr DBA James W. Laferriere <<a href="mailto:babydr@baby-dragons.com" target="_blank">babydr@baby-dragons.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> On Fri, 17 Mar 2023, Jan-Benedict Glaw wrote:<br>
> > On Thu, 2023-03-16 13:56:27 -0800, babydr DBA James W. Laferriere <<a href="mailto:babydr@baby-dragons.com" target="_blank">babydr@baby-dragons.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> > > On Sun, 15 Jan 2023, Jan-Benedict Glaw wrote:<br>
> > > > On Sun, 2023-01-15 01:18:27 +0000, Maciej W. Rozycki <<a href="mailto:macro@orcam.me.uk" target="_blank">macro@orcam.me.uk</a>> wrote:<br>
> > > ...snip...<br>
> > > > While the Linux port is a sad story as it somewhat came to an end, at<br>
> > > > least the system availability may get better. You know, I was long<br>
[...]<br>
> > So... Linux on VAX is dead. GCC for VAX is more vivid than ever<br>
> > before. Linux on VAX is possible.<br>
> <br>
> This is actually Very good to hear . Was of the impression that we were at<br>
> a point of no return from messages previously received .<br>
<br>
I think the old Linux kernel port is pretty dead. It's as functional<br>
as it was in those days, but horribly outdated. If I were to start a<br>
new attempt, I wouldn't try to pull in all the (upstream) Linux<br>
patches, but start with current Linus's HEAD and bring in pieces of<br>
our former port.<br>
<br>
Quite some parts should "just work", they'll only need minor<br>
touch-ups to come back (somewhat) to life. A bit more love would be<br>
nice (ie. adopt the Device Tree schema.) Other parts need a deeper<br>
rework: The memory management subsystem comes to mind. Upstream Linux<br>
had an important change there (another layer for PTEs IIRC), which was<br>
non-trivial for me at that time. That was the single point when I<br>
couldn't keep up with merging/adopting Linus' upstream changes.<br>
<br>
The second thing we need is libc/libc/libpthread. NPTL threading<br>
along with an API for thread-local storage needs to be done.<br>
<br>
> As you were recounting that you are working on a remote site to have your<br>
> system(s) available to you remotely , I am hoping that has or is well on<br>
> its way to fruition .<br>
> <br>
> Please keep the list posted on ANY items that are of issue(s) ?<br>
> With luck and availability of resources we can help .<br>
<br>
It's the usual stuff: Time and money. :) I grew older, became a<br>
dad. Time with my family is one thing. Building a nice lab is another.<br>
Needs additional rental fees and electricity.<br>
<br>
I'd love to see a community-funded Old Computer Lab, to allow for a<br>
wide variety of automated tests with legacy hardware. But I fear<br>
there's not enough people around that care about the old stuff, so<br>
it's about finding a compromise that an individual person can support.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I still have VAX models 4000/96 and 4000/200 which I haven't touched in years. I kind of wanted to wait for the Linux/VAX port to become a "thing", which I could install on the computers. But I understand Maciej's and Jan's distraction from the project, with real-life occupations. Maybe by this time, if the hardware hasn't been used and the hardware in them went bad (battery leakage and faultys old capacitors), I don't really know how to handle this properly, because I have little to no electronics skills. I think it would been a bad idea to blindly power up the computers if they haven't been used in so many years. NetBSD is the OS that possibly still supports these machines. So if it would be of any help I could install NetBSD on them, and give remote access to (you) the developers. I wouldn't want to leave the old hardware powered up 24/7 (overnight), because it could be hazardous, but I can have it powered on, when I am at home (that would still be a few hours per day). Another thing that comes to my mind is, if you are able to run some kind of an emulator, or if you need a build machine, I could provide access to the server in a datacenter, which has Linux installed. That way you could distribute the compiling load. If any of it benefits the Linux/Vax community, please let me know. But consider me not being a developer, but only an end-user. I could provide some help with the project's website, so that people who are interested could contact us.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
OTOH, if there were enough people, we'd come together on that<br>
subject and achieve a lot more than any single person could do!<br>
<br>
MfG, JBG<br>
<br>
-- <br>
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</blockquote></div><div><br></div>Best regards, <div>Jan Prunk<br clear="all"><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Jan Prunk e-mail: <a href="mailto:janprunk@gmail.com" target="_blank">janprunk@gmail.com</a></div><div>Mobile phone: +38641710598 Website: <a href="https://janprunk.com" target="_blank">https://janprunk.com</a></div><div>PGP 4096RSA: 632E 9670 A3F3 46D3 9090 D59A C6FE 96E1 9FD7 F151</div><div>PGP 1024DSA: 77C5 156E 29A4 EB6C 1C4A 5EBA 414A 29F5 00E8 0E86</div></div></div></div></div>