Free AmigaOS for all

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ILwrath is right, the source code to AmigaOS up to 3.9 is pretty much 68k assember (so it can't be ported to other CPU's) and, from what I understand, in a very bad state.

Also, I belive, the source for the OS eariler than 3.1 has been lost.

The AROS sources are freely available though, and if it weren't for the ease of downloading a Kiskstart ROM from the net (:-(), they would have been used to make a free kickstart for Emulators etc...

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Karlos wrote:
What's the current state of AROS on 68K / PPC ?

68k port works, but only on the Palm (and 68k linux hosted), as no one has ported AROS to the Amiga hardware :lol:

Hit a stumbling bock on the PPC, though as it seems that the varargs function has different behaviour on different platforms (passing parameters in registers or on the stack)... the best option would be to remove it from the AROS core, but apparently that would take a huge amount of work :-(

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Karlos wrote:

bloodline wrote:

Karlos wrote:
What's the current state of AROS on 68K / PPC ?

68k port works, but only on the Palm (and 68k linux hosted), as no one has ported AROS to the Amiga hardware :lol:

Hit a stumbling bock on the PPC, though as it seems that the varargs function has different behaviour on different platforms (passing parameters in registers or on the stack)... the best option would be to remove it from the AROS core, but apparently that would take a huge amount of work :-(

Mmm. Since it's an AmigaOS compatible project, why weren't TagLists used for variable length argument calls? Admittedly they use more stack but the idea works well enough.

Are there a lot of varargs functions? Other than for formatted IO and wrapping Taglist calls in a more C compliant way, are they essential?

Um... I think Varargs were used to implement taglists :-D

I'm afraid I don't know much about them, I keep way from the complex bits, as I tend to break them (I have a histroy there :-)).

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Karlos wrote:
Buh...

If you have an array of tags on the stack, terminated with TAG_DONE, 0, why do you need to do any dodgy varargs stuff anyway? It's no different in many ways to a zero terminated C string :-/

Well this isn't my area, but the problem is due to not knowing if the parameters are on the Stack or in the registers... as on the x86 they are most likey passed on the stack, on the PPC they are more likely passed in registers (untill you run out, then they go on the stack). There are solutions, using a varargs macro or applying Fabio's patch to gcc to always pass parameters on the Stack... but for some reason these are not optimal solutions.

Anyway... how do you fancy writing some drivers for an Amiga classic port of AROS :-D

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Karlos wrote:
Since a TagList is an array of struct TagItem, I'd be amazed if it was not passed by reference on any platform. Still, when you have so many registers as PPC I can see it might occur for short taglits.

Um... OS coders are a strange and mystical bunch... They do things I'll never understand....

As for the driver thing, no chance - I get only a few hours a week to work on my own stuff as it is and thanks to work I generally can't be bothered even then :-(

Well, a good start would to make a loader that can bring the machine from power on to loading and executing Exec, without a Kisckstart being present... I'd be keen to have a go myself, but I can't figure out how the AROS build preocess works (it's been explained to me 1000's of times), and I'm even more in the dark when it comes to cross compiling... I like to stay in userland :-)

Surely you must have just such a loader lurking on your miggy HD somewhere? :-D

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Karlos wrote:
Hmm. I'm not about to attempt the reverse engineering of the OS4 bootloader if that is what you are hinting at :-P

Even if I lacked the requisite scruples, long lists of PPC asm does my nut in :lol:

Actually, I wasn't suggesting that at all, and anyway that wouldn't be much use to us (at the moment) as it still has the Real Kickstart to POST the hardware... something that AROS needs to do itself to fully replace the Amiga's Kisckstart.

I agree PPC ASM is like some kind of evil diease... just like x86 ASM :-D

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Karlos wrote:
Ah. Oops :lol:

PPC asm isnt as evil as x86 though, IMHO, but the mnemonics are a {bleep}*

-edit-

*:lol: Ok, a "female dog" then ;-)

PPC ASM is the kind of language only a mother could love :-)

Nothing compares, IMHO, to MIPS ASM which is fantastic!

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Karlos wrote:
680x0 asm owns all. An asm you can actually enjoy using!

I used to think that too... but now I like MIPS more :-)

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Piru wrote:

Hit a stumbling bock on the PPC, though as it seems that the varargs function has different behaviour on different platforms (passing parameters in registers or on the stack).

Well, you pick one ABI for AROS/powerpc and stick to it. Be it System V, PowerOpen, or something else. There is no problem here.

the best option would be to remove it from the AROS core, but apparently that would take a huge amount of work

That's just insane. Varargs works just fine with PPC.

Well... best talk to Michal and Fabio about it, because I'm probably confusing something then :-D

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Karlos wrote:

bloodline wrote:

Karlos wrote:
680x0 asm owns all. An asm you can actually enjoy using!

I used to think that too... but now I like MIPS more :-)

I don't know MIPS asm :-(

It's right proper bo I tell thee!

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welck wrote:
Seems like I started up something

Maybe I should start annoying hyperion about those old versions of AmigaOS. It is a nice dream isn't it?  :-D

No point bugging them, they have as much right to the old OS's as you do.