Warface wrote:
Ain't there a software patch necessary from Hyperion for each OS running on the AmigaONE, or I am completely mistaken? I am absolutely clueless though, just have a faint recollection of the sort.
No, it's just that some sort of key has to be present for 4 to decrypt itself.
For NetBSD (or any OS that's already 'PowerPC-ready') to run, two basic, interrelated things have to happen.
-Basic support has to be added for the Articia. (How to talk to PCI and AGP devices through it, etc.) [If Pegasos I support is already in progress, it's basically the same; any software patches or setup the AmigaOne needs that the be-April'd Pegasosen don't will have to be added, probably a dozen lines of conditional code, but who knows?]
-Support has to be added for U-Boot, mostly relating to how hardware is identified (PnP info, that sort of thing) and the system is bootstrapped. OpenFirmware happens to provide some 'shortcuts' for that sort of thing, and it's already a supported standard for all the Mac and PReP/CHRP ports, so Pegasos gets to ride on existing code, while AmigaOne forces a little reworking. Far from a showstopper, just something that'd take a savvy developer to work in.
Last I talked to Allen Briggs (
briggs@NetBSD.org), it came down to hardware availability. Basically, as people who need to eat, they'd love for Eyetech, Genesi, or anyone to form paid contracts with
Wasabi... But failing that, getting hardware donated (read: "Interested, not interested enough to *pay* to work on it.") would still raise the chance of support a good bit above 0.
After the basic kernel hacks are in place, the rest of the system - pkgsrc, pretty much all of userland - should just crosscompile (it's already PPC-clean for Mac/CHRP/PReP etc.), so 'hobby'-grade support would still be quite good... Contracting would lend things that break early and often (direct rendering being the one and only that comes to mind) a guarantee of support and maintenance.
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I was thinking about getting some sort of PayPal drive together for a donation, but got caught up in moving and family nonsense and never made it happen. Anyone want me to get my act together with that? ... And if so, any dealers want to step up for some donation-matching or similar?
I have to admit, I was hoping Eyetech would take care of it in the interim and make it a nonissue.
