Mercurial > hg > aboriginal
changeset 1022:01a1b737c389
Announce 0.9.11 release.
author | Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> |
---|---|
date | Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:00:34 -0500 |
parents | ae5861222322 |
children | 8f200b975ea2 |
files | www/news.html |
diffstat | 1 files changed, 114 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) [+] |
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--- a/www/news.html Mon Mar 29 08:17:24 2010 -0500 +++ b/www/news.html Mon Mar 29 19:00:34 2010 -0500 @@ -2,6 +2,119 @@ <b><h1>News</h1></b> +<hr> +<h2><a name="03-29-2010" />March 29, 2010</h2> +<p><a href=downloads/firmware-0.9.11.tar.bz2>Version 0.9.11</a> is out, +based on <a href=http://impactlinux.com/hg/firmware/shortlog/1020>hg commit +1020</a>. We're closing in on a 1.0 release, but not quite there yet.</p> + +<p>This version upgrades to Linux 2.6.33, uClibc 0.9.30.3, and BusyBox +1.16.1.</p> + +<b><h3>Improved native builds</h3></b> + +<p>Most targets now have <a href=downloads/binaries>prebuilt binaries</a> +for <a href=http://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/dropbear.html>dropbear</a>, +<a href=http://sourceforge.net/projects/strace/>strace</a>, +<a href=http://busybox.net>busybox</a>. These are statically +linked against uClibc, so just download, set the executable bit, and run.</p> + +<p>These dropbear and strace binaries are built using the automated three-disk +native build capability introduced <a href=#11-07-2009>back in November</a>, +which has been improved and genericized this release. Now one script creates +a build image (see examples in sources/native-builds) and another script +launches a system image with that build image attached as the third +hard drive (/dev/hdc), telling the system image to automatically build +those source packages and upload the result to the host via ftp.</p> + +<p>So to reproduce the dropbear and strace binaries for a supported ARCH, +you could do:</p> + +<blockquote><pre> +./build.sh ARCH +sources/native-builds/static-tools.sh tools.hdc +sources/more/native-build.sh ARCH tools.hdc output +</pre></blockquote> + +<p>When the build exits, the results should be in the host's "output" +directory.</p> + +<b><h3>Targets</h3></b> +<p>The arm, mips, x86, x86-64 targets that worked last time still work. +The armv4eb and m68k targets still don't work.</p> + +<p>The powerpc and sparc targets have been upgraded. Powerpc now works with +the 3-disk automated native build (although you'll need qemu 0.12.4 to take +advantage of this). The sparc dynamic linker still doesn't work in uClibc, +but the statically linked system is now working well enough to build packages +natively.</p> + +<p>New targets this release are i486 (thanks David Seikel) and mips64 (which +mostly works, but the native toolchain isn't quite properly configured to +build stuff with yet).</p> + +<p>Finally, the sh4 target was broken by a cosmetic cleanup of the startup +assembly code in Linux 2.6.33 that rendered any binutils version older +than 4 months unusable to build sh4. While it's possible to patch around +this, it hasn't yet been worth effort. The Linux-sh4 maintainer is aware +of the issue, but explicitly +<a href=http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ports.sh.devel/7237>doesn't +care</a> about users other than his employer, and so far nobody +else seems to care enough about supporting the discontinued Sega Dreamcast +game console to argue with him. (Might revisit this next release, but m68k +support is a higher priority.)</p> + +<b><h3>Infrastructure</h3></b> +<p>The system-image's "run-emulator.sh" is now a much smaller and simpler +script, consisting primarily of the qemu command line. (And if you export +DEBUG=1 it prints the emulator command line.) The distcc and hdb +setup code moved to dev-environment.sh.</p> + +<p>The <a href=screenshots>screenshots</a> page is working again, if a bit +stale.</p> + +<p>The bisectinate.sh script (to automatically git bisect a build issue) +has been updated, more to come next release.</p> + +<p>The download.sh script has been updated to understand FORK=1 and download +packages in parallel. (And to extract them in parallel when +EXTRACT_ALL=1.)</p> + +<p>The new export_if_blank shell function allows several more environment +variables to be overridden, including TOP, SOURCES, SRCDIR, PATCHDIR, +BUILD, SRCTREE, HOSTTOOLS, WRAPDIR, CC, and STAGE_NAME.</p> + +<p>I'd also like to thank the debugging efforts of Wolfgang Denk, who hit +as many bugs trying to use this project as I normally do with other people's. +He eventually got discouraged and left, but thanks to his efforts:</p> + +<ul> +<li><p>We now unset several environment variables (such as ARCH and +CROSS_COMPILE) that break things if the host exports random data in them +before the build. (Yes, this fights with export_if_blank above, and +the way configuration works in general. Some more design works is necessary +here to let you configure the project with environment variables, but +not be confused by existing environment debris.)</p></li> + +<li><p>BUILD_STATIC=none can how handle the case where the host toolchain +can't build any static binaries at all.</p></li> + +<li><p>The CROSS_SMOKE_TEST implementation (which had bit rotted) was fixed and +moved to its own script (sources/more/cross-smoke-test.sh), which is called by +build.sh as necessary.</p> + +<p>Note that actually trying to use it is a question +of getting qemu application emulation to work for your target. For +arm you need to tweak /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr as root. For ppc you +need <a href=http://git.qemu.org/qemu.git/commit/?id=7983f435e5306a4b17e1edcb408ba64b33e9c88f>this patch</a>. For mips64 somebody still needs to +implement it (<a href=http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2010-03/msg02218.html>no matter what gentoo thinks</a>).</p> + +<p>(There's a reason the smoke test was disabled long enough to bit-rot. +It broke for qemu reasons more often than it found bugs in the toolchain.)</p> +</li> +</ul> + +<hr> <h2><a name="02-02-2010" />February 2, 2010</h2> <p><a href=downloads/firmware-0.9.10.tar.bz2>Version 0.9.10</a> is out, @@ -66,6 +179,7 @@ dropbear/strace binaries for all targets (not just the last one) and it should properly be running smoketest.sh again.</p> +<hr> <h2><a name="12-08-2009" />December 8, 2009</h2> <p><a href=downloads/firmware-0.9.9.tar.bz2>Version 0.9.9</a> is out, based on <a href=http://impactlinux.com/hg/firmware/shortlog/921>hg commit 921</a>.</p>