NetBSD/PPC for emebedded, anyone?

[DiTBho]

I have been playing and - somewhat "supported" - a PPC card for 21 years, but with the 5.8 kernel they have dropped everything, so I am looking for alternatives and it looks like NetBSD v10 will support the PPC / 4xx branch.

I have never played with NetBSD on an embedded SBC, I only installed it years ago in a old PowerMac (PPC604) but nothing serious.

Now I'd like to checkout out a kernel, a rootfs, and a crosstools to build my own stuff.

I will probably recycle things from my GNU/Linux tools and knowledge, but literately with NetBSD I am a beginner .


Advice are welcome 

[x86guru]

Are you saying they dropped PowerPC 40x/44x in Linux kernel 5.8? It's definitely still there in 5.8..

Edit: Nevermind, sorry, I see it's been partially removed but 4xx platform support is still there. They removed the 4xx MMU/TLB support.

[uridium]

Yep. This has been the problem for the Amiga people that have any of the SAM systems (SAM440/460/variants). Linux stopped supporting the Book-E gear. NetBSD 'moooostly' has a fair bit of it. Have a talk to Fank Wiley.

Some chatter here: https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-powerpc/2017/03/14/msg003544.html

I have a sam460ex sitting in the corner for a few years so I'm a little curious to see it be usable again.

[DiTBho]

I have a sam460ex sitting in the corner for a few years so I'm a little curious to see it be usable again.

I am developing a 4xx based x11 terminal.
Kernels 4.11 to 5.7.19 are ok and work fine.

Will it be a problem in the future when rootfs is glibc based? it will require features offered only by future kernels and not by 5.7.19.

This problem can be somehow *workarounded* with uclibc-based rootfs, but X11 doesn't work well with uclibc and requires functionalities offered by glibc-based or MUSL-based rootfs.

Compromises ...


Anyway, I am new with NetBSD development, I am learning how to manage the kernel, and its toolchain. I hope I will integrate it into my builder for the new year.