Re: netbsd-10, merging device-streams (xstreamtodev, rdbinfo)

[David Brownlee <abs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2023 at 15:32, Roc Vallès <vallesroc%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 21 Mar 2023 at 23:15, David Brownlee <abs%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:
> > I have another question :)
> >
> > xstreamtodev and xdevtostream are just streamtodev and devtostream
> > with EXPERT_VERSION.
> >
> > Given that the expert versions appear to be entirely a superset (so
> > the behave identically for all basic supported options other than the
> > usage string), is there any need to build and or include the basic
> > versions? The binaries are a few 100s of bytes larger, so its not
> > likely to be useful on the basis of memory or file size.
> >
> > My natural inclination would be just to default to EXPERT_VERSION on
> > always (or even unifdef it), and have a single set of binaries. (I
> > would also probably just want to call them streamtodev and
> > devtostream, but I suspect we have enough years of habit using the "x"
> > prefix that its best to keep it).
>
> This is very much the reasoning I applied. I am not a fan of this
> distinction either, but thought best to avoid changing anything
> user-facing beyond necessary.
>
> Without having to look outside of netbsd, the netbsd documentation
> does say to use xstreamtodev, and existing releases of netbsd used to
> provide only the xstreamtodev and rdbinfo binaries in the
> /amiga/installation/misc/ directory.

OK, I'll update the files in NetBSD to exclude streamtodev and
devtostream. If you wanted to adjust the github README and source to
only build xstreamtodev and xdevtostream I'd be entirely happy with
that, but that's obviously not a blocker from the NetBSD side.

> Tangentially related, documentation will eventually have to be updated
> to reflect the current state of the port, as e.g. the install
> documentation claims that it is not possible to install netbsd to
> partitions above 32bit boundary due to xstreamtodev's limitations.
>
> This no longer holds true when AmigaOS has 64bit support, and while it
> is not possible to boot netbsd in such a system with bootblocks, using
> loadbsd to boot a kernel from AmigaOS bypasses this. Of course, my own
> install is well above 32bit, with AmigaOS and related partitions
> occupying the beginning of the disk.

If anyone would like to look at the install notes and suggest updates,
that's a great way to help without having to write code or anything
else technical (hint hint to the list :)

> As I understand it, it should also be possible to update the
> bootblocks to support TD64 and possibly also NSD, but it is a
> considerably involved task.
>
> With these improvements, together with the newer loadbsd, pcmcia
> bugfix, Xorg support improvements on AGA and OCS/ECS chipsets, faster
> decompression of package indexes and other changes, netbsd-10's amiga
> port is looking good.

I think if I can work through testing a miniroot with the sysinst
installer we could also make the install process a lot nicer (it's
further complicated as networking doesn't work for me in fs-uae, and I
really need time to look at that)

Thanks

David