The imperfect beauty of NetBSD [Was: NetBSD vs. FreeBSD]

To: NetBSD Kernel <tech-kern%netbsd.org@localhost>
Subject: The imperfect beauty of NetBSD [Was: NetBSD vs. FreeBSD]
From: Alex Goncharov <alex-goncharov%comcast.net@localhost>
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:24:42 -0500

About a year ago I asked this question:

,--- I/Alex (Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:57:13 -0500) ----*
| To: Dima Veselov <kab00m%lich.phys.spbu.ru@localhost>
| CC: asau%inbox.ru@localhost, netbsd-users%netbsd.org@localhost, 
port-i386%netbsd.org@localhost,
|       current-users%netbsd.org@localhost, port-amd64%netbsd.org@localhost
| In-reply-to: <20090208021912.GA19511%lich.phys.spbu.ru@localhost> (message 
from Dima
|       Veselov on Sun, 8 Feb 2009 05:19:12 +0300)
|
| ,--- You/Dima (Sun, 8 Feb 2009 05:19:12 +0300) ----*
| | NetBSD is really designed for people, moved to NetBSD by their wise
| | looking for really working things, proved for simplicity. If you
| | can't understand some deeply technical things - don't even try and
| | use FreeBSD or Linux.
| 
| I think it's a good time for me to ask the question I've had for a
| while:
| 
|    What are the most important advantages of NetBSD over FreeBSD?
|
`-------------------------------------------------*

And got plenty of valuable replies, of which I want to quote a couple:

,--- Dima Veselov (Sun, 8 Feb 2009 07:41:11 +0300) ----*
| Try using NetBSD more and you will find out.
,--- der Mouse (Sat, 7 Feb 2009 23:38:04 -0500 (EST)) ----*
| Personally?  Multiplatform support.
| 
| I run sparc, i386, and shark routinely, and have macppc, mac68k,
| hpcmips, alpha, and sun3 that I run sometimes; I also have vax,
| next68k, and pmax that I don't currently run, and a sparc64 machine
| that's somewhere between the two categories.
| 
| There is tremendous value to me in running the basically same code on
| all of those.  NetBSD gets me close to that (I'm running NetBSD on all
| of them, but not all the same version).  As far as I know nothing else
| can - if there are any that can i'd love to hear about them.
`---------------------------------------------------------*

Much did I try since then: co-installing NetBSD on various machines,
accidentally blowing the existing FreeBSD; reinstalling again and
again. Learning the very special disk labeling. Boot process. Xen.

NetBSD did win my respect, even though I am still primarily a FreeBSD
user.  Of most basic things, the installer is a wonder; the boot
process is a gem.  But can't surprise you here.

But *new* hardware support!..

Got a new laptop this Thanksgiving, HP DV6-1334US, "Pentium(R)
Dual-Core CPU T4300 @ 2.10GHz".  Shrunk the existing Windows 7 (the
same crap as usual) installation to give 60G to "something else".

Started to look for "something else".  Checked what could be booted:

  * FreeBSD 8.0 -- no, the installer's loader dies in the first
    second.

  * NetBSD 5.0 -- yes, but I have it installed in i386 and amd64
    variations elsewhere, so didn't see much point in installing it
    here.  Still, a good feeling.

  * OpenSolaris -- yes, with plenty of caveats.
    
Wanted to give OpenSolaris another (re past approaches) try.  Was
giving it for a month.  Much better than before -- however,
reluctantly, this past weekend I decided that it was still, as usual,
"not there".  With deep regrets decided to replace it with FreeBSD
8-CURRENT, if that could work, or NetBSD (I knew it would.)

Put the freshest FreeBSD 8-CURRENT snapshot on a memory stick, tried
to boot: a panic early in the kernel.

OK, this left me with no choice -- NetBSD it be.

Booted NetBSD 5.0/amd64 with no problem -- but with ACPI "errors
noise" on the console.  Rebooted w/o ACPI -- the console is clean.
Installed 5.0.1, via FTP. (Again, what a beautiful installer NetBSD
has!...)

ACPI -- errors on the console.

ACPI off -- no SMP (apparently, a known problem).

Got the freshest kernel snapshot, 201001020000Z:

    kern-GENERIC.tgz modules.tgz

Installed and booted that: ACPI -- noise on the screen (many similar
(but not identical) situations are described online).

So, two things here:

  * (The beauty) Think of NetBSD's fantastic hardware support and
    flexibility!  Very impressed -- thank you!

  * (The imperfection) The ACPI errors are disturbing.  I also have a
    feeling that `top' doesn't show correct CPU information, per process.

Can something be done about the ACPI errors popping up every (roughly)
minute?  Will filing a PR help?

A brief technical summary: 

============================================================
uname -svr
NetBSD 5.99.23 NetBSD 5.99.23 (GENERIC) #0: Sat Jan  2 01:29:59 UTC 2010....
--------------------

dmesg | grep -i acpi | head -n 20
ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.BAT0._STA] 
(Node 0xffff800007b272c0), AE_NOT_EXIST
acpibat0: failed to evaluate _STA: AE_NOT_EXIST
ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffff800007b1ef00) [EmbeddedControl] 
(20090730/evregion-430)
ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(3) has no handler (20090730/exfldio-383)
ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\_TZ_.TZ01._TMP] 
(Node 0xffff800007b27980), AE_NOT_EXIST
acpitz0: failed to evaluate _TMP
ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffff800007b1ef00) [EmbeddedControl] 
(20090730/evregion-430)
ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(3) has no handler (20090730/exfldio-383)
ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.BAT0._STA] 
(Node 0xffff800007b272c0), AE_NOT_EXIST
acpibat0: failed to evaluate _STA: AE_NOT_EXIST
ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffff800007b1ef00) [EmbeddedControl] 
(20090730/evregion-430)
ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(3) has no handler (20090730/exfldio-383)
ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\_TZ_.TZ01._TMP] 
(Node 0xffff800007b27980), AE_NOT_EXIST
acpitz0: failed to evaluate _TMP
ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffff800007b1ef00) [EmbeddedControl] 
(20090730/evregion-430)
ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(3) has no handler (20090730/exfldio-383)
ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.BAT0._STA] 
(Node 0xffff800007b272c0), AE_NOT_EXIST
acpibat0: failed to evaluate _STA: AE_NOT_EXIST
ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffff800007b1ef00) [EmbeddedControl] 
(20090730/evregion-430)
ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(3) has no handler (20090730/exfldio-383)
--------------------

pcictl pci0 list
000:00:0: Intel product 0x2a40 (host bridge, revision 0x07)
000:02:0: Intel product 0x2a42 (VGA display, revision 0x07)
000:02:1: Intel product 0x2a43 (miscellaneous display, revision 0x07)
000:26:0: Intel 82801I USB UHCI Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x03)
000:26:1: Intel 82801I USB UHCI Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x03)
000:26:7: Intel 82801I USB EHCI Controller (USB serial bus, interface 0x20, 
revision 0x03)
000:27:0: Intel 82801I High Definition Audio Controller (multimedia subclass 
0x03, revision 0x03)
000:28:0: Intel 82801I PCI Express Port #1 (PCI bridge, revision 0x03)
000:28:1: Intel 82801I PCI Express Port #2 (PCI bridge, revision 0x03)
000:28:3: Intel 82801I PCI Express Port #4 (PCI bridge, revision 0x03)
000:28:4: Intel 82801I PCI Express Port #5 (PCI bridge, revision 0x03)
000:28:5: Intel 82801I PCI Express Port #6 (PCI bridge, revision 0x03)
000:29:0: Intel 82801I USB UHCI Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x03)
000:29:1: Intel 82801I USB UHCI Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x03)
000:29:2: Intel 82801I USB UHCI Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x03)
000:29:3: Intel 82801I USB UHCI Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x03)
000:29:7: Intel 82801I USB EHCI Controller (USB serial bus, interface 0x20, 
revision 0x03)
000:30:0: Intel 82801BAM Hub-PCI Bridge (PCI bridge, interface 0x01, revision 
0x93)
000:31:0: Intel product 0x2919 (ISA bridge, revision 0x03)
000:31:2: Intel product 0x2929 (SATA mass storage, interface 0x01, revision 
0x03)
000:31:3: Intel 82801I SMBus Controller (SMBus serial bus, revision 0x03)
000:31:6: Intel 82801I Thermal Controller (miscellaneous DASP, revision 0x03)
============================================================

Thanks,

-- Alex -- alex-goncharov%comcast.net@localhost --

Follow-Ups:
- Re: The imperfect beauty of NetBSD [Was: NetBSD vs. FreeBSD]
  - From: Joerg Sonnenberger
- Re: The imperfect beauty of NetBSD
  - From: Alex Goncharov
- Re: The imperfect beauty of NetBSD [Was: NetBSD vs. FreeBSD]
  - From: Matthias Drochner
- Re: The imperfect beauty of NetBSD [Was: NetBSD vs. FreeBSD]
  - From: Martin Husemann

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