Re: The imperfect beauty of NetBSD

[Alex Goncharov <alex-goncharov%comcast.net@localhost>]

,--- I/Alex (Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:24:42 -0500) ----*
| Started to look for "something else".  Checked what could be booted:
|
|   * FreeBSD 8.0 -- no...
|   * NetBSD 5.0 -- yes..
|   * 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.

[ Spoke too soon?.. ]

Comparing what I see in NetBSD with what I saw in OpenSolaris:

  * Bootup: Of course, NetBSD boots nicer (IMHO). Not a deal breaker,
    though.

  * ACPI: OpenSolaris is probably more error-verbose, but there is no
    fundamental difference here: personally, I won't use NetBSD in
    earnest with the kind of issues I documented in PR 42583.

  * System power-off: identical -- neither one works.  Not a deal
    breaker for me.

  * Sound (a deal breaker for me):

    ** OpenSolaris has huge issues with the audiohd driver, slowly
       being worked on.  Still, with certain art applied, the sound
       is fully functional -- I could comfortably watch and listen to
       news video clips.

    ** NetBSD seems not to work here at all:
     
----------------------------------------
pcictl pci0 list | grep -i audio
=>
000:27:0: Intel 82801I High Definition Audio Controller (multimedia subclass 
0x03, revision 0x03)

ls -l /dev/audio*
=>
lrwx------  1 root  wheel        6 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audio -> audio0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 128 Jan  6 14:13 /dev/audio0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 129 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audio1
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 130 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audio2
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 131 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audio3
lrwx------  1 root  wheel        9 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audioctl -> audioctl0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 192 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audioctl0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 193 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audioctl1
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 194 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audioctl2
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  42, 195 Jan  2 19:11 /dev/audioctl3

file /usr/pkg/lib/python2.5/test/audiotest.au
=>
/usr/pkg/lib/python2.5/test/audiotest.au: Sun/NeXT audio data: 8-bit ISDN 
mu-law, mono, 8000 Hz

time cat /usr/pkg/lib/python2.5/test/audiotest.au > /dev/audio
=>
[ silence ]
real    0m2.912s
user    0m0.001s
sys     0m0.001s
    
dmesg | egrep -i 'sound|audio'
=>
[ nothing ]

sysctl -a |  egrep -i 'sound|audio'
=>
kern.drivers = [160 -1 crypto], [161 -1 pf], [163 163 fss], [164 -1 pps], [165 
-1 ptm], [166 -1 atabus], [167 -1 drvctl], [168 168 dk], [169 -1 tap], [170 -1 
veriexec], [171 -1 fw], [172 -1 ucycom], [173 -1 gpio], [174 -1 utoppy], [175 
-1 bthub], [176 -1 amr], [177 -1 lockstat], [178 -1 putter], [179 -1 srt], [180 
-1 drm], [181 -1 bio], [182 182 altmem], [187 -1 twa], [188 -1 cpuctl], [189 -1 
pad], [190 190 zfs], [191 -1 tprof], [192 -1 isv], [193 -1 video], [194 169 
dm], [195 -1 hdaudio], [0 -1 cons], [1 -1 ctty], [2 -1 mem], [3 0 wd], [4 1 
swap], [5 -1 pts], [6 -1 ptc], [7 -1 log], [8 -1 com], [9 2 fd], [10 3 wt], [12 
-1 pc], [13 4 sd], [14 5 st], [15 6 cd], [16 -1 lpt], [17 -1 ch], [18 16 ccd], 
[19 -1 ss], [20 -1 uk], [22 -1 filedesc], [23 -1 bpf], [24 17 md], [27 -1 
spkr], [38 -1 cy], [39 7 mcd], [40 -1 tun], [41 14 vnd], [42 -1 audio], [43 -1 
svr4_net], [44 -1 ipl], [45 -1 satlink], [46 -1 rnd], [47 -1 wsdisplay], [48 -1 
wskbd], [49 -1 wsmouse], [50 -1 isdn], [51 -1 isdn
 ctl], [52 -1 isdnbchan], [53 -1 isdntrc], [54 -1 isdntel], [55 -1 usb], [56 -1 
uhid], [57 -1 ulpt], [58 -1 midi], [59 -1 sequencer], [60 -1 vcoda], [61 -1 
scsibus], [62 18 raid], [63 -1 esh], [64 -1 ugen], [65 -1 wsmux], [66 -1 ucom], 
[67 -1 sysmon], [69 19 ld], [70 -1 urio], [71 -1 bktr], [73 -1 cz], [74 -1 
ses], [75 -1 uscanner], [76 -1 iop], [77 -1 altq], [78 -1 mlx], [79 -1 
clockctl], [81 20 cgd], [82 -1 agp], [83 -1 pci], [84 -1 irframe], [85 -1 
ksyms], [86 -1 wsfont], [87 -1 mly], [88 -1 dpti], [89 -1 joy], [90 -1 cir], 
[91 -1 radio], [92 -1 kttcp], [96 -1 dpt], [97 -1 twe], [98 -1 nsmb], [141 -1 
xenevt], [142 142 xbd], [143 -1 xencons]

----------------------------------------

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