On Fri, Jun 22, 2001 at 01:30:58PM +0100, Ben Harris wrote:
> In article <20010621230403.A9238@ssimr.com>,  <josh@ssimr.com> wrote:
> >I'm not sure if this is the right list for what I want so bear with
> >me. Or just delete the message.
> >I have a NetBSD 1.5 running on a PowerMacintosh 6500/300.
> >
> >I want to be able to (1) compile kernels and (2) use current versions
> >the GNU tools and programming languages that I'm used to.
> 
> Which versions are you used to?  NetBSD 1.5 shipped with egcs 1.1.2 and
> binutils 2.9.1.

	Dealing with my home systems is new. I decided to do some
projects involving some programming and to build most of the programs
I use from source. In the process, I realized that I had previously
relied on the gnu versions of tools. At various points in my life I
was in academia where others kept things reasonably current. At work I
maintain a few Linux boxes which I don't use for programming and are
updated by rpms and because of the large redhat user base seem to be
kept more current. Similarly, because of the FSF's relation with
Debian, Debian packages are kept very current. I realize that NetBSD
for all its benefits seems to have a smaller following that Linux.
All I'm asking is enough info to do what apparently some NetBSD users
have previously done.

	egcs 1.1.2 is quite old and I had trouble getting some
programs to compile - perhaps because of the version or perhaps for
other reasons. I would like to be able to keep myself in sync with the
current production versions of the major GNU software (bison, yak,
GCL, GCC, gmake, etc.)

> 
> >I had tried to use the versions of GNU tools from GNU mirrors.
> 
> I don't believe that any FSF version of the GNU toolchain supports
> NetBSD/powerpc at present.  Certainly GCC 3.0 seems not to.
> 

The current production version was 2.95.something, the last time I
looked before today. They made 3.0 official on the 18th; five days
ago. GCC 2.95 would most likely be good enough for everything I'm
likely to do; egcs 1.1.2 isn't that old, but there seems to have been
some changes when it was merged into GCC that broke somethings I tried
to do. Also, while I may not need all the compilers offered I would
like to have them available.

> >I was told I could get the code to build a new system at
> >
> >ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-1-5/tar_files/src/sys.tar.gz
> 
> Those are the kernel sources.

And I would like to be able to build a new kernel; so I will need
those. And I assume that I could simply follow kernel building
instructions and would have no problems with what I have now.

> 
> >At some point I found a directory containing distribution of gnu code:
> >ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/src/gnu
> >
> >How can I take advantage of it.
> 
> You already are doing.  That directory contains the source to the GPLed
> parts of NetBSD, most of which come from the GNU project.  Admittedly, that
> is the version for NetBSD-current rather than NetBSD 1.5.
> 

So all I have to do is go from NetBSD 1.5 to NetBSD -current and
everything will work? I think what your telling me is:

1. Download the kernel sources for NetBSD-current and build a new
kernel.  

2. Download the gnu sources, put them in /usr/src and they will build
successfully. (I'm a little skeptical as I have seen posts about
various patches needed to get things built for NetBSD).

I'm perfectly willing to try this. I just want a reason to believe
that it works. I have a ways to go before I'm truly up to speed in
performing steps 1 and 2 about with any confidence.

> > I tried to use the Make file at the
> >head etc. it didn't work.
> 
> That's not terribly surprising, since it's likely to depend on features
> introduced to the rest of the system since the 1.5 release.
> 
> -- 
> Ben Harris                                               <bjh21@netbsd.org>
> Portmaster, NetBSD/arm26             <URL:http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/arm26/>

-- 
Josh Kuperman
josh@ssimr.com
http://www.ssimr.com