Re: compat_bsdos

[steve%prd.co.uk@localhost (Steve Blinkhorn)]

Thank you both for the clarity you have brought to the situation.  The
last time I remember using the BSD/OS binaries was on NetBSD/i386 5.0,
but that machine has died.  I do, though, remember there being
specific instructions in the GENERIC config file at one time as to the
options to set for BSD/OS compatibility, so forgive me for assuming
there was a specific compat_bsdos layer.

Just to make a general observation (and this really isn't NetBSD
specific at all), those of us who have had long careers doing things
with operating systems and software systems, rather than doing things
to them, do depend on the maintenance of backward compatibility.


--
Steve Blinkhorn <steve%prd.co.uk@localhost>

You wrote:
> 
> 
> >> On Wed, 22 Jul 2020 at 18:44, Steve Blinkhorn <steve%prd.co.uk@localhost> wrote:
> >>
> >> Does anyone know when compat_bsdos was abandoned?  It seems to me that
> >> it would make more sense, if I have to run an emulator, to run the
> >> lates version of NetBSD that had compat_bsdos.  It only ever supported
> >> statically-linked software anyway, but I have one major system that
> >> used to run perfectly with the compatibility layer, but throws up error
> >> after error relating to include files and ioctl calls when I try to
> >> run the compilation script on NetBSD.  It had compiled out of the box
> >> on BSD/OS.
> 
>  > On 2020-07-26 17:00, David Brownlee wrote:
>  >
>  > It may be made harder because I don't think NetBSD ever had an
>  > explicit COMPAT_BSDOS, it was just inferred by various other compat
>  > options.
>  >
>  > A bunch of the compat layers were retired to the Attic a little while
>  > ago - pretty much because they had no one willing to step up and make
>  > sure they still worked on an ongoing basis after other areas in the
>  > system were refactored. If you might be interested in this, then I'm
>  > sure there would be others willing to help with any questions :-p
> 
> I would not say that any BSD compat code is abandoned.  As David 
> mentioned, there was no special BSDi compat layer.  Binaries from 
> BSD/386 1.0 and BSD/OS 2.0 worked on NetBSD because the executables used 
> the same system calls as 4.3 and 4.4 BSD as covered in COMPAT_43, 
> COMPAT_NOMID, COMPAT_09, and EXEC_AOUT.
> 
> 
>  > Regarding older versions of NetBSD - I would probably start by trying
>  > NetBSD-7 i386 to see if your BSD/OS binaries worked, and then going
>  > backwards or forwards from there :)
> 
> Version 7 on i386 is a good starting point.
> 
> I found that BSD/OS 2.0 binaries stopped running starting from NetBSD 
> 8.0 onwards the last time I tested earlier this year.  Before that 
> running the 2.0 userland in a chroot generally worked and was able to 
> load the shared libraries that were introduced with 2.0.  I have not 
> tested later versions of BSD/OS.
> 
> What BSDi release were the binaries targeting Steven?
> 
> If the binaries worked with BSD/386 1.0, you could try upgrading to 
> current on amd64.  There was a fix in March as part of PR/55025 and 
> PR/55047 that I submitted, so BSD compat in general is still supported.
> 
> If you try to test further you will want to be sure that your amd64 
> kernel config includes "conf/compat_netbsd09.config" and COMPAT_NOMID 
> while null memory protection is disabled with sysctl -w 
> "vm.user_va0_disable=0".
> 
> 
> Best,
> 
> Dan Plassche
> 
>