Subject: Re: RiscOS 2000 show report
To: , <port-arm26@netbsd.org>
From: David Brownlee <abs@netbsd.org>
List: port-arm26
Date: 10/23/2000 18:43:57
	As some of you may know there was a NetBSD stand at the RiscOS
	2000 show this weekend.

	We only had two acorn machines, but we plugged the gap with two
	sparc stations, a couple of i386 laptops, and a i386 CD burning
	box all running NetBSD.

	Chris burned CDs on demand on containing:
		NetBSD/arm32 1.5_ALPHA2 plus around 70 packages
		NetBSD/arm26 snapshot
		NetBSD/i386 1.5_ALPHA2 (was also bootable on i386)
		port-arm32 mail archives
		1.5_ALPHA2 source.
		pkgsrc
		copy of www.netbsd.org

	The show seemed busier on saturday than sunday, though we sold
	more CDs on sunday, possibly due to the fact we had more time to
	talk to people.

	There was quite a lot of interest in NetBSD/arm32, including quite
	a few people who had used earlier versions (1.2, 1.3), also tried
	ArmLinux, and were interested in trying out the latest version.

	Our A440/1 was not in a suitable state to try any NetBSD/arm26
	display, but various people expressed surprise that a port was
	under way, and seemed pleased that their old arm2 and arm3 boxes
	might be able to run NetBSD (albeit very slowly :) someday.

	Chris ran demonstrations of installing 1.5_ALPHA2 on a fresh
	RiscOS 4 RiscPC both days, which attracted a reasonable crowd
	(the ArmLinux people came for one, then had the PA system
	announce they were running one also).

	The new sysinst installer went down very well - commented as being
	much easier than both the old method or ArmLinux.

	Castle got in touch regarding drivers for some of their cards -
	they may still have a copy of a driver, and also would be willing
	to give technical documentation on the Kinetic card.

	Riscstation loaned us a machine to test NetBSD - there were issues
	with the bootloader, but they would be very willing to ship a loan
	machine to a developer to work on support.

	We sold around 16 CDs at the show, but various people expressed an
	interest in purchasing later, and even more said they would go away
	and download it from the NetBSD site.

	Anyone who wants a copy of the CD can email Chris at
	<chris@buzzbee.freeserve.co.uk- it may take a few days to
	ship.

	A lot of people took leaflets Chris printed based on a previous
	leaflet from Charles Hannum.

	Action items from the show:
	If anyone can help with any of these - please let us know.

	    - Default /etc/ttys to vt100 not pc3
		Around 9 months ago the default terminal type in NetBSD/arm32
		was switched to pc3 (which matches the shark) from vt100
		(which matches riscpc and cats). I'm going to try to get
		this switched back for the full 1.5 release.

	    - Patch to avoid RiscOS 4 NVRAM corruption (PR:8759)
		Dave Daniels submitted a patch to enable NetBSD to
		update the NVRAM checksum (required for RiscOS 4).
		If anyone out is running RiscOS 3.{5,6,7} can they please
		test this patch to confirm it does not affect them?
		If we get rapid enough response we should be able to get
		this into the 1.5 release.

	    - Packages
		- Chris built around 70 binary packages for 1.5, and is
		  continuing to build more. The initial set is now up
		  at: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/arm32
	        - We hope to get chimera, kfm, and some other graphical
		  browsers uploaded in a while.
		- We should get rox and similar added to pkgsrc, and have
		  a 'riscos-desktop' meta package that provides a riscos
		  like windowmanager, filer, and other apps. Any volunteers?

	    - !BtRiscBSD
		- Can people confirm if the RiscOS4 fixed version of !BtRiscBSD
		  also works under 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7?
		- We need to find out if we can distribute memfix inside
		  !BtRiscBSD for RiscOS 4 users.
		- !BtRiscBSD defaults to 1024x768 - users with monitors unable
		  to display that resolution need to exit a config file to
		  run - that should be fixed.
		- The number of supported resolutions should be expanded.
		- Need to determine if !BtRiscBSD can boot gzipped kernels.
		- Is !BtRiscBSD 'max proc' configure option still needed?

	    - Other RiscOS based install issues:
		- We should probably include the basic program that when runs
		   generates a copy of !sparkplug or similar, to ensure people
		   can extract the !BtRiscBSD archive. Does anyone have a copy?
		- Does anyone know of a RiscOS tool that can shrink a
		  filecore partition?

	    - sysinst issues:
		- Need to determine if setting vt100 for sysinst fixes
		  a small display glitch when extracting sets.
		- Need to test loading sets from an existing filecore partition
		- Sysinst should have an option to reuse existing partitions
		- Sysinst should not ping dns server

	    - hardware/software support
		- We need people to test their ide, scsi, and other cards
		  under 1.5 and report back what works and does not.
		- We should approach more hardware vendors for samples and
		  documentation.
		- We need a 16bit audio driver.
		- Should have fsck_filecore - to check filecore partitions
		- Filecore support should be extended to support writing
		- Add support for the new 'long filenames' version of filecore.

	If anyone is interested in helping with any of the above, assisting
	at future shows, or anything related to NetBSD/arm{26,32}, please
	get in touch. We may be attending the December 2 show in the
	midlands (more details later).

	Many thanks to Chris for organising the stand, leaflets, and CDs,
	and to Alan for helping out on saturday (and with transport).

	We plan to have an even better show next time :)

	Things we need for next time:
	    - Generate the pkgsrc README.html files
	    - More up to date mailing list archives
	    - NetBSD guide
	    - Demo package list for machines

                David/absolute
			       -- www.netbsd.org: A pmap for every occasion --