Re: macppc vs evbppc binary packages

[Matt Thomas <matt%3am-software.com@localhost>]

On Apr 18, 2012, at 10:33 AM, Greg Troxel wrote:

> 
> Eduardo Horvath <eeh%NetBSD.org@localhost> writes:
> 
>> On Wed, 18 Apr 2012, Greg Troxel wrote:
>> 
>>> We are trying to build packages on some evbppc systems (under
>>> -6/current) and finding them a bit crashy under load.  So I am wondering
>>> to what extent packages built on a macppc (that's from 2001 or so,
>>> dual-core 500 Mhz G3) will run on an evbppc.   I would expect all the
>>> instructions in the G3 to be present in the new chips (although I
>>> understand the memory management architecture is different).   But, I
>>> wonder if the ABI is somehow different.  I'd appreciate advice voting
>>> for:
>>> 
>>>  yes, it ought to work
>>> 
>>>  maybe - worth trying
>>> 
>>>  you're doomed, don't bother
>> 
>> PowerPC exposes the cache layout to userland to userland for things like 
>> memcpy.  Originally the cache layout was hardcoded in libc.  When working 
>> on the IBM 4xx port we added code to libc to read the cache layout 
>> information.  That was arount 2000-2001.  So if you're running an old 
>> macppc userland on a chip that has a slightly different cache layout you 
>> may have some issues.
>> 
>> Then there's also the FPU emulation code that I did for the 4xx port which 
>> is needed to run things like newfs and fsck.
> 
> Thanks.  What I mean to do is
> 
>  build netbsd-6 for macppc
>    modified so that gcc uses -msoft-float by default, somehow,
>    similar to how evbppc gcc works
>  fresh install
>  build packages (from a private tree, with some changes)
>  try those packages on an evbppc system


Use MKSOFTFLOAT=yes with a macppc build.