On 11/4/05, Sven Luther <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 08:04:22AM -0700, Christian T. Steigies wrote: > > On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 02:00:03PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote: > > > On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 05:53:53AM -0700, Christian T. Steigies wrote: > > > > On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 12:01:17PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote: > > > > > On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 11:57:12AM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: > > > > > > On Fri, 4 Nov 2005, Sven Luther wrote: > > > > > > > On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 10:45:30AM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven > > > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > On Fri, 4 Nov 2005, Sven Luther wrote: > > > > > > > > > Actually, we could simply make an exception for miboot and > > > > > > > > > get it into the > > > > > > > > > archive, i think it is no worse than other cases (like > > > > > > > > > amiboot, which is > > > > > > > > > linked to parts of amigaos, and thus non-free), and we do > > > > > > > > > distribute those (or > > > > > > > > > at least used to distribute those in the woody times). > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Amiboot is not linked to parts of AmigaOS. It is linked to > > > > > > > > libnix. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > which in turn is not in the archive, so amiboot can never be in > > > > > > > anything but > > > > > > > > > > > > It's statically linked (and libnix is public domain, according to > > > > > > Google :-). > > > > > > > > > > Still not in debian/main, so amiboot needs to go to contrib. > > > > > > > > libnix is an AmigaOS library, and is available on aminet, which IIRC > > > > predates > > > > Debian by a couple of years. Do you want to ship all free software on > > > > aminet > > > > with Debian now, too? > > > > > > Well, it depends on stuff outside of main for use/build, so cannot go in > > > main. > > > > It is an AmigaOS binary, built from free source with free compilers. So we > > just have to > > include all the free AmigaOS software to be able to ship a precompiled > > amiboot? As I said, > > no problem with me, maybe we include all free TOS and MacOS software as > > well, ataboot and > > Penguin have to be compiled somehow as well. So why not include aminet, and > > what ever are > > the counterparts for atari, mac, maybe C64, Pet2001, those were nice > > machines as well, > > and maybe we still use something that was first developed on one of those > > machines. Would > > be a big boost for the emulator packages that are already in debian, and > > free software is > > free software... > > > > In case you did not get it yet, I think this would be a stupid thing, > > debian is about > > Un*x, Linux, *BSD software. Do we have DOS compilers as well? What about > > loadlin? > > The source(!) package contains a compiled loadlin.exe, but it also contains > > the source. > > The makefile says: To compile with Borland TASM 3.1. In case that assembler > > is still > > available, is it free software? Don't you need to run DOS to use it? > > The main point is, do we ship it as part of the installer stuff, knowing it is > needed to boot, or even worse in the case of miboot, it needs to be built into > the images. > > The problem with miboot is that there are 200 or so m68k instructions in the > boot sector, which have not been changed since over 10 years probably, and > probably nobody at appple even remembers them, and thus we are not shipping > miboot even in non-free, while at the same time distributing it from > people.debian.org. > > Friendly, > > Sven Luther >
I have used miBoot on a nubus ppc mac (6116cd) and it is not the optimal solution. My suggestion as a user is that you forget about using miBoot at all, and foster development for a new GPL'ed bootloader based on EMILE. Laurent (EMILE author) has said it is a matter of limited time that EMILE is not written to support ppc. Focus on EMILE for 68k and nubus ppc. Eric
