[mkroot] Fwd: Re: To the people who keeping pinging me off list...

[David Seikel]

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 08:35:55 +1100 Philip Rhoades <phil at pricom.com.au>
wrote:

> Sorry, should have replied to all . .
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [mkroot] To the people who keeping pinging me off list...
> Date: 2018-03-14 08:33
>  From: Philip Rhoades <phil at pricom.com.au>
> To: David Seikel <onefang at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: phil at pricom.com.au
> 
> David,
> 
> 
> On 2018-03-14 04:04, David Seikel wrote:
> > On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 03:28:18 +1100 Philip Rhoades
> > <phil at pricom.com.au> wrote:
> > 

<snip which may mess up the quoting>

> >> I also have a working 486 (JPG attached) for which
> >> I want to make an image of its old SCSI drive to see if I can
> >> virtualise it.  If it were possible, this is also the machine I
> >> would like to make some mkroot boot / root floppies for - although
> >> that seems too hard . .
> > 
> > I pointed out the ICOP people before, http://www.icop.com.tw/ that
> > make the 486 board I use for some embedded work.
> 
> 
> I did look at that stuff and it IS interesting - it would be good to 
> explore that at some time too - I have been meaning to look RPis ever 
> since they came out and still haven't managed to get around to it . .
> so I am interested to see how things go for you with mkroot . .

As I just mentioned in my last email to this list, there is also
Olimex, similar to RPis, but the hardware side is more open.  Which is
why my client is interested in it, maybe use one of their open
source designs and modify it to suit.  It's still being evaluated.

https://www.olimex.com/

> > (Note that I said https://
> > last time, then found out they don't respond so well to https,
> > though that might be some oddness in my proxy, I didn't investigate
> > further.) It's a tiny board (fits in the palm of your hand) that is
> > almost a complete PC, including lots of GPIO pins for embedded
> > work, VGA / LCD video out, USB 2, serial ports, PS2, audio, 256 MB
> > RAM, and we add on a 512 MB flash disk.
> 
> 
> Yes, it is very cool and I am greatly motivated to have a closer
> look . .
> 
> 
> > For many years we have been using Aboriginal Linux +
> > control images (Robs pre cursor to mkroot) to build an embedded
> > device that is subject to lengthy government regulations.  This is
> > where Aboriginals 486 support came from in the first place, we
> > needed it, I wrote it, and sent it to Rob who included it.
> 
> 
> I would be interested in hearing more about that project - by direct 
> mail if others would prefer for it not to be on this list . .

I'd have to ask the client for permission to talk about that first.
And yes, direct email, that's definitely going off topic.  Though on
this list; that has changed it's name a few times, and looks like
changing once more, plus the toybox list; I've mentioned this project a
few times in the past.

> > So I'm well versed in getting Aboriginal Linux and the rest of the
> > OS needed to support the device running on it.  All heavily
> > scripted, I start the complete build on my workstation, come back
> > in an hour and dd the completed disk image onto a USB stick that I
> > then boot the 486 with for testing.  Getting the basic Aboriginal
> > Linux up and running on it is no longer hard now that it has 486
> > support.
> 
> 
> Very interesting . .
> 
> 
> > I've only glanced at mkroot, and it seems to be similar to parts of
> > Aboriginal Linux, so I expect I'll be able to use it easily.
> 
> 
> Certainly let us know how it goes.
> 
> 
> > I don't think I even have any floppy disk or SCSI equipment
> > anymore, so you are on your own with that.  My career is long
> > enough that I have used such extensively far too many decades ago.
> 
> 
> I have still have a working Exidy Sorcerer (audio tape based) and 
> Osborne luggable . . my (current) place is turning into a museum . .

Most of my museum pieces are likely in storage at some random siblings
house in Melbourne.  I'm not sure where that all ended up after I moved
from there.  I have a historically significant Amiga in that lot.  On
my desk is a historically significant Sony PlayStation 3, but I've not
turned it on for years.  Last time I turned it on I saw bit rot in the
graphics memory, some pixels are stuck in some random colours.  First
time I have seen actual bit rot on screen.

> >> I have been trying to find the time for ages to do the LFS thing on
> >> my newer / faster workstations.
> > 
> > So have I, that time for me started last Sunday.  If nothing else
> > swallows my spare time like it did yesterday, I'll likely have a
> > mkroot based LFS running on my 486 board at the end of next weekend.
> 
> 
> Excellent . .

Or not, see the other emails.  lol

I'll try to get some sort of LFS system running on the 486 by the end
of the weekend, it may just be raw LFS though.  I'll see what happens.
My mkroot / hermetic hacking will wait until after Robs planned changes
for next weekend.

> >> I was in Sydney (still go back there occasionally) but now I am in
> >> a little country town (see below).
> > 
> > Sydney is a one hour flight from Brisbane, and you would know how
> > long it takes you to get to Sydney from Cowra.  Likely still too
> > far just to drop off a USB stick, which I no longer need now
> > anyway.  Thanks for the
> > offer though.
> 
> 
> Good that you don't need the downloading help now but it would be
> good to chat one day - but it sounds like the 486 stuff is at work
> and they may not appreciate visitors I suppose?

The client is in Melbourne, I mostly work from home in Brisbane, the
market for the current device is Queensland, the new one is for the
Victorian market.  I usually have at least one 486 board and other parts
of the device sitting on my desk, enough for me to do development.
Sometimes I have other bits of the device as needed.  The finished
product is a bit large for squeezing into my small home office, but
there's a factory full of them elsewhere in Brisbane.  And one in a
local government test lab that I can walk to from here, they don't
like random drop ins.  I don't mind visitors, though that usually means
I'll have to put on some clothes if it's in summer.

-- 
A big old stinking pile of genius that no one wants
coz there are too many silver coated monkeys in the world.
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