Re: [gentoo-mips] Reducing the number of the MIPS supported stages

[Markos Chandras]

On 05/06/2014 09:10 AM, Joshua Kinard wrote:
> On 05/06/2014 03:07, Markos Chandras wrote:
>> @kumba: You mentioned too many times that I wanted to "drop" support for
>> mips3 and mips4. I never said that (I am sort-of tired keep repeating
>> that). All I said (again) was to reduce the frequency or stop building
>> them at all. Users can still get an existing mips3/mips4 stage3 and
>> update themselves
>
> Maybe it's just my way of interpretation, but in your opening paragraph,
> even though you said we wouldn't drop support, you did suggest not creating
> new stages for mips1-mips4.
>
> Given a sufficiently long-enough time, that effectively drops support due to
> bitrot.  Like I mentioned w/ the 2009-era userland on this Octane, I am not
> going to even try to update that, simply due to the amount of time it would
> take, even if I figure the IRQ prioritization bugs out.
>
> So, my apologies if I read it wrong, but that's just how I see it.
>
>
>> (picking up a random thread)
>>
>> Ok thanks for the replies.
>>
>> Ok I think it's safe to proceed with the following:
>> - Stop mips1 builds (we don't have mips2)
>
> I'll defer to Matt to chime in to my last message and correct me anymore, if
> needed, but, I think we'll want to keep either a mips1 or a mips2, but not
> both.  As well as decide whether it's a full stage3 or just a simple
> stage1/stage2 tarball so people have a base from which to start a port to a
> new MIPS machine if needed.  That can get updated once a year, especially if
> it's a stage1 which shouldn't take long at all.

I see no value for mips1 or mips2 so feel free to pick these up. Even if
someone is using them as bootstrap, then *any* mips1 stage3 would do.

>
>
>> - Reduce the frequency to once-a-year for mips3 and mips4. Updating
>> these stages every year with catalyst will be a lot of fun ;)
>
> NAK, At least once every 6 months, and preferably shortly after the .1
> release of a new major gcc rev, given gcc's absurd compile time now.  Gentoo
> moves fast, and a lot can change in a year.

Forgive me but this almost sounds like an order :) This is not going to
happen, sorry :) I don't want to become a build robot and spend all my
Gentoo/MIPS time doing stages. With the introduction of new ISAs, the
total number of stages will grow even more, and like i explained
multiple times, this does not scale. There are other parts of the
architecture that needs some love too and right now I have no time for both.

And you haven't really convinced me why mips4 is desired, when mips3 can
run just fine on mips4 hardware. I think you need to be realist, and
take into consideration, not just your personal needs, but also the time
it actually takes to build and maintain all these stages. I explained
that so many times already, I am not going to do that again.
As Anthony said, mipsel3 is used by lemote, so keeping it alive is
probably a good thing (though the newer hardware is mips64 capable)

>
> Otherwise, just e-mail me your mips3/mips4/mips4_r10 spec files, any custom
> tweaks/changes to catalyst, and any specific instructions you do
> before/during/after a catalyst build and I'll put the O2 to work if needed.
>

There is nothing special about my spec files and I do nothing special in
catalyst so feel free to pick up the mips3 and mips4 stages. If you are
having troubles with catalyst email the gentoo-catalyst@ ML. That might
actually be a good way for you to become active again ;)

-- 
Regards,
Markos Chandras