nchip (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nchip) wrote,@ 2007-08-04 13:17:00 |
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Debian armel status
The debian armel port reached one milestone yesterday: Being able to run debootstrap from DD-signed, upto-date unmodified debian/unstable packages.
Looking backward:
* When watching the buildd's, the worst of Debian is visible. You don't spend much time wondering on successful builds. The time goes into wondering about the crappy code that fails to compile, the maintainers who ignore RC bugs for months, code with dead upstream..
* bootstrapping a Debian port is still painful. Fortunately Lennert did that for us this time.
* Most maintainers are very responsive, and are happy enough apply patches that help even unofficial ports. The few who ignore patches or are else effectively MIA can cause long delays...
* C++ code is evil. or at least the g++ implementation of it. A random game written in C++ can take 5h to build, when even the most complex C apps compile in 2-3 hours (with a few exceptions like glibc and linux-2.6). Worse, g++-4.2 seems to be another 10-20% slower than g++-4.1... Remember God kills a kitten every time you upload a c++ package unnecessarily!.
* Esoteric language bindings suck too.
Looking forward:
There is some 500 (out of 7100) packages that in Dep-Wait state due some missing packages on armel port:
* ~290 packages that would need FORTRAN (!). specifically the old g77 version...
* ~80 packages waiting for objective C / gnustep
* ~70 packages waiting for ghc6 or related Haskell code
* ~40 packages waiting for Java (being worked on)
* ~15 packages waiting for mono (patch in BTS)
* Then there usual crop of esoteric languages, packages failing to build with current unstable on any port, and packages build-depending on stuff removed or to-be-removed packages.
Effectively this means getting armel over 90% built of Debian needs either g77 to armel or getting Debian to migrate from g77 to gfortran (which is available but not throughly tested on armel). I'm working on the second route..
* Start building d-i images. So that Eddyp can have blazingly fast softfloat rrdtool on his nslu-2 without bugs and trouble.
* Request inclusion into Debian ftp archives. I think with the latest milestones, armel should be ready for archive as a "second class citizen". Inclusion for lenny needs still some work.
* Finally: there's tablets and phones waiting to for Debian armel mobile ;)
The debian armel port reached one milestone yesterday: Being able to run debootstrap from DD-signed, upto-date unmodified debian/unstable packages.
Looking backward:
* When watching the buildd's, the worst of Debian is visible. You don't spend much time wondering on successful builds. The time goes into wondering about the crappy code that fails to compile, the maintainers who ignore RC bugs for months, code with dead upstream..
* bootstrapping a Debian port is still painful. Fortunately Lennert did that for us this time.
* Most maintainers are very responsive, and are happy enough apply patches that help even unofficial ports. The few who ignore patches or are else effectively MIA can cause long delays...
* C++ code is evil. or at least the g++ implementation of it. A random game written in C++ can take 5h to build, when even the most complex C apps compile in 2-3 hours (with a few exceptions like glibc and linux-2.6). Worse, g++-4.2 seems to be another 10-20% slower than g++-4.1... Remember God kills a kitten every time you upload a c++ package unnecessarily!.
* Esoteric language bindings suck too.
Looking forward:
There is some 500 (out of 7100) packages that in Dep-Wait state due some missing packages on armel port:
* ~290 packages that would need FORTRAN (!). specifically the old g77 version...
* ~80 packages waiting for objective C / gnustep
* ~70 packages waiting for ghc6 or related Haskell code
* ~40 packages waiting for Java (being worked on)
* ~15 packages waiting for mono (patch in BTS)
* Then there usual crop of esoteric languages, packages failing to build with current unstable on any port, and packages build-depending on stuff removed or to-be-removed packages.
Effectively this means getting armel over 90% built of Debian needs either g77 to armel or getting Debian to migrate from g77 to gfortran (which is available but not throughly tested on armel). I'm working on the second route..
* Start building d-i images. So that Eddyp can have blazingly fast softfloat rrdtool on his nslu-2 without bugs and trouble.
* Request inclusion into Debian ftp archives. I think with the latest milestones, armel should be ready for archive as a "second class citizen". Inclusion for lenny needs still some work.
* Finally: there's tablets and phones waiting to for Debian armel mobile ;)
