Bugzilla Bug 45100

2 new ebuilds for the xbox linux kernel. One from a patch, one from CVS.

Created an attachment (id=27590) [edit]
sys-kernel/xbox-sources/xbox-sources-2.4.25.ebuild

Created an attachment (id=27591) [edit]
/xbox-sources/files/xbox-sources-2.4.25.CVS08March2004.patch.bz2

Created an attachment (id=27592) [edit]
sys-kernel/xbox-sources-cvs/xbox-sources-cvs-2.4.25.ebuild

kernel team, do we want to provide and support this?

It's difficult to encourage people to run gentoo when they have to check out
cvs and patch kernel sources manually for every install and upgrade..

If someone is able to fully support this I have no objection.
The difficulty here is that, does anyone actually run a vanilla gentoo install on an Xbox? and If they dont, who would we have to maintain/test them?
Perhaps we should ask Shallax to perhaps port some of his management code/livecd? to work nicer with vanilla, an have him maintain a package in the portage tree for it?
this of course raises licensing issues in many ways, although of course we only provide tools to do the dirty.

I would prefer to run vanilla gentoo. gentoox is basically a bunch of shell
scripts that are run to download and install prebuilt binarys, replace config
files, etc. but don't interact at all with portage, so what you end up with is
two package management systems doing different things, and emerging something
breaks packages already installed by gentoox, and vice versa. I guess the
reason that most people don't run vanilla gentoo is that vanilla gentoo doesn't
support the xbox, making it quite a difficult install, and the fact that the
gentoox web page doesn't tell people that the distribution isn't really gentoo.

The licensing issues are covered thoroughly by xbox-linux.org. I'm sure if
there were any problems Microsoft would've taken action by now.

Hi guys,

I'd love to maintain them (and if I'd need to, write an installation manual).

See this thread:

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44818

Yours,

Ed Schouten

I can help as well. I've currently got gentoo running on my xbox with most
stuff working (a framebuffer system with freevo, mplayer, pydance etc). An
installation document is needed though - getting everything set up and working
took ages. But there are many more things needed in portage to get xbox support
up and running - check bugs 44693 (for building xdvdfs cdroms), 44695 (flashing
flashrom), 44705 (cromwell bios/bootloader), 45186 (lirc driver). I also have
an ebuild for xbox alsa-driver which I haven't submitted yet. It shouldn't be
too difficult to generate stages and a bootable cdrom with catalyst either.

I have added the alsa driver bug #47166. Is there anything else needing to be
done before these ebuilds will be added to portage?

It would take a lot of hacking to get gentoox to use portage.
http://gentoox.shallax.com is the place for Gentoo on the Xbox. It has a script
called "magic" which handles the compilation and fetching of the kernel
sources. I'd redirect everything gentoo related on teh Xbox to
http://gentoox.shallax.com.

Reopening and throwing at Shallax since this is his area of coverage.  He can
work with the appropriate teams to determine how to best approach supporting
xbox in portage.  Kernel sources aren't that difficult -- much how I handle
kernel sources for mips.  Another concept to consider is to utilize the newer
cascading profiles and have an xbox sub-arch in the x86 arch folder, and use a
PROFILE_ARCH var set to "xbox".  This can sit in ebuilds to handle special
cases where xbox patching is needed (i.e., like the cobalt sub-arch for mips).

I'll look into adding an xbox kernel, i dont think it will be 2.4.25, though. 
Ive had nothing but problems compiling anything above 2.4.22, the kernel
randomly oopses under heavy load in versions higher than this... and I cant
figure out why.

Have you reported it on the xbox-linux mailing list? I've had no problems with
2.4.25 stability. Since the xbox patches are the same maybe 2.4.25 exercises
some bug in your hardware (overclocked xbox?). 

What version of GCC/glibc are you using.  Ive had this confirmed from many
people.  When I released 2.4.23, I got a flood of emails complaining about it. 
My Xboxes arent overclocked.  If I remember correctly, it complained about a
"journal" error, which got me wondering whether it was to do with the reiserfs
filesystem.

I'm using glibc-2.3.2-r9 and gcc-3.3.2-r5. I doubt thats causing your problem
though, otherwise it would affect other x86 systems. Do you use some weird
cflags when compiling your kernel? Other than that I can only suggest reading
oops-tracing.txt in the kernel documentation and locating the source of the
oops.

(Ed, I'm CCing you because you seem interested; feel free to remove yourself if
not)

Folks, we need to sort out what's to be done with Gentoo on the XBox.
Currently, Shallax runs kind of a third party port despite being a Gentoo
developer. There is no real integration to speak of. If this is actually the
way everybody wants to continue (a basically detached port doing their own
thing), there is no reason for Shallax to continue being a Gentoo developer.
Otherwise, we should discuss what's holding back integration.

Whats holding back my integration is the fact I was shunned when I first
started the project.  Everyone got into a frenzy when I suggested it should
become an official project because of *possible* legal implications when I have
made it as legal as possible.  

Since I was turned down, I had to develop Gentoox by my own means, which meant
not using portage.  Instead, I have had to make my own system called "magic"
which calls on portage for software, then patches it after it has been
installed.

To be honest, I've invested a year in this system now and have finally got it
working just about how I want it to.  I'm now reluctant to discard this system
to integrate into portage.

I cant help but feel that if I had been allowed to make this project official
from the outset, I wouldn't be in this situation right now.  In addition, there
are probably still some opposers to Gentoo Technologies Inc. supporting this
project because of legal implications.  I do understand their concern, sort of,
but I have made this project as legal as possible.  All I know is that I have
been distributing it for over a year now and have yet to receive any 'Cease and
desist' letters.

Give me time to decide on my and the project's fate.  I'm under extreme
pressure from University work at the moment (exams and such).  Once I'm on
summer vacation I'll be able to weigh my options better.  

I'm not entirely sure why we're having this discussion on bugzilla, but
whatever ;)

Thomas,

About the 'journal error', I guess it is more related to some mixed up versions or so. I have never had such problems. Even' 2.6.4-hardened-r3 (Yeah, Hardened Sources) is running fine on my Xbox.

About the Xbox integration:
I think it's only useful to add a +xbox flag (like +selinux), because the difference is so small. The only things you need:

- A kernel patch
- A different fdisk (but not necissary if you use Cromwell)
- A Xfree86 driver
- A tool to regulate the fan (but not required).

So adding a +xbox flag and a couple of kernel-sources would be enough (vanilla, development and hardened-dev is fine).

Further we would need some Boot CD's. Although installing Gentoo from within Xebian 1.0.1 Live CD goes fine, it isn't good enough imho. We need to port some Boot CD's for that.

Yours,

Ed Schouten

Ah, two posts in the same minute ;-)

It is ofcourse a shame to throw away one year of work, but I hope that you can keep in mind that not adding Xbox support to Portage not only affects GentooX's way of working, but it also 'blocks' Hardened Gentoo for example (or there should also be a Hardened GentooX).

Maybe we could have 'the middle way':
- Adding support for Xbox patchsets to Portage to run Gentoo, nothing more
- Leaving all the utilities in GentooX

Yours,

Ed Schouten

That is a favourable solution.

That is not really a good solution. As soon as people install gentoo, they will
want to run xbox applications. Telling them to reinstall gentoox is not going
to go down well. And once they do, they will be back in the same situation we
are now - two incompatible packaging systems.

What I would suggest:

Shallax, decide whether or not you want to support portage gentoo on the xbox.
If not, then of course you can still continue with your own distribution
(though maybe people would have issues with the current name..). There is
nothing wrong here; there are many linux distributions and they all have their
niche. 

On the other hand, if you choose to support this, then you get to implement
xbox support in portage, the way that it should have been done originally, and
this time people will support it.

It is unfortunate that you didn't receive the support you wanted initially, but
there is nothing that we can do about that now. Whatever happens with gentoo
you will still have your own linux distribution, and that is something to be
proud of, and I'm sure that your users appreciate all the hard work you've put
in. Don't take our desire for xbox support in portage as a personal attack on
you or your work, because it isn't. All we want is to run gentoo on our xboxes
:)

Well... should I bother doing an ebuild for 2.4.26?

Well.. should I bother doing an ebuild for 2.4.26?

I could make a 2.6.4-hardened ebuild ;-)

Created an attachment (id=31021) [edit]
sys-kernel/xbox-sources/xbox-sources-2.6.5.ebuild

new kernel ebuild

Created an attachment (id=31022) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/xbox-sources-2.6.5-CVS30April2004.patch

Created an attachment (id=31023) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/lirc_2.6.5.patch

this is a generic patch for lirc support in 2.6.5

Created an attachment (id=31024) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/lirc_2.6.5-xbox.patch

xbox driver for lirc patch

Theres a reason I havent moved Gentoox to 2.6 yet.. its bugged >.<

I could maintain the bootcd for the xbox. I still work on it, using catalyst.

Thomas: what bugs have you observed? Have you reported them to the xbox-linux
team? The only bug I've seen so far is the initial screen clearing misses the
bottom 1/6th of the screen, and that was fixed in cvs a couple of hours after I
reported it.

Edgar: A catalyst boot cd was next on my list of things to do :-)

Created an attachment (id=31038) [edit]
xbox kernel 2.4.26 ebuild

Created an attachment (id=31039) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/digest-xbox-sources-2.4.26

Created an attachment (id=31040) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/xbox-sources-2.4.26.patch

Edgar,

There are some problems with the 2.6 kernel:

- initrd is broken for some reason
- command line arguments aren't correctly parsed by the kernel

1) Don't know about initrd (started using nfsroot instead). If it were broken
it wouldn't it affect all systems, not just xbox-linux?
2) The command line problem is a bug in cromwell, and is fixed in the latest
cvs

I'm also running vanilla gentoo on my xbox, currently using a 2.4.25 kernel.

I started off with 2.6, but changed back to 2.4 due to problems with xv and lirc, both of which now appear solved :)

The only other problem I had was with the 2.6 fatx driver, which continually corrupted my E: drive. The 2.4.25 kernel seems to work flawlessly.

Seems like it's time to give 2.6 another go.

Tim

What kind of corruptions did you get with the 2.6 FATX driver ?

I only use the E: drive to hold xromwell, the kernel and linuxboot.cfg,
everything else is on a native ext3 partition.

Just editing linuxboot.cfg in vim once was enough to corrupt it. The next time
I would try to edit it, the file would be random characters, and then the whole
directory would disappear.

I restored an image of my original HDD before going back to a 2.4 kernel, and
it's been fine since.

Created an attachment (id=31094) [edit]
xbox-sources-2.6.6.ebuild

0 day warez ;-)

Created an attachment (id=31095) [edit]
xbox-sources-2.6.6-CVS10May2004.patch

this fixes the video bug i mentioned earlier and the "won't power off" bug.

Shallax is no longer on the development team and we currently are not
supporting a XBox port as part of Gentoo proper.

I hope the GentooX port continues to be productive and successful.

Why can gentoo not have an xbox port? There is a lot of interest and the last
time this was brought up on gentoo-dev everyone who replied was in favour.

Gentoo has a XBox port: http://gentoox.shallax.com

:)

So you are fully endorsing gentoox as being the official gentoo xbox port? 

Do the other gentoo developers agree with this?

I am not endorsing GentooX as being the official Gentoo on XBox. I am stating
that there is no official Gentoo on XBox and right now that is the only Gentoo
on XBox effort that I am aware of.

I'll copy the text of my email to Tim Dodge, which you were CC'd on:

##
On Tue, May 18, 2004 at 08:57:50AM +0100, Tim Dodge wrote:                      
> Hi Jon,                                                                       
>                                                                               
> Are you saying that you are closing the door on an official Gentoo Xbox       
> port?                                                                         
>                                                                               

No -- I am saying that right now it seems to make more sense for people         
to build on the existing XBox efforts, and that prior to restarting any         
official XBox port I feel we should have some serious internal                  
discussions about whether it's worth adding developers for and whether          
we want to deal with the potential legal ramifications.                         

On the other hand, a secondary external Gentoo on XBox effort that              
integrates cleanly with Portage rather than relying on a set of external        
scripts would probably be a step in the right direction.
##

Hi guys, long time since I said something ;-)

Well, I can understand why you guys think it's still not the right moment to add Xbox support to Gentoo, but leaving it out wouldn't bring the Xbox support any closer than it is now. Besides, Xbox-Linux is more mature than some of the other trees Gentoo already supports (like MIPS for example).

I don't understand why you guys care about the 'legal' issues, because there aren't any problems afaik. You're just running GPL'd code on a machine. My Xbox now has 0 bytes of Microsoft-code in it (except for the already built-in firmwares).

Xbox-Linux now exists more than two years and they have not been sued by Microsoft Corp. I guess that would mean that Microsoft doesn't even' care about the issue.

Yours,

Ed Schouten

Hey, I thought it would be nice to meet eachother on IRC.

How about #xbox-linux on freenode.net? Hope to see you guys around.

Yours,

Ed Schouten

Hey, I thought it would be nice to meet eachother on IRC.

How about #xbox-linux on freenode.net? Hope to see you guys around.

Yours,

Ed Schouten

lets do it

*** Bug 44818 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Created an attachment (id=32231) [edit]
xbox-sources/xbox-sources-2.4.26-r1.ebuild

Created an attachment (id=32232) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/digest-xbox-sources-2.4.26-r1

Created an attachment (id=32233) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/xbox-sources-2.4.26-r1.patch

Created an attachment (id=33099) [edit]
xbox-sources/xbox-sources-2.4.26-r2.ebuild

Created an attachment (id=33100) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/digest-xbox-sources-2.4.26-r2

Created an attachment (id=33101) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/xbox-sources-2.4.26-r2.patch

I just added 2.6.7 to the portage cvs. My first commit.. please test!

I'm going to close this bug. I'm not adding 2.4 kernels because - I don't use
them and hence they will be untested, it means adding support for alsa and xir
drivers, and they are not the focus of the xbox-linux team anymore.

As for general progress, I will be uploading a livecd somewhere as soon as xbox
support is added to xfree86. All of the other ebuilds and patches have been
added to portage. The two main things now are testing and documentation. Please
volunteer if you want to help out :)

Why not adding 2.4 to the cvs ? You know that fatx is in 2.6 more than
unstable. Maybe you don't need fatx but others do.

Created an attachment (id=35462) [edit]
xbox-sources/xbox-sources-2.4.26-r3.ebuild

Created an attachment (id=35463) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/xbox-sources-2.4.26-r3.patch

Created an attachment (id=35466) [edit]
xbox-sources/files/digest-xbox-sources-2.4.26-r3

There is now a gentoo xbox mailing list, send an email to:
subscribe-gentoo-xbox@gentoo.org to subscribe. I suggest we use this as a forum
to coordinate, hopefully it will be easier to follow than all the different bug
reports, emails and irc discussions!

If you wanna subscribe use :

gentoo-xbox-subscribe@gentoo.org