Hi Tom,
So what we need is probably some way to create a new root.tar.gz from a bunch
of RPM packages and other tar files. If we want to do modifications to our
filesystem such as installing a new compiler, we can replace only that RPM
package and generate a new tar file. We will also query the user for
information such as IP address and hostname. Maybe some kind of small initial
filesystem that we can boot over NFS that will have a script that you can
create the filesystem with and extract the root.tar.gz file would be useful as
well. This probably sounds like waste of time, but I think it would be
worthwhile to do it. We don't need anything fancy right now, just something
so that others can get it running relatively easy.
The other thing someone has to do is to package the glibc 2.2 that Andreas
Jaeger and I were working on. We also have to make sure that it works. It
hasn't been well tested yet. I have bugs that I'm waiting for Andreas to take
a look at, but he has still not received the Indy we shipped him. These bugs
are not critical for normal usage though. A few persons outside SGI have
tried to build glibc 2.2 but they failed, probably because they didn't know
what compilers and kernel headers to use. I can help Tom with this if he runs
into problems. We want to rebuild our redhat distribution for glibc 2.2 once
we have glibc 2.2 working. To once again rebuild the distribution for RedHat
6.2 with glibc 2.0.6 is IMHO pointless. If we recompile the distribution we
should use my version of binutils [1] that we used for compiling glibc 2.2.
That way we will probably find a few bugs. To only use one set of compiler
tools for both the kernel and the userland that is synced with the Cygnus CVS
is the ultimate goal.
Ralf has the RedHat 6.0 RPMS on rainy:/u9/ralf by the way. The path he gave
you was probably not correct. There are some missing files among those
binaries and also some obscure problems with PAM. I can't recommend using
them, not in the current state at least. I wasted a couple of days trying to
build a root filesystem and boot it.
Ulf
[1] I nowadays maintain binutils for MIPS so will be able to check in patches
to the Cygnus CVS and the endless discussion of who's binutils we're using
will finally end.
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