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Reverse Engineering IRIX Multithreading For NetBSD
Anonymous Coward writes "Onlamp.com publishes the sixth paper of Emmanuel Dreyfus's series on NetBSD's IRIX binary compatibility implementation. This time, this is about reverse engineering IRIX multithreading and the odd virtual memory features involved with it. It's an adventure at kernel and userland boundaries, with a debugger as the sole weapon. A must read!"
Stop ignoring me! I really do love you! Just because I say dirty things in public doesnt mean I think less of you! C'mon, lets get together for a nice dinner and I'll eat your butt out later. It'll be fun!
Love you
*giggle*
Nothing is more fun than reverse engineering multithreading! Sounds so totally easy too. I want in! Oh please let me reverse engineer mulitthreading!
ok, so SGI is moving from IRIX to Windows and Linux. So how many IRIX users will be transitioning from IRIX to NetBSD?
cpeterso
I doubt very many will. Don't forget, just because it has the bin compat. doesn't mean that SGI won't be porting all of their good solid IRIX apps. over to their Linux distros. I'd say that if anything, most IRIX guys are going to be heading to Linux in the future, if SGI is definte on phasing out IRIX (ie I haven't read up on it at all). NetBSD's bin compat. with IRIX is going to be quite useful because hopefully it will let some other people cut their teeth on IRIX apps. that might not have access to an actual IRIX machine.
topic.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It'
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
OH WAIT OPENBSD ALREADY IS FOR FAGS. . .
THEO TAKES IT IN THE POOPER HOLE PEOPLE.
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i will defeat these filters
Slashdot's usual bunch of Linux fanboys are missing the point of these articles. So SGI might move to Linux and might drop IRIX. They might port there apps to Linux (their developers are certainly experienced enough). However, SGI's future operating system strategy has little bearing on NetBSD.
;-).
NetBSD has a strong following in the academic world (I'm talking about researchers and postgrads here, not undergrads running Linux file sharing apps in their dorm). The BSD license, along with clear and well documented source make Net an ideal choice for academic work. However, a lot of cutting edge work takes place outside academia, often in companies like Sun and SGI. Often this work is not publicly documented.
Reverse engineering things like IRIX's kernel can give valuable insights into advancements made by SGI. These can then suggest new avenues for research that may have been overlooked otherwise.
So those questioning the utility of IRIX binary compatability, are missing the primary motivation for such work. Of course someone may find the ability to run IRIX apps useful one day - after all, who would have thought that NetBSD's emulation of a niche operating system like Linux would have proved so useful
Chris
SGI may be moving, but what about all its IRIX customers. Some may be happy running what they have now. This way even if the OS is no longer supported by SGI, the users can still run their apps on NetBSD.
JETTISON THE FILTH LIKE THEO DRAADT FROM YOUR PROJECT?!?!?!? ;kasd fuiwekl mzx asdkf iu kaj;sd iou z/xjc iou sd;
==
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SGI RULEZ!!!!!
SGI!! - DON\t BEND DOWN TO THE POWER OF T3H D4RK SIDE!!! STICK TO YOUR OWN CPUs - YER OWN MOBOS AND YER OWN OS!!!
Death to x86!!!! 11 1 1 1