Does anyone still have any interest in this mess? http://sparemint.atari-source.org/The current sparemint site is regenerated with perl scripts. The idea here was to store the package details in a mysql database and host the site in PHP. The user builds a package locally and by convention ends up with a *.src.rpm file. They upload the src rpm to the site which then ships the file out to a bunch of aranym build servers that rebuilds the binary package with various flavors. An 060 version, an 030 version, a 68000 version and a coldfire version. The infrastructure is all there, the aranym instances, etc. But I only ever had it building 68000 version.
Since we're statically linked, the build farm would be able to boostrap the whole distribution from scratch whenever a change was made to a core library like mintlib.
It is a decent idea but the implementation is dated, incomplete and fairly ugly. For one mint supports chroot now (or maybe always has). Another thing is that there is no coldfire aranym so that would have to be done on real hardware. Not an insurmountable problem since I have 4 coldfire machines. Another thing is that newer RPM versions support cross building (I think). Also there is much work to be done to have this work, stuff like rpm needs to be brought up to date and there is a lot of fighting with our lack of mmap and other things. Last time I touched it I was rebuilding all of the packages from scratch, determining their build dependencies and creating a piece of software that could sort out those dependencies and bootstrap the system in order. I have my notes but they are nonsensical and I would start over.
My current language of choice is C#. I would redo this site in ASP.Net MVC and it is the kind of thing I could have done in a day or two if I could find the time. The build farm tools would all run in C# as well on linux and would simply use remote ssh commands to command the build farm instances. Configuring the build machines, especially a coldfire dev board one, and building the packages is where the time goes for sure.
We're never getting virtual memory so doing this work would be the best way to work around the static linking issues. Perhaps a better way but one that is much more complicated would be to use openembedded. There is also Alan's solution, gentoo mint, but I have no idea how well that works for Alan in practice (in terms of rebuilding all packages when an update to mintlib occurs for instance). Did he properly setup all the build deps? Etc.
On a more personal level, I find it interesting that as a teenager with nothing but time I lacked the money for any serious hardware. Sure I had plenty of time to code but with a Mega ST and 2MB of RAM, I wasn't doing much other than writing GEM apps. I _didn't_ do that but I should have been ;). Now many years later I have the money and at least part of the intellectual skills required, and finally get all the hardware I ever dreamed of. And no time to use it. Running my own company, girlfriend, kid, family, friends and it seems like I never even have a chance to turn it on. Such a shame how life works. I wish I could send it all back to past me. Of course then I would never end up with a woman because I'd have so much Atari gear to keep me preoccupied ;) Sometimes I wonder if that wouldn't be a bad choice anyway!
Mark On 12/17/2014 09:32 PM, Fred Horvat wrote:
I'll contact Rob to see what it involves. If it's something both of us think I can handle then I will take care of it.Peter Slegg wrote:On Wed, 17 Dec 2014 11:47:13 , David Gálvez wrote:2014-12-16 12:11 GMT+01:00 maanke <makehr@ndh.net>:Yes, I know this problem, I had some packages uploaded and it took some time until they we're listed. AFAIR someone of this list is maintaining the sparemint archives but I forgot who this is.:-/There isn't any SpareMiNT maintainer. The person who was uploading your packages was most probably Rob Mahlert, he's doing this if you ask him to do it. He's expecting that the list choose a new maintainer to give him full rights to do the job. Look at the thread in this list from February 2013 with the subject: [MiNT] Some freemint questions Here is Rob's answer:http://sparemint.org/mailinglist/Mailing-Lists/MiNT-List.201302/CAGtyW0L67SiLJO9SQgiNL51LPmqYy34a8yoEEjTAqzjTqm+L9g@mail.gmail.com.textThere are some rpms in the upload area that look like they have been there for a year. List of selected files on sparemint.org in directory /incomingless-458-1.m68kmint.rpm -rw------- 14 50 274909 Dec 20 00:00 less-458-1.src.rpm -rw------- 14 50 316748 Dec 20 00:00 dhclient-3.1.ESV-1.m68kmint.rpm -rw------- 14 50 417831 Dec 15 00:00dhcp-3-1.ESV.spec -rw------- 14 50 6134 Dec 15 00:00dhcp-3.1.ESV-1.m68kmint.rpm -rw------- 14 50 1199609 Dec 15 00:00 dhcp-3.1.ESV-1.src.rpm -rw------- 14 50 817566 Dec 15 00:00 gcc4-4.5.2-1.m68kmint.rpm -r--r--r-- 501 501 6879531 Jan 06 00:00 gcc4-c++-4.5.2-1.m68kmint.rpm -r--r--r-- 501 501 9978027 Jan 06 00:00 sjutd.txt -rw------- 14 50 10 Nov 23 05:28Peter ____________________________________________________________ Heavy rains mean flooding Anywhere it rains it can flood. Learn your risk. Get flood insurance. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL3265/5491f6a199f2b76a17ac7mp01duc