Re: [openpsion] [patch] proboot update for 64-bit systems

[Klaasjan <kla...@gm...>]

Hi Tony, David, and list,

Thanks for responding!

Note that there seems to be confusion in your messages between proboot (for the 5mx pro) and bookboot (for the netbook and malaybook).
Or am I missing something?

Other than that:

On Mon, Jan 06, 2025 at 11:03:15AM +0200, Tony Lindgren wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> * David Given <dg...@co...> [250106 00:59]:
> > I do have a plan --- very much delayed, too many projects and not
> > enough free time --- to try and port Fuzix to my Series 7, so getting
> > thanks for your work on proboot. You said that it didn't work on 64
> > bit systems; this means that it generates correct images on a 32-bit
> > system, right? That should be straightforward to diagnose, then.
> 
> Yes it should be possible to figure out what the issue is. I have not
> used my psion for tens of years now.. But I'll add proboot into a git
> repo. Need to figure out the license, likely it needs to be GPLv2
> because of the kernel font file.

Adding proboot into a git repo sounds like a very good step!
I would certainly appreciate it.

I have not found time to look into Fuzix (yet) sorry.

> > I wonder if it's worth trying to aggregate all the Psion programming
> > information in one place before it all vanishes from history?
> 
> Please do.

Isn't the sourceforge website where we could/should aggregate the info?
https://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/

Sure, as it is now, the webpages need updating, but I would worry that
relocating would be beyond what we can achieve (in 2025). 

I am happy to (contribute to) updating the website, but would prefer to
have some more (positive) feedback from other mailing list participants
(hint hint), before giving that a go.

> > On Thu, 2 Jan 2025 at 15:46, Klaasjan <kla...@gm...> wrote:
> > > Ater some testing: while the patch below allows building sys$rom.bin files
> > > on an amd64 machine, and the resulting file is recognized by the bootloader
> > > of my 5mx pro, it does not boot properly.
> > > Instead, the result is an empty screen, and the 5mx pro needs to be
> > > rebooted to proceed.
> 
> OK

Note that I have not tested running proglue.pl an a 32-bit system (yet).
It could be that there are other issues than the ones my patch addresses.

> 
> > > Instead, I have now successfully used arlo, combined with the original
> > > (epoc) sys$rom.bin, and the 2.4.37.9-5mx32mbpro linux kernel from
> > > widearea (http://widearea.org/ste/psion/) to have a dual boot linux/epoc
> > > system. For now I am happy with this result.
> > >
> > > If there is (renewed) interest, I might make further progress and report
> > > back, but for now I'll likely go back to silent mode.
> 
> Well dual boot support sounds like a nice feature for sure :)

Dual boot seems to be covered well enough by arlo (for all epoc-capable
machines), based on my current experience.
One of the main features of proboot is that it serves as good (good
enough?) documentation of the system image format expected by the bootloader 
on the 5mxpro.

Best,
Klaasjan