[parisc-linux] Job for someone

[parisc-linux] Job for someone

[Matthew Wilcox]

I was contacted by one of the Debian XFree86 people yesterday asking if
someone would like to look at the XFree86 loader for parisc so they could
rearrange the packaging to ship the modules separately from the server.
I don't have any great desire to work on a dynamic linker, but I bet
somebody else does ... ;-)

-- 
"Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon 
the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those
conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse
to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince 
himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep 
he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception." -- Mark Twain

Re: [parisc-linux] Job for someone

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 02:42:06PM +0000, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> I was contacted by one of the Debian XFree86 people yesterday asking if
> someone would like to look at the XFree86 loader for parisc so they could
> rearrange the packaging to ship the modules separately from the server.
> I don't have any great desire to work on a dynamic linker, but I bet
> somebody else does ... ;-)

Maybe that someone should fix the issue right and switch XFree to use
dlopen() for Linux.  If some other OSes want to keep the current junk
it'll be their problem to fix it..

Re: [parisc-linux] Job for someone

[Carlos O'Donell]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 04:03:20PM +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 02:42:06PM +0000, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > I was contacted by one of the Debian XFree86 people yesterday asking if
> > someone would like to look at the XFree86 loader for parisc so they could
> > rearrange the packaging to ship the modules separately from the server.
> > I don't have any great desire to work on a dynamic linker, but I bet
> > somebody else does ... ;-)
> 
> Maybe that someone should fix the issue right and switch XFree to use
> dlopen() for Linux.  If some other OSes want to keep the current junk
> it'll be their problem to fix it..

I spent time reviewing the loader code in XFree86 and the loader code in
glibc (when I fixed our relocation processing for COPY relocs).

So here are my two cents:

o As I understand it, the startup sequence of XFree86 is precarious, and
  loading the module via dlopen doesn't work because the symbol
  resolution order cannot follow the ELF standard 100%. It has to be done
  slightly out of order to bootstrap the server. This seems silly and
  should probably be fixed, but would require testing across all
  platforms. I figure it hasn't been done for that particular reason.

o It's not a horrible job to add our relocations to the XFree86 code,
  and I could probably do it given a couple of weeks. I almost started
  the job a year ago but lost steam when I blew the video out of my
  712/60.

So I'll set out the following challenge, if someone ships me a video
card for my c3k I'll fix the XFree86 loader. Short of that I imagine
that a 712/60 mobo with a working onboard video would be just as good :)

c.

Re: [parisc-linux] Job for someone

[Grant Grundler]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 04:27:40PM -0500, Carlos O'Donell wrote:
> So I'll set out the following challenge, if someone ships me a video
> card for my c3k I'll fix the XFree86 loader. Short of that I imagine
> that a 712/60 mobo with a working onboard video would be just as good :)

You are too easy. I can ship you a 712/100.
And I'll see if I can find you a PCI Vis-EG for the c3k.
I won't be able to ship anything until next week though.

cheers,
grant

Re: [parisc-linux] Job for someone

[Carlos O'Donell]

> 
> You are too easy. I can ship you a 712/100.
> And I'll see if I can find you a PCI Vis-EG for the c3k.
> I won't be able to ship anything until next week though.
> 

Deal, I'll remind you next week.

c.