Re: [MiNT] GCC 4.4.3

[Paul Wratt <paul.wratt@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Alan Hourihane <alanh@fairlite.co.uk> wrote:
> On Sun, 2010-01-31 at 11:49 -0600, Paul Wratt wrote:
>> > i have  a  recent  Mega4.  it is in the shop waiting for someone to tell my
>> > tech  how  to connect the power to the ICD controller.  but It is  a
>> >  working  68000. if that is  any help.
>> >
>> > josephus
>> >
>> According to Alans work, mint should be bootable on a 68000
>>
>> In theory it should be possible to boot on Hatari emulator, but if it
>> is anything like STEem emulation, mint will fail.
>>
>> This begs the question, shouldn't there be mint (or patches for mint)
>> builds specifically for emulators. There are many specific kernel
>> builds at the moment, it does not seem out of line to add a more
>> generic level 68000 mint kernel, one that could boot on any emulator.
>
> If that's the case, then the emulator isn't emulating. I can understand
> features where emulator provide additional features such as hostfs in
> aranym, but there shouldn't be anything stopping them booting plain
> MiNT's based on an Atari they are meant to be emulating.
>
> Alan.
>
It appears that the mint failure is specifically due to GEMDOS hard
drive access. ATM i have not tested any on the rather large collection
of 100% emulators out there, so I am sure of the failure rate, except
that STEem (and maybe Hatari?) do not emulate the HD/ACSI correctly in
some way.

>From my point of view this reqiures testing, but if some proven facts
can be obtained, like say it boots from floppy on emu, and the (near)
exact reason for HD boot failure, then these can be presented to STEem
developers (still active) or fixes made where others have source
available.

It is a shame to waste STEem's potential as a based 68000 test unit
when so many of us do not have the hardware, and its reputation for
compatibility is so high.

I guess I will have to add this to my list of things that need testing
and documenting too, but then someone must find a way to get an
alternate to 68000 hardware booting MiNT, so it has to be done..

Cheers

Paul