From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FROM,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 15345 invoked from network); 31 Dec 2022 15:02:06 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 31 Dec 2022 15:02:06 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AFFAB42363; Sun, 1 Jan 2023 01:01:43 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-lf1-f48.google.com (mail-lf1-f48.google.com [209.85.167.48]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9E00A41C80 for ; Sun, 1 Jan 2023 01:01:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-lf1-f48.google.com with SMTP id cf42so35513703lfb.1 for ; Sat, 31 Dec 2022 07:01:37 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=content-transfer-encoding:cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from :in-reply-to:references:mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date :message-id:reply-to; bh=wEZElePJBCHp95NkiUm+3kGskC7MfpTJWrVPhvlAnFc=; b=LoiAU2TXrMd2p+iikog693sEYqIFq2v5+ynmJV3lnk4sMl3DHo8B3UDT9P8g5BAdof nW0b+UfTm15uQBiIGGYFk7+E1fZZPm7IpSOl0t07VFJZIQr4Yvvs1tE+TnklLFZ+GaDs PVd8SVZwP1pGCtkG3WnaS4PUuTUB3rZw8GhP1o4M4qILN0NHCYkK0EYiZNKpvNSCarIm AQLbUDgdBP1buM9tWcELKZ6j2IKNcEANejF1KVLCft7e9s7LV6YvK+r5IFcU1ayoARYc wy/N4Qv0XB9BwbWlThlWC9B7gZxPQZDvXsY+D9V5K8wX6403uVvdq+qBzapMGZd71pDZ Y2Kg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=content-transfer-encoding:cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from :in-reply-to:references:mime-version:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc :subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=wEZElePJBCHp95NkiUm+3kGskC7MfpTJWrVPhvlAnFc=; b=lavIzVKdvdAThUKK7UcsRFrkuU5a8o75gSgFCyq9rZlRxY7DeZuTxX7pNcMQiHBFGC 1xbH6Dq4mR2BjPNbe5R3NPuGkWRBncSD0ykLJ0CcXJpOme+P80x/eoRQXJQdL/u9ARE+ 1iQijHzvxGfov7HTNeBe9bHXS3xQFrzFxsAAhTr2hCy0b6FEY4hhysMO24UKmasQyFBC bF01mda3fEuYFooxhgwPbISM5mRrVkqre4yraUH3+1ev+2GWck0RZ6ix+caPN1W4CiF1 4hf0b8ERZCGDDR2RN8YN3O1uPObTTz7K8u/VIwGzSsBYhWZKsXnOLazzCsJXfJOMOk7F Gg+w== X-Gm-Message-State: AFqh2kq7vmsIzVfZTDcCUQ+IlEuzHQXrVhywfeDfZ1xsA/XNHOCpugGt bzTw299uj+6U2TJFxfVR6dOH3llrjxGmLq97qSvM80fi X-Google-Smtp-Source: AMrXdXvejrsFD1HoiiWSPUvnMKtJhQRIQYnIzPkvs2IPRyIPjNDPCNVtDqt0xIA32/6oaLiMTlpE1IhNUqfWCUNzZjg= X-Received: by 2002:ac2:558b:0:b0:4a4:7e77:664f with SMTP id v11-20020ac2558b000000b004a47e77664fmr1998159lfg.603.1672498835844; Sat, 31 Dec 2022 07:00:35 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <335F89A9-30C2-41A2-8E84-C2D761746634@planet.nl> In-Reply-To: <335F89A9-30C2-41A2-8E84-C2D761746634@planet.nl> From: Dan Cross Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 09:59:59 -0500 Message-ID: To: Paul Ruizendaal Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID-Hash: CI547HKGE6MD4SFITRHKCP6JI2ANNRGV X-Message-ID-Hash: CI547HKGE6MD4SFITRHKCP6JI2ANNRGV X-MailFrom: crossd@gmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Porting the SysIII kernel: boot, config & device drivers List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 1:26 PM Paul Ruizendaal wrote: >[snip] > It would seem that the next step for Unix in the area of boot, config and= device drivers came with Sun=E2=80=99s OpenBoot in 1988 or so. This also a= ppears to be the first appearance of device trees to describe the hardware = to the bios and the kernel. Moreover, it would seem to me that OpenBoot is = a spiritual ancestor of the modern Risc-V SBI specification. Maybe by 1988 = the IO hardware had become sufficiently complex and/or diverse to warrant a= break from tradition? > > Was there any other notable Unix work on better organising the boot proce= ss and the device drivers prior to OpenBoot? I think that BSD supported autoconfiguration on the VAX well before OpenBoot; the OpenBSD man page says it dates from 4.1 (1981) and was revamped in 4.4. SBI was/is an attempt to define a common interface to different devices using RISC-V CPUs, but it's growing wildly and tending more towards UEFI+ACPI than something like OpenBoot, which was much simpler. In general, the idea of a BIOS isn't terrible: provide an interface that decouples the OS and hardware. But in practice, no one has come up with a particularly good set of interfaces yet. Ironically, BSD-style autoconfig might have been the best yet. - Dan C.