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General problems and questions

How do I get started?

Development for NetBSD/ia64 is on HP's "SKI" emulator:

1. Install the ski emulator from pkgsrc
2. Build the ia64 toolchain:

    build.sh -mia64 tools

   Build the bootloader:

   cd arch/ia64/stand/ia64/ski
   $TOOLDIR/bin/nbmake-ia64

3. With both bootloader and kernel binaries (or softlinks to them) in the current directory, type:

   ski skiload

   This will launch the ski debugger prompt. Type 'c' to continue. This will launch the bootloader in a pseudo terminal window. Type 'boot netbsd' to boot the kernel. Have fun!

What needs to be done to make the port functional?

Must have tasks:

1. pmap module: Clean ups and debug.
2. Boot Code Cleanup: clean up glue code between FreeBSD's boot code and NetBSD's standalone library.
3. IA64 Stack unwind code: Support remaining unwind descriptor types.

Nice to have tasks:

1. Kernel module pre-loading via the bootloader.
2. Write a ski network driver.
3. Enable SMP support.

There is a longer and more detailed list of tasks in src/sys/arch/ia64/TODO.

How can I help?

Pick a task you like, send mail to port-ia64@NetBSD.org to avoid duplication of work, and start hacking!

What are the goals of this port

Currently our focus is to make NetBSD/ia64 to run reasonably well on the ski emulator. In order to enable NetBSD to run on a real Itanium machine, further code needs to be written. Some important tasks are:

1. The uga console driver.
2. The bus_dma framework.
3. device drivers.