AROS Discussion [moved from "AmigaOS 3.1.4 withdrawn from market after Amiga" thread]

[wawa]

Originally Posted by PeterK

I just wanted to ensure that my library can be used on Aros m68k, too.

it can and it has been since long time now. afaik it has been distributed as default with aros vision, instead of aros genuine lib. the reason im not using it usually, is that i test the genuine aros components mostly, if not cross testing with amiga counterparts and software. thanks a lot for yout comments.

[Warty]

Sorry, that was perhaps a bit unclear. Let me try again:

1) One type of user want to have an OS that runs on modern-ish hardware, has some modern features like USB and internet support. This is perhaps the user who is currently using AROS on x86 or a PPC mac.
2) Another type of user wants to have an OS that: runs on legacy Amiga hardware, let's anyone use old hardware, provides a base around which the community can develop and share new programs, etc.

[wawa]

@peterk

btw, peter, i have sent you invitation to slack, where you can join aros channel and maybe communicate directly with some of the developers. its not aros exclusive and is actually a good cross platform initiative of marlon, a member here. hope the mail from aminet is correct.

[wawa]

Originally Posted by Warty

Sorry, that was perhaps a bit unclear. Let me try again

no. its perfectly understandable. im coming from the same angle as you. and while it may not be easy or even possible to make aros as efficient as 3.1 or 1.3 has been, we need to put some effort towards it. but therefore we need experienced amiga users, testers and developers contributing.

good thing is that because of this thread we already have some people joining in and hopefully staying with us for some time. today i have confirmed (thanks toni for assistance) under uae that aros can boot on a plain a600 configuration just with some additional ram even to wanderer. the question is, will it be confirmed on a real machine and how slow will it be. but there is also someone who already volunteered to test that. so we are taking some steps forwards, even if slow.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

The RasPi 2 and 3 have big endian modes and Dr. Michael Schultz is going to work on a JIT to make it run 68k code.

Excuse my hardware ignorance, but on RasPi 2 and 3 besides AROS 68k could also start an Amiga Standard 68k system?

[PeterK]

Originally Posted by wawa

@peterk

btw, peter, i have sent you invitation to slack, where you can join aros channel and maybe communicate directly with some of the developers. its not aros exclusive and is actually a good cross platform initiative of marlon, a member here. hope the mail from aminet is correct.

Thank you, wawa, but I must admit that I don't like complex platforms like that with a long list of regulations and rules very much. I prefer to communicate simply by email.

I've downloaded the latest nightly build and installed it already, but didn't get that far yet with testing it again. Some bugs seem to be fixed, others are new, but I must verify that all.

[wawa]

must admit that as usual, i have not read these all regulations and rules and simply joined upon marlons invitation. as someone else observed, its just a bit like irc with some extra options suitable for exchanging development material and experience. but this is of course up to you.

[wawa]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Excuse my hardware ignorance, but on RasPi 2 and 3 besides AROS 68k could also start an Amiga Standard 68k system?

michals intendion as far as i understand is not to provide emulator to start m68k system but to deliver transparent emulation in order to execute m68k binaries or access libs just as os4 and morphos are doing. same way os4 and morphos users are not trying to substitute or use the native system with 68k counterpart on their systems. even though aros will eventually be in a unique position to have a system at hand for both architectures.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Sorry wawa maybe i explained myself badly, i just wanted to know if in addition to AROS 68k for example, you could also start OS 3.9 or AfA OS

[PeterK]

Originally Posted by wawa

.. its just a bit like irc with some extra options suitable for exchanging development material and experience.

Oh no, my old brain is working too slow and not responsive enough for chats.

[wawa]

Originally Posted by PeterK

Oh no, my old brain is working too slow and not responsive enough for chats.

consider this that i have almost never joined any chat myself except vampire development one for a few days. been doing most of my communication via mails as well.

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Sorry wawa maybe i explained myself badly, i just wanted to know if in addition to AROS 68k for example, you could also start OS 3.9 or AfA OS

Not without a chipset. You need UAE4ARM to run chipset dependant code.

[Marlon_]

"nightly" builds of a tweaked distro of AROS 68k can be obtained here:
https://www.eevul.net/amiga/ports/aros-mirror/

Whenever changes are pushed to https://github.com/AmigaPorts/AROS-mirror a new build is made.

Anyone is free to fork and make patches there!

New with this distro:

• LHA archive for easy install
• HDF file for getting started fast with FS-UAE
• Removal of default theme for Wanderer
• New default Installer app with compatibility with OS3.x Installer

Future plans:

• Low color IFF icon set replacement
• Further tweaks here and there to make the distro smaller and so it requires less RAM

If someone wants to help fix things, it's as easy as forking the github repo and doing a pull request.

Needs fixing:

• ata.device doesn't work all that well, booting issues
• Graphics subsystem optimizations for 68k target

Fixes to AROS will be pushed upstream to their main SVN when changes are approved. However, distro specific changes will stay in our repo, and we're less anal about what changes is done, as long as it doesn't break anything!

You're all also very welcome to our Slack which is for all types of amiga development:
https://join.slack.com/t/amigaports/...DA1OWQwNGY4MWQ

[wawa]

just to mention this too, this distro is (should be) soft-kick able on any amiga with enough ram (~7mb for wanderer) by default. in practice we are still working on some issues, so please stand by.

edit: most notably we have some macros/compiler issues with gcc-6.3.0 that lead to crashes in the s-s.

[OlafSch]

Originally Posted by Warty

Can I ask a basic question about AROS? From the point of view of a 68k machine, is it "feature complete"? Can I start up from nothing, and get to some kind of workbench replacement?

I get that it needs optimization. "Premature optimization is the enemy of innovation" (as far as coding goes). But is it complete enough that starting to optimize things wouldn't be a terrible idea?

Basically yes...

It includes USB (Poseidon), Network Stack, AHI, RTG (kind of CybergraphX), MUI-Replacement and much more. Next to default desktop (Wanderer) you have Scalos. One advantage of the 68k version is you can mix code (aros components and amiga components) without problems. One example is you can use MUI 3.8 on it by copying libs (of course you need a compatible desktop because Wanderer and Aros Scalos not work then).

[kolla]

Very good!