Re: NetBSD on tablets?

[Pierre Pronchery <khorben%defora.org@localhost>]

                        Hi there,

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:08:37 -0700, Scrap Happy wrote:
> 
> I assume this is sheer fantasy, but has any work been done on porting
> NetBSD to any of the "tablets" available?

Yes! I've been improving the DeforaOS desktop environment for tablets 
lately (on NetBSD), and even won an award doing so (the AFULTab contest). 
I was using the WeTab as hardware platform (x86-based, very much like the 
ExoPC for instance).

The documentation submitted for this contest is there:
http://www.duekin.com/downloads/papers/WeTab%20Freedom%20Report.pdf

On the NetBSD side:
- uts(4) driver
- xf86-input-mouse was patched to play well with uts(4)
- some pending patches to wsconsctl(8) (calibration...)

DeforaOS itself is found at http://www.defora.org/. The website isn't 
great but I'm working on it. The relevant parts are packaged in pkgsrc-wip 
anyway:
wip/deforaos-*

> If not, is this due to:
> - lack of interest - lack of personnel - lack of documentation - lack of
> "other" resources

Well, I'd love to have more testers, documentation, etc on this work. Or 
marketing even.

> I.e., what (realistically) could be done to facilitate this sort of
> activity?

I'd say, hardware support would be one of the first things to extend. 
There's a number of ARM-based tablets and smartphones which can be 
"easily" supported, like Nokia's N900 for instance (see also the zaurus 
port). It's a matter of availability of the hardware, and then time and 
motivation to get it ported. Only then it does make more sense and more 
practical to work on the userland part.

HTH,
-- 
khorben