Re: Port help wanted/needed?

[jscottkasten%yahoo.com@localhost]

Actually, there probably are plenty of places you can help, especially with a 
strong admin and security background.

Some things might involve doing builds.  I know you said you were not a coder, 
but I'm sure you're no stranger to running an automated build or launching a 
make process to configure, build, and install an application.
If you are willing to do that, the doors are wide open.

Many of the ports run behind the i386 port even at the same release number in 
some areas.  For example, i386 kernels ship with packet filtering and cgd 
enabled.  Yet those types of things are not enabled, and often of unknown 
status in many ports.

Back in the 1.6 days for Sun3, I had to build packet filtering into my kernel 
on my own.  Even then, I found it didn't work, but only because there was no 
magic number allocated for it in the kernel.  And because no one had tried it, 
even MAKEDEV didn't have an entry in the script to create the device nodes.  I 
submitted a patch for that and it worked great there after.  Then in the 2.0 
days, I tried cgd.  Again, it wasn't enabled in the kernel, so I had to build 
one.  Once i built it and added the device nodes, life was good.  It worked 
great.  There was no reason, other than lack of testers, that either of those 
things couldn't have been enabled in the release kernels and used by someone.

My Sun 3/80 served as a DNS cache and static web page and ftp server for my DSL 
line for years quite reliably.  Unfortunately about a year and a half ago, the 
hard disk went bad, and I've still not gotten around to replacing it, but that 
too will happen one day.  Thusly...I don't know how the 3.x and 4.x ports stand 
as I haven't had the chance to play with them lately.

Another area is pkgsrc builds.  Look at what has been done, and see what is 
needed.  I've been working with the hpcmips port the last year.  Who knew that 
the mesa OpenGL port actually worked.....until it was tried.

Consider also that lack of hardware need not block someone from contributing.  
I've had great success using things like GXEMUL and others to run a specific 
port in an emulator.  I've built the bulk of pkgsrc for hpcmips 4.0 that way.

I think if you just start "doing" you will find a niche into which you can 
contribute pretty quickly.  Some of these lists are pretty quiet, but all it 
takes sometimes is a newbie to wake up some of the old timers.

-S-

--- On Wed, 1/21/09, John Carr <jcarr%poethecat.com@localhost> wrote:

> From: John Carr <jcarr%poethecat.com@localhost>
> Subject: Port help wanted/needed?
> To: port-sun3%netbsd.org@localhost
> Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 10:46 AM
> Hey, all...                                                 
>                    
>                                                            
>                     
> Since I've been running NetBSD/sun3 for 5+ years now,
> I'd like to throw         
> my hat in the ring to help out the port where I can. While
> I know of the        
> list at http://www.netbsd.org/contrib, I'd like to get
> an idea where I          
> can help out on the port that will be the most effective
> based on what          
> other folks are doing.                                     
>                     
>                                                            
>                     
> While I can't code (sadly, never had time to learn), I
> have an admin            
> and security background and can, if nothing else, run
> -current, run 5.0,        
> document, etc. I have a 3/60 and access to a 3/50 and can,
> of course,           
> run tme somewhere, if needed.                              
>                     
>                                                            
>                     
> If there's a specific area I can help out, please let
> me know. Thanks!