That is seriously good work and an amazing DIY project!
I remember when I was a kid, trying to just get a pre-made Linux-image boot on my Amiga. I had a 68020 CPU, but due to no MMU and no FPU (neither being "normal" accessories at the time) I just couldn't get the thing to boot at all. Later, when I acquired a 68030 CPU, I at least had the MMU covered, but I was still a kid and didn't have a budget for a FPU. So I still couldn't get things booting.
Granted, back then I wouldn't know my way around Unix if I had been handed a booting system, but I was curious about this "Linux" thing which was supposed to be superior if you wanted to run BBSes, multitask and do stuff like that.
But despite all those resources I had, I couldn't get things going. And here this guy gets Linux running on a home-built 68008-based system of all things.
That is seriously cool!
Edit: I may be mixing up my 68k models. I also had a plain 68000 earlier, which was definitely not up for the task. If I'm mixing things up, please forgive me. It was a long time ago :)
Your post just brought back a flood of memories for me about the frustration I went through as a kid trying to port free software to 68k BSD. I started out running MachTen [1] which ran under System 7 on the Mac. There was something odd about the way it did dynamic linking, I can’t remember now, but it just turned any port into a nightmare. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out there was a mac68k NetBSD, which had a much better/compatible toolchain for building stuff. I don’t remember ever trying to get linux going on 68k, but I can sympathize.
68008 it's a 68000 with a 8 bit external data bus and limited address bus. It's like the 8088 of the 68000 family. It was used on the Sinclair QL. If a Linux can run on a 68008, can run on any 680X0, that includes old Macs, QL, Amigas, Ataris (not the 8 bit family), etc...
The kernel is required to support FP instructions, either through emulation (processor would trap them) or an FPU. Early on, no one had ported the emu code to Linux 68k, but even later emulation (done by Roman Zippel) could be hit-or-miss, so it was pretty common to not be able to boot without a real FPU.
I remember when I was a kid, trying to just get a pre-made Linux-image boot on my Amiga. I had a 68020 CPU, but due to no MMU and no FPU (neither being "normal" accessories at the time) I just couldn't get the thing to boot at all. Later, when I acquired a 68030 CPU, I at least had the MMU covered, but I was still a kid and didn't have a budget for a FPU. So I still couldn't get things booting.
Granted, back then I wouldn't know my way around Unix if I had been handed a booting system, but I was curious about this "Linux" thing which was supposed to be superior if you wanted to run BBSes, multitask and do stuff like that.
But despite all those resources I had, I couldn't get things going. And here this guy gets Linux running on a home-built 68008-based system of all things.
That is seriously cool!
Edit: I may be mixing up my 68k models. I also had a plain 68000 earlier, which was definitely not up for the task. If I'm mixing things up, please forgive me. It was a long time ago :)