Re: openbsd, freebsd, powerpc packages?

[Eric Oyen]

well, when I had a ppc machine here, having a working box was always the must have. However, that has changed over the last 7 years. Now, what I need is an accessible installation image as well as an accessible running platform (this means screen reader and braille support). There are a number of Linux packages that fill the bill, even on the PPC platform. These include: ORCA (for the X desktop), BrlTTY (for the console side of things), and some others. Unfortunately, there appears to be no ports whatsoever for these to make OpenBSD (or any flavor of BSD) accessible to the blind on ANY platform. Also, my recent exchange with theo wasn't encouraging either (yeah, talk about personalities!). So, unless someone who can code is willing to port some accessibility over to the BSD ecology, there are going to be a rather significant number of blind users who will never get the experience they need to be good systems admins (unless you want to count OS X or windows in that).

still, having the PPC packages would be a good thing as my Braille Sense U2 is mostly PPC/ARM based (right now, it uses windows CE 6, which is effectively end of Lifed). Having that device brought into the modern (and more secure) world would be desirable.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand: I am not sure exactly which chipset the Braille Sense U2 is using and the company that makes it won't reveal that info. So, I guess I have to reverse engineer it in order to find out. Its that or spend another $6k on yet another device (which I don't have btw). so, am I (and millions of others like me) deserving of a secure computing environment? Yes we are! Do any of us have access to the development environments for the BSD architecture to create what we need? not really. Linux, OS X , (and god forbid!) windows have better track records. Still, there are those working the problem, but we are so damned few.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I only got involved in this conversation because someone else posed the question about the latest release packages for PPC (or the current lack of them). Ah well. Asked and answered on that point, at least.

-eric

On Apr 17, 2017, at 1:22 AM, Ben Brink wrote:

> Eric, if no one has yet offered to assist you with your project in regards to openbsd and freebsd, please answer this question.  What are you trying to accomplish?
>
> I advocate for open source software and hardware and have run into personality issues with others. Maybe there is yet a way to achieve your task with openbsd and openfreebsd.
>
> cheers,
> Ben

[Tinker]

On 2017-04-17 15:09, Eric Oyen wrote:

> well, when I had a ppc machine here, having a working box was always
> the must have. However, that has changed over the last 7 years. Now,
> what I need is an accessible installation image as well as an
> accessible running platform (this means screen reader and braille
> support). There are a number of Linux packages that fill the bill,
> even on the PPC platform. These include: ORCA (for the X desktop),
> BrlTTY (for the console side of things), and some others.
> Unfortunately, there appears to be no ports whatsoever for these to
> make OpenBSD (or any flavor of BSD) accessible to the blind on ANY
> platform. Also, my recent exchange with theo wasn't encouraging either
> (yeah, talk about personalities!). So, unless someone who can code is
> willing to port some accessibility over to the BSD ecology, there are
> going to be a rather significant number of blind users who will never
> get the experience they need to be good systems admins (unless you
> want to count OS X or windows in that).

Hi Eric,

Regarding ports you're missing (also remember to check the OPENBSD-WIP
repository for them, that's
https://github.com/jasperla/openbsd-wip/tree/master/) - what about
either maintain the port yourself, or promise the world a bounty for
providing it.

Tinker

> still, having the PPC packages would be a good thing as my Braille
> Sense U2 is mostly PPC/ARM based (right now, it uses windows CE 6,
> which is effectively end of Lifed). Having that device brought into
> the modern (and more secure) world would be desirable.
>
> Anyway, back to the subject at hand: I am not sure exactly which
> chipset the Braille Sense U2 is using and the company that makes it
> won't reveal that info. So, I guess I have to reverse engineer it in
> order to find out. Its that or spend another $6k on yet another device
> (which I don't have btw). so, am I (and millions of others like me)
> deserving of a secure computing environment? Yes we are! Do any of us
> have access to the development environments for the BSD architecture
> to create what we need? not really. Linux, OS X , (and god forbid!)
> windows have better track records. Still, there are those working the
> problem, but we are so damned few.
>
> Anyway, enough of my rant. I only got involved in this conversation
> because someone else posed the question about the latest release
> packages for PPC (or the current lack of them). Ah well. Asked and
> answered on that point, at least.
>
> -eric

[Eric Oyen]

sorry about the rant folks. someone posed the question to me and I probably didn't answer it.

so, what am I hoping to accomplish? well, its not me that wants to accomplish this, but the OP. I was hoping to contribute and got a bit sidetracked.

so, I posed some additional questions:
1. can a previous version be used to compile a current version package set? the answer, as it turns out is no.
2. can the PPC packages for 6.1 be cross compiled from a currently working 6.1 on a different platform? In all probability, yes (don't take my word for it folks, I am no expert on this and the answer might not be as expected). I preface this with the proviso that only the arch devs know the real answer to this. However, given some of my recent experiences in Linux with cross compiling, the logic says it can be done. How difficult is that? I have not the first clue.

hopefully, this answers my part of the question. :)

-eric