My geek friends and I love Slackware. It has been powering my development
server for over 5 years (Slackware 7). It is nice to know that it is
available for S390.
Great work. When I get an IFL, it will be time to put it on.
Thanks Richard and the team! Great work!
__________________________________________
Ranga Nathan / CSG
Systems Programmer - Specialist; Technical Services;
BAX Global Inc. Irvine-California
Tel: 714-442-7591 Fax: 714-442-2840
Richard Pinion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: Linux on 390 Port <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
07/07/2004 06:00 AM
Please respond to Linux on 390 Port
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc:
Subject: Re: Slack/390 - Slackware Linux for the mainframe
Please don't do like the Gentoo people did, put it out there and then
disappear!
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/07/04 03:16AM >>>
Cross-posted to Linux-390, VMESA-L, and IBM-Main.
General Information:
I am pleased and proud to announce that a new Linux/390 distribution is
now
available for public testing. Slack/390 is the official port of
Slackware.
Linux to the IBM mainframe platform. It is a Free/Libre, and free (no
charge) Linux/390 distribution that anyone can download and use as they
see
fit.
Based on the recently released Slackware Linux 10.0 for Intel, Slack/390
is
intended to closely track the development of Slackware. This will include
maintenance and security fixes as appropriate, whether driven by what
happens for the Slackware Intel platform, or by the needs of Linux/390.
There are actually three versions available: 9.0, 9.1, and 10.0. The most
recent version, 10.0, is still identified by the traditional "-current"
Slackware label, meaning that it should be considered in
unstable/development status until further testing can bring it to a GA
level. This sounds more dangerous than it really is. Since the Intel
platform is GA, not much will be changing for the current version of
Slack/390 except what is necessary to correct problems with the installer,
etc. This is where I plan on investing most of my attention, as should
anyone who wants to give this distribution a try. I am providing the two
older versions simply because they exist, and have been working well for
me
as development platforms. (Also, some packages just won't compile with
newer versions of gcc, etc.)
Support:
Like some other Free/Libre Linux/390 distributions, there will be no
formal
support for Slack/390. I do want Slack/390 to be successful in terms of
being useful to people, so I will be making an effort to fix things that
are
broken. I'm just not in a position to guarantee that. My intent is that
the Linux-390 mailing list will be the forum where bugs are reported and
fixed.
Distribution Contents:
Some of the major components of Slack/390 -current are:
- Linux 2.4.26 kernel, with an optional 2.4.21 kernel for people who want
to
stick with what IBM is supporting via their patches on developerWorks.
There will also be a 2.6.x kernel in the /testing directory of the FTP
server.
- glibc 2.3.2
- gcc 3.3.4, with gcc 3.4.0 in /testing.
- binutils 2.15.90.0.3
- Apache 1.3.31
- CUPS 1.1.20
- LVM 1.0.8
- Support for ext2, ext3, JFS, and reiserfs file systems. Optional
support
for XFS.
- OpenSSH 3.8.1p1
- OpenSSL 0.9.7d
- Perl 5.8.4
- S390 Tools 1.2.4
- Sendmail 8.12.11
- bootshell
- cmsfs 1.1.8
- cpint 1.1.6
Installation:
Specifying network and DASD parameters in the kernel parameter file can
make
getting into the actual installation almost automatic. Sample parameter
files are provided to illustrate what can be done.
The installer supports several methods of getting the software onto your
target system:
- NFS
- SMB/CIFS
- another DASD partition
- a pre-mounted directory
Most people will probably use either the NFS or SMB/CIFS methods.
More Information:
For more information, see the official web site for Slack/390:
http://www.slack390.org/
For download information: http://www.slack390.org/getslack390.html
Download Mirrors:
If anyone is willing to be a mirror for Slack/390, please contact me
off-list.
As always, constructive comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome.
Credits/Thanks:
I want to give (a lot of) credit and say thanks to:
Mike Kershaw of Marist College for having the enthusiasm to get this
project
started back in February of 2001. He established the initial development
environment on Marist College's z/VM system, and began the porting
process.
Harry Williams and Martha McConaghy of Marist College. If it weren't for
their willingness to let Mike and myself use Marist resources, it is
unlikely this project would have ever gotten off the ground.
Patrick Volkerding, who literally _is_ Slackware. Without Pat's generous
help and counsel over the years, this project might not ever have gotten
to
the point of releasing a usable system. I am also greatly indebted to him
for granting permission to name this distribution Slack/390, and for
volunteering to acknowledge it as an official port of Slackware.
IBM and the Linux Community Development System support team, for creating
the LCDS, and for granting the project a permanent account to continue the
development work. Richard Lewis, John Schnitzler, Jon vonWolfersdorf, and
Stanley Jones have all been very helpful during this effort. Having a
resource like the LCDS is a tremendous benefit to the Linux/390 community.
Sine Nomine Associates for letting me use a z/VM guest on their MP3000 so
that I can support both the stable and -1 versions of the platform. This
was very important, since I do plan to maintain multiple versions of
Slack/390, in much the same way Patrick does for Slackware. In
particular,
I want to thank Dave Jones and Adam Thornton of SNA for all their help in
getting things set up and working well.
the VM National Support Team at EDS for lending me a z/VM guest and spare
CPU cycles, etc. for testing. Their help and support was very encouraging
when I was just starting out. In particular, the CLAW driver from UTS
Global was able to be tested since there was an open connection that could
be used. Later on, VSWITCH and IEEE VLAN support was tested in the same
way. I would like to especially thank Brian Ferguson, Mike Harding, Bruce
Johnson, Jim Colbert, and Earl Hamilton for all their work and help.
Ulrich Weigand of IBM for helping me numerous times and at all hours of
the
day and night with gcc and other "tool chain" problems. Ulrich always
seemed to know or remember just exactly what patch I needed to get things
working again.
David Cantrell, Chris Lumen and Logan Johnson for providing some
"non-Intel"
perspective on Slackware early on. Their development efforts, and the
protopkg tool helped scripting the building of Linux/390 packages at a
time
when it was difficult to know where to start.
Ibiblio for providing free web and FTP hosting. It would have been
pointless to go to all this work and not have it available to everyone.
Yes, it's not running on a mainframe, but being more pragmatic than not, I
chose "available and free of charge" over "not available."
My wife, Laura, for thinking that this was a cool thing to do. :)
Mark Post
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visit
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send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or
visit
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For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
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