Request for proposals: Who to donate my Blackbird and Power 9 CPU?

[MPC7500]

I see. Thanks for the input. Zoë Knox sadly is located in Canada. But probonopd is also connected to ravynOS in some way.
There was also a guy who tried to compile Haiku on PPC64le, but also failed.

[pocock]

Does anybody maintain some kind of dashboard of what is either urgent or important or both for this platform?

It could be a useful way to guide the allocation of the hardware.

[MPC7500]

A dashboard or wiki page would be good. We only have a page about operating systems and about porting status, but nothing about libraries or what is missing at all.

[pocock]

Getting lists of issues from other projects is quite easy, I already did some work on that, creating scripts to scrape and merge issue lists from Github, Bugzilla, Redmine, etc

The more important and controversial thing is prioritization: for example, do the users simply vote for which issue is most important?  Do we focus on issues that help developers or issues that help end-users?  I won't use this post to give an answer to that.

Anyhow, if something like that comes together then I'm happy to provide feedback and maybe some code without any personal concern for who ends up getting this kit

The first link has screenshots

https://danielpocock.com/github-issues-as-an-icalendar-feed/

https://danielpocock.com/worlds-largest-kanban-board-with-free-software-communities/

https://github.com/dpocock/nagios-icalendar

[ClassicHasClass]

Actually, NetBSD is a really good suggestion. It shouldn't take much to get the port done because they could borrow from FreeBSD and OpenBSD for the sysdep portions and the rest is all on the HAL.

https://www.netbsd.org/contrib/hardware.html

[FlyingBlackbird]

Update:

I have the following requests on my personal short list and would be interested to know your opinions (please don't blame me if I decide for the "wrong" party then ;-)

The order is as the requests dropped into may mailbox (NOT a prioritisation).

1. Debian Germany to use it to set up an additional build server and porterbox for Debian using PowerKVM for PowerPC big-endian Debian ports.

    Currently there are only two servers for that (one in Moscow and one in Oregon. However, the former
    machine is currently offline and it's not sure whether it will be able to return online and
    the second machine is just a loaner machine from a big company which we eventually have to return to
    them. Both machines are POWER8, getting a faster POWER9 machine would be nice.

    -> No need to cite repos for this our course...

2. QEMU/KVM PPC maintenance, U-boot/BMC firmware, skiboot, OpenPower firmware development.

    A well-known and active [non-Debian] developer with proven git activities for ppc64le wants to use the hardware.

   His actively contacted a Debian member to ask how Debian could also use the machine later when hosted (proposed TTN for that: https://www.tetaneutral.net/).
   Is OzLabs member (https://lists.ozlabs.org/listinfo) where most of the HW PPC related development happens.
   OzLabs could use the machine too once hosted (so that it has a sufficient workload).
   Cited repos (I do not want the dev name here but I know it of course!):

   * QEMU, PPC maintainer, Aspeed (BMC) machine maintainer
     https://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=tree

   * Linux
     https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/

   * U-boot firmware
     git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git

   * OpenPOWER firmware
     https://github.com/open-power/skiboot/


3.  Make videos and doing programming with it. 

     An anonymous requester (with zero hits on google) mentions the "netbsd foundation" and wants to get the machine.
     Links only to a twitter post: https://twitter.com/Southside_Sltns/status/1563189635789905922

Any helpful opinions welcome!

[pocock]

1. Debian Germany to use it to set up an additional build server and porterbox for Debian using PowerKVM for PowerPC big-endian Debian ports.

...

Any helpful opinions welcome!

The Debian Project Leader recently commented:

During my 2 terms we went from having around ~$750k in available funds to having about ~$1.25m now. Every time I mention what we've been spending on (like DSA upgrades, hardware for DDs, etc), we get more donations. As long as this is the case, I have no problem with DDs spending any money they want to if it helps them make Debian better. After all, this is literally the only reason why someone donates money to Debian in the first place. So, I don't believe that the Debian funds should be preserved like some kind of treasure. We should make it as easy as possible for people to give us money, and as easy as possible for DDs to spend money, all within our legal and social frameworks, of course.

Therefore, Debian can probably buy a few Blackbirds with funds from that bank account.  Debian paying for some Blackbirds (or bigger Talos II) is probably good business for retailers like Raptor and Vikings.

The Blackbird in question would still be available for somebody else who doesn't have $1 million (or €1 million)

I created a flavor of the Debian kernel package for a 4k page size (Gitlab commit) and nobody has integrated it in the Debian kernel repository.  This isn't a problem for me because I already know how to build a kernel but it would be helpful for other Debian users if they put the politics aside and merge that patch.  Due to the way Debian builds kernels it doesn't have any side effects for the 64k page size kernel packages.  Both types of kernel can coexist in the Debian archive and they can build different permutations of the installer for each of them.

I created a standalone topic for the idea of creating a dashboard or heat map to identify pinch points that can be addressed with donations of hardware or funds.

[MPC7500]

To be honest, I wouldn't choose Debian either. Debian is in my view the best equipped distribution in terms of OpenPOWER hardware. Secondly, when I look at the PowerPC mailing list, it's all about big-endian. Requests or bug reports regarding PPC64le remain unanswered. If I were to give the Blackbird to a Debian maintainer, it would be John Paul Adrian Glaubitz.

The NetBSD guy is suspicious to me.

Your second option "OzLabs member" sounds the most interesting to me.

But hey, in the end it's your decision.

[pocock]

Why not simply give it to a hackerspace as a gift?

If people see it at the hackerspace they will be more likely to buy one themselves

There is a hackerspace in Locarno, Switzerland, near the Swiss birds of prey park.  Don't leave small children unattended when the Condor is on the loose.

They don't currently have any black birds on their list

[MPC7500]

Yes, Hackerspace. Available in Germany. Hamburg, Berlin, Nürnberg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, München etc.
https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_ALL_Hacker_Spaces

That way, perhaps the most people would get something out of it. And I would not give the Blackbird away, but make it available for an indefinite period of time. And you could get an idea of the hackerspace on site.

[pocock]

If you decide to loan it to hackerspaces that are nearby for me then I'm personally happy to visit them, take it there in person and run a workshop on it.  I would then be willing to go back a few weeks later, collect it and take it to the next hackerspace or post it back

[vikings.thum]

Perhaps you could send this over to us (Aachen, Germany) for ~three weeks?

I'm waiting for Tim to fix some listing/pricing issues (e.g. bundle more expensive than individual pieces) before ordering Blackbird boards. In the meantime, I want to see if our newly ordered TFX PSUs can adequately cool the CPU with a 2U passive heatsink, if we need to print an air shroud, and also find other desktop, under-desk, and media center cases to improve our listings (store.vikings.net).

I could then forward it to whomever you want after.

[FlyingBlackbird]

Thanks for all your suggestions and discussions here!

I have handed-over the hardware now 10 days ago and want to keep the recipient unpublished for privacy reasons.