FreeBSD sparc64

[Alex Ernst]

Dear Developers of FreeBSD sparc64,

I have downloaded official image from:
https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/sparc64/sparc64/ISO-IMAGES/12.1/FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-sparc64-dvd1.iso.xz

Seems that the FreeBSD sparc64 package repository does not exist at all:

The package management tool is not yet installed on your system.
Do you want to fetch and install it now? [y/N]: y
Bootstrapping pkg from pkg+
http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/FreeBSD:12:sparc64/quarterly, please wait...
pkg: Error fetching
http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/FreeBSD:12:sparc64/quarterly/Latest/pkg.txz: No
address record
A pre-built version of pkg could not be found for your system.
Consider changing PACKAGESITE or installing it from ports: 'ports-mgmt/pkg'.


The FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-sparc64-dvd1.iso.xz image contains a package
repository for amd64 but not for sparc64.

Thank you,
Alex
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[Mark Linimon-2]

Correct.  portmgr has not built packages for sparc64 in many years.

Up until about a year ago I was building them myself, but other work
called me away from that task.

Unfortunately sparc64 has now (officially) fallen below the threshhold
where FreeBSD can support it.  As of a week or two ago support was
removed from the -CURRENT src tree.

So, I'm sorry, but I think you should pick one of the other *BSDs at
this point.

mcl
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[Bill Sorenson]

On Thu, Feb 6, 2020 at 9:31 AM Mark Linimon <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> Correct.  portmgr has not built packages for sparc64 in many years.
>
> Up until about a year ago I was building them myself, but other work
> called me away from that task.
>
> Unfortunately sparc64 has now (officially) fallen below the threshhold
> where FreeBSD can support it.  As of a week or two ago support was
> removed from the -CURRENT src tree.
>
> So, I'm sorry, but I think you should pick one of the other *BSDs at
> this point.
>
> mcl

I've been a hobbyist user of FreeBSD on sparc64 for quite a while. I've had
reasonable luck with 11.X, issues with 12.X. Going forward I'd recommend
OpenBSD, its been very stable for me, very few issues and many packages
are available pre-built.
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[Mark Linimon-2]

On Thu, Feb 06, 2020 at 10:27:47AM -0600, Bill Sorenson wrote:
> I've been a hobbyist user of FreeBSD on sparc64 for quite a while. I've had
> reasonable luck with 11.X, issues with 12.X.

11.X was the last time the arch got much attention.

mcl
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[Alex Ernst]

Thank you guys for the info.
I think it is confusing to provide stable official images for sparc64
packing amd64 repository into FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-sparc64-dvd1.iso.xz :)

Alex


On Fri, Feb 7, 2020 at 1:50 AM Mark Linimon <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 06, 2020 at 10:27:47AM -0600, Bill Sorenson wrote:
> > I've been a hobbyist user of FreeBSD on sparc64 for quite a while. I've
> had
> > reasonable luck with 11.X, issues with 12.X.
>
> 11.X was the last time the arch got much attention.
>
> mcl
>
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[Ed Maste-2]

On Fri, 7 Feb 2020 at 06:46, Alex Ernst <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Thank you guys for the info.
> I think it is confusing to provide stable official images for sparc64
> packing amd64 repository into FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-sparc64-dvd1.iso.xz :)

Indeed, this is certainly not intentional, and quite undesirable. That
said, I'm not sure there's a sensible remedy; deleting the image is
likely our only option other than the status quo, and I'm not sure
that having no image at all is better.
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[Mark Linimon-2]

On Fri, Feb 07, 2020 at 04:42:35AM -0500, Ed Maste wrote:
> I'm not sure that having no image at all is better.

There's no upgrade path, and no need to encourage new installs even of the
existing bits.  I'd say delete it.

mcl
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