SourceForge.net: GNU-Darwin Distribution: News

Project News for GNU-Darwin Distribution

• GNU-Darwin: hardware, sales, money

  Sorry to report that we were unable to procure the Astrolabe cluster for
  the Distribution. Huge thanks to those who tried to help, but we fell
  quite short. It should be noted that we don't distribute the ppc
  version of the OS at this time, because we are currently unable to
  verify that it works without the proprietary drivers. This is primarily
  due to our current lack of a suitable machine for testing.

  I am monkey-wrenching some hardware around the house in order to free
  up my wife's college G4 for the purpose of OS testing, but I can't yet
  guarantee success there. We are working to address this problem as we
  can, but everyone should note that we are all unpaid volunteer
  developers with big responsibilities elsewhere.

  Thanks to everyone who has been donating money, purchasing discs, and
  subscribing to our web services, and aside from out-of-date Apple
  hardware, we are otherwise secure and well equipped. Distribution
  proceeds are now going primarily into savings for a new Apple machine,
  which I hope to have in service in about one year. It is unfortunate
  that we were unable to procure the famous G4 proto-cluster ;-}, but I am
  also confident that we will eventually have these problems solved
  somehow.

  BTW, next time you hear from be, I will probably on the job at Johns
  Hopkins School of Medicine. Many thanks to all the GNU-Darwinists
  and others who helped to make the last 3.5 years an exciting adventure.
  We are just getting started, and GNU-Darwin will remain robustly engaged
  through this transition and for the duration. As always, please feel
  free to pass this info along as you like, and contact me anytime.
  Cheers!

  Regards,
  Michael L. Love
  MacCHESS
  Cornell University
  http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

  
  

  2004-03-26 23:43:22 GMT by proclus

• GNU-Darwin: publication, astrolabe cluster

  GNU-Darwin and Apple get a peer-reviewed nod this month in the upcoming
  issue of the journal Structure. Nearly all the computational work was
  done at Cornell using the "Astrolabe" G4 minicluster and GNU-Darwin
  tools. That includes molecular graphics production, building the
  structure, crystallographic refinement, and writing the paper. I used
  GNU-Darwin ppc, x86, VIM, Ghostscript, LaTeX, PyMOL, gdFortran, LAM/MPI,
  AbiWord, OpenOffice, Mozilla, and Raster3D, many of which get mentioned
  in the paper. If you like structural biology and free software, it is
  worth a look.

  The Distribution now has an opportunity to obtain the Astrolabe
  mini-cluster which was used for most of these calculations. There are
  two 533MHz Dual G4 machines, with a connecting Asante gigabit switch,
  all for the cost of $600. Many of you know that I am moving to Johns
  Hopkins in a couple of weeks, so I am unfortunately unable to make the
  purchase at this time, due to moving expenses, etc. We must leave this
  up to our benefactors and users. If you would like us to acquire this
  excellent machine expressly for package production and other
  Distro-related developments, please send us cash a donation soon. Time
  is of the essence.

  https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=proclus%40gnu-darwin.org&item_name=The+GNU-Darwin+Distribution&item_number=12191911172001a&image_url=http%3A//www.gnu-darwin.org/4paypal.png&no_shipping=1&return=http%3A//www.gnu-darwin.org&cancel_return=http%3A

  Here is the Structure reference, which should be available in a few
  days. It is a great example of the amazing things that can be done with
  free software and Apple computers together.

  Article title: ADP-ribosyl cyclase: crystal structures reveal a covalent intermediate
  Authors: Michael L. Love, Doletha M. E. Szebenyi, Irina A. Kriksunov, Daniel J. Thiel, Cyrus Munshi, Richard Graeff, Hon Cheung Lee, Quan Hao
  Journal title: Structure
  Citation Information: Vol 12/3 pp 477-486

  Some of you may be able to view the article at the Structure website or
  Science Direct.

  http://www.structure.org/
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/

  (update Wed Mar 24 15:07:28 EST 2004

  Here is the direct link. http://www.structure.org/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS0969212604000486)

  Sorry if you get more than one copy of this message. It is crucial for
  us to obtain more Apple machines in order to maintain our package
  collection and OS installers at the level that our users are accustomed
  to. Please consider helping the Distro at this crucial time. Thanks!

  Regards,
  Michael L. Love
  MacCHESS
  Cornell University
  http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

  2004-03-08 21:17:38 GMT by proclus

• GNU-Darwin: new shell server

  We have a new server for our shell account users. This 2GHz AMD XP
  machine has a loaded motherboard; USB, Firewire, Bluetooth, Promise
  SATA/RAID, IR, Gigabit network, etc. That should be really nice for
  development. This thing was a steal. I got a refurbished MSI K400
  Ultra FISR from Newegg, and a black Chieftec server chassis from
  Ebay for cheap. I'm planning on building it up as a terabyte
  server/freenet node for the Distro.

  It is running gnu-darwin-701-1fv, which was a bit of a trick. I had to
  copy some files from the CDR to get it working.

  If you would like to try a GNU-Darwin shell account or other internet services, we are still running our free trial offer. Check it out!

  http://webmail.gnu-darwin.org

  Regards,
  proclus
  http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

  
  

  2004-02-19 17:26:15 GMT by proclus

• GNU-Darwin free OS: 7.0.1

  I adapted Sen's directions to GNU-Darwin-only with a spare hard drive
  (see below), removed the proprietary drivers, and got a bootable raw
  image. If you just want to try the installer image, then you only need
  the cdrecord command at the end. I won't be able to test this installer
  before Monday, but thought that some of you might like to have the
  initial cut now. I am busy with interviews this week, but we might be
  able to upgrade the shell server to 701-free version later this month,
  if everything works out. The transfer will take a long time, but
  it will appear at the following links.

  installer:
  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnu-darwin/gnu-darwin-701-1fv.cdr.gz?download
  MD5 (gnu-darwin-701-1fv.cdr.gz) = c0051756f21f882b82a0942005095fe1
  430935068 bytes

  sources:
  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnu-darwin/gnu-darwin-701-1fv.sources.iso.gz?download
  MD5 (gnu-darwin-701-1fv.sources.iso.gz) = 105f3077819cbaf905886448a3f7df03
  431677647 bytes

  This is an HFS/ISO fat platter, which was ripped and burnt entirely with
  free software and GNU-Darwin-x86. It might not boot automatically on
  ppc machines because of the bless problem, although maybe it will work
  with some Open Firmware voodoo. Maybe something like the following.

  boot cd:mach_kernel

  It will be interesting to see how much ppc hardware is supported with
  the proprietary drivers removed. Any aids, suggestions, workarounds,
  etc, to this issue or the procedure below will be much appreciated, and
  I am confident that we will get to very much enlarged hardware support
  real soon now.

  If you would like to pre-order a hard copy CDR, just send $20 to the
  Distro PayPal, with your shipping address. We will get this out as soon
  as possible.

  https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=proclus%40gnu-darwin.org&item_name=The+GNU-Darwin+Distribution&item_number=12191911172001a&image_url=http%3A//www.gnu-darwin.org/4paypal.png&no_shipping=1&return=http%3A//www.gnu-darwin.org&cancel_return=http%3A

  There are reports that this version includes much expanded hardware
  support, such as SMP for some x86 configurations. We may have
  additional favorable hardware reports sometime after Monday. Cheers!

  Regards,
  proclus
  http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

  
  --
  Visit proclus realm! http://proclus.tripod.com/
  -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
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  cd darwin-701
  rsync -rvltpog ./usr/standalone/i386 /tmp
  cd /tmp/i386
  mkisofs -R -V Darwin -no-emul-boot -T -J -c boot.cat -b cdboot -hide-joliet-trans-tbl -v -o /tmp/i386.iso .
  cd /tmp
  du i386.iso
  pdisk /dev/rdisk0 -initialize
  pdisk /dev/rdisk0 -dump
  pdisk /dev/rdisk0 -createPartition Darwin Apple_HFS 712 1330424
  pdisk /dev/rdisk0 -dump
  dd if=/tmp/i386.iso of=/dev/rdisk0 skip=64 seek=64 bs=512
  mkdir -p /mnt
  newfs_hfs -v Darwin /dev/rdisk0s3
  mount -t hfs -o perm /dev/disk0s3 /mnt
  cd /Users/proclus/darwin-701
  rsync -rvltpog . /mnt
  dd if=/dev/rdisk0 of=gnu-darwin-701-1fv.cdr bs=512 count=1331135
  cdrecord dev=IODVDServices speed=2 -v -raw96r gnu-darwin-701-1fv.cdr

  2004-01-18 04:40:24 GMT by proclus

• GNU-Darwin supports AMD/Via (still)

  Darwin-7 initial report.

  I just tried the new Darwin-7 disc, and the situation appears favorable
  thus far. It booted just fine on an Apple G4, and on a 2 gigahertz
  Barton-core AMD XP with Via chipset. Contrary to some reports, the x86
  hardware support appears to be expanded, with possibly improved serial
  drivers. This looks like a winner to me.

  Has anyone tried it with an AMD 64 yet? You should be able to try the
  disc without affecting your installed OS. Please send a report, good
  or bad.

  I'll be assessing the proprietary driver situation soon, as well as the
  possibility of making a bootable disk without proprietary tools. More
  to come.

  Regards,
  proclus
  http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

  2003-11-18 23:21:15 GMT by proclus

via sourceforge.net

Here are some GNU-Darwin News releases going back to the very beginning. More to come.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Posted via web from proclus-gnu-darwin's posterous