Firstly, I wanna address to Haiku, Inc. about help to X512 (Ilya Chugin). He is working hard on porting Haiku to RISC-V architecture. You always say that we have no people resources for working on Haiku. Here is a man who is burning with the idea and desire to make a complete port of Haiku to a new architecture. So why not just buy him SiFive HiFive Unmatched board and let him finish port on real hardware? You have enought money in piggy bank. I think it’s great idea and this port will make additional ad for Haiku around the world and who knows maybe somebody will join the project just thank to this.
I know that red tape and other excuses will begin now as always, so… I have plan B.
Second call is a call for Haiku community. Hey, fellows! Let’s help to Ilya to finish RISC-V port on real hardware and donate to him directly? I asked him create PayPal account for that. So here it is: PayPal.Me. Ilya can confirm that it’s his account. Let’s make good thing for Haiku and for the good man Ilya.
When I get board, I will report progress on real hardware with photos and screenshots. Port is almost ready for testing on real hardware, only some small adjustments are needed. Real hardware allows to simplify compiling of HaikuPorts packages because cross-compilation and Linux will be no longer needed.
If I recall correctly non-profits can get the board for free. So the Inc. could step in, acquire the board, and then ship it over to @X512
Edit: Turns out it’s not the SiFive, but RISC-V will help you figure out what boards you need, someone from the Inc. just needs to apply here: RISC-V Developer Boards - RISC-V International
I think you may have to chase it up - they say they review applications every week. Notably, there are terms that require you to provide updates every month on the progress:
Applications are reviewed on a weekly basis. All applications are evaluated based on the benefits to the RISC-V community and the applicability in the RISC-V ecosystem.
The priority for the delivery of boards is based on the value of the proposed project. Our goal is to provide 50% of the available boards to academia. All applications that qualify will be considered on a first-come / first-serve basis.
Applicants of the boards must be willing to provide a monthly status of their project and work with RISC-V marketing to document their project and results. Applicants must provide monthly feedback and responses to RISC-V emails.
Decisions on board allocations are final. RISC-V as the administer of this program will abide by all laws in the United States and other government rules. Supply is limited and subject to availability. RISC-V provides no direct support; the RISC-V Slack channel is available for questions. Vendor members who have provided the boards MAY provide support.
Hello @leavengood@axeld@kallisti5@anevilyak , attention of Haiku inc members is requested here. What is your position on this hardware funding request?
(background info: I purchased my SiFive Unmatched board with my own personal money)
That would cost way too much in shipping… plus i’m using mine
This actually has been a topic the board has been discussing internally for a few weeks.
My own personal opinion is I would like to see X512 work on refining and up-streaming more of his existing TinyEmu / qemu RISC-V patches before purchasing a $700 USD development board for him. (most of his work still remains outside of our git repository… which means nobody else can contribute to the RISC-V port until more of X512’s code is refined + merged)
I’ve removed myself from the final Haiku, Inc. decision on it though as I’m pretty close to the the issue. (I wrote the original RISC-V code, got the toolchain running, and completed the initial EFI support. I’ve also been helping review, fixing style issues, and build issues in X512’s code)
I have an idea which I am running by other members of Haiku, Inc. I don’t think we should count on getting free boards, though it would not hurt to apply, but for the short term I think Haiku, Inc may need to spend some money.
Hopefully we can have a response from other members in a few days. Alex and I are paying attention but other members of Haiku, Inc can be slow to reply to requests.
I would like to thank everyone for their generosity so far but would also like to say that Haiku, Inc is willing to cover the cost of the board, plus shipping, which should be around $697.
Though it is up to @X512 if he wants that full amount or only what is remaining after other donations. I think taking the full amount is fine because there is more needed to run this board so I would say the other 23% could help on that (SSD or NVMe, case, power supply, video card, etc.) Of course video cards are hard to come by right now though maybe for this one an older card might be fine.
Also for complete transparency I have also decided to offer reimbursement from Haiku, Inc to Alex for the HiFive Unmatched board he bought. He has not asked but he too has put effort into the RISC-V port, and he does a ton of work to keep Haiku going on various fronts, including being the release manager for Beta 3.
We only ask that while this is kind of a reward for two valuable contributors we also expect the excellent results on the port to continue!
Thank you @leavengood for making this happen. I can only speak for myself, but this is what I want to see happen to my donated funds.
While you are at it, also ask @X512 if he would be willing to take on a full time contract working for a full market salary. The work that he is doing is nothing but amazing. To me it seems like every time @X512 pokes around in the Haiku codebase, he uncovers and fixes bugs all throughout the system that has gone unnoticed for a long time. I would love to see a contract for WebPositive (which I see as the last big obstacle to fix in order to release R1), an ARM port or just the assignment of doing whatever it takes to make Haiku R1 ready. In either case, I know @X512 will do an excellent job benefiting Haiku. I am also certain that the community will help out by donating the funds needed in order to keep him employed for a long time, probably years.
That would be difficult because I have job in Japan and I will be likely more busy in next months. Haiku Inc. unlikely have Japan branch that can offer a contract with stay permit. I also don’t want to move to another country.
X512 (Ilya Chugin). He is working hard on porting Haiku to RISC-V architecture. You always say that we have no people resources for working on Haiku. Here is a man who is burning with the idea and desire to make a complete port of Haiku to a new architecture. So why not just buy him SiFive HiFive Unmatched board and let him finish port on real hardware? You have enought money in piggy bank. I think it’s great idea and this port will make additional ad for Haiku around the world and who knows maybe somebody will join the project just thank to this.
