HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Interesting, was that a fork (or out-of-tree port)? From this interview with maddog, I had the impression that Alpha was the first non-x86 port:

https://youtu.be/EZMA3Ge144U?t=1610 (background) https://youtu.be/EZMA3Ge144U?t=1871 (start of the specific anecdote)

⬐ LukeShu

Yes, Linux/m68k mostly lived out-of-tree for a while (with bits and pieces of it landing upstream); from its inception in 1993 until it was (iirc) fully merged in 1996.

Being the first non-x86 port, a lot of things originated there. The virtual console everyone is familiar with originated in Linux/m68k; the i386 Linux used the hardware's built-in text-mode, but the Amiga only had a bitmap display, so in order to get a shell they had to implement a virtual text display that rasterized the text in software.

Maddog had the Alpha sent to Linus in 1994, but Linus didn't begin work until January 1995.

Here's the June 1993 announcement of Linux/m68k 0.05, which I understand to be the first release that was publicly distributed http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/historic-linux/ftp-archives/tsx-1... I haven't actually been able to track down that release tarball, but the 0.05p1 patch release is at http://www.oldlinux.org/Linux.old/ftp-archives/tsx-11.mit.ed... More links at https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/ejkp1x/what_is_t...

⬐ rwmj

Did the Amiga actually have an MMU capable of running Unix? I seem to remember an early version of the m68k port faked fork by copying memory back and forth (so each "forked" process saw the same memory addresses), but I might be confusing Linux with Minix.

⬐ IcePic

Linux-m68k required a 68020/030+68x51 MMU, or a 68040/060 with built-in MMU.

⬐ LukeShu

From the 1999 FAQ: http://www.linux-m68k.org/faq/reqs.html http://www.linux-m68k.org/faq/mmubuy.html

A great interview on the first Linux port on RISC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZMA3Ge144U