Re: FreeBSD 14: Poll armv6 deprecated or removed

Hi,

On Thu, 28 Oct 2021 at 17:38, Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> Given that the number of available and useful armv6 boards has fallen to
> almost zero, the time has come to look hard at armv6.
>
> There's a number of options.
>
> 1. Keep it as is. This will only happen if there's a lot more users than we
> think (and we think there's nearly zero users of FreeBSD 13 and newer that
> would want to run FreeBSD 14).
>
> 2. Stop building packages. Given it's small to non-existent user base, it
> makes no sense to provide a package building service for it.
> 2a. We should likely do this anyway for all stable branches since it's a
> net negative in terms of cost/benefit analysis: lots of effort to produce,
> very little use.
>
> 3. Disconnect it from universe: This will mean it will rot, though. It's a
> necessary step in removal.
>
> 4. Remove support for armv6 in base entirely. This will orphan any RPiB and
> RPi0 users out there. However, the RPiB hasn't been sold in a few years,
> and the RPI0's connectivity is severely lacking given no SDIO support.
>
> So, which of these steps do we do before FreeBSD 14 and which before
> FreeBSD 15?
>
> My vote would be to do 1-4 for 14 including 2a.
>

I'm using a RPI-B+ running 13.0-RELEASE. It is running permanently reading
my electricity meter and sending it back via WIFI and IPv6 to my main
computer. I normally upgrade to the next release when it is out. Normally
by popping out the SD card and dd-ing a new image on it. I do not use any
packages on that one.

So my preference would be to have releases built and I am not too worried
about packages.

Regards

John



> Warner
>