/usr/ports/x11/xorg build fail on SunBlade 100

[Alexey Dokuchaev]

On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 03:31:58PM -0600, Chris Nicol wrote:
> Dear X11 at FreeBSD,
> 
> I have recently installed FreeBSD 12.1 on a SunBlade 100, then built
> portsnap on the system, to build some additional items from /usr/ports.

Hi Chris,

While I'll be perhaps more happy than others if FreeBSD could run on
sparc64 platforms, reality gets in the way, unfortunately.  Our sparc64
port did not proper attention in years, and support for it had deteriorated
considerably since ~10.4-STABLE times.  We (FreeBSD Project) simply don't
have sufficient resources, mainly manpower, to keep the sparc64 port viable.
As disappointing as it sounds, modern hardware got a lot more complicated
and that dictates us to pay more attention to mainstream platforms rather
than the Sun Blade 100 series which hit the market back in 2001 and 2002.

Support for sparc64 had been officially dropped in 13-CURRENT, and while
12.1 release notes (hardware compatibility) still lists it as supported
architecture, you'd probably better off with 10.4 or even another OS such
as NetBSD.

> One of the first things to work on was getting X Windows up and running,
> so I ran a "make install" in the /usr/ports/x11/xorg directory.

Given the above, I don't think running modern X11 stack would give you
pleasant experience even if you manage to somehow build and run it.  It
could still be probably useful as a server, but while some of us would
try to help, you'd have to understand that when running 12.1, not to say
10.4, you should be ready for self-support.

./danfe (FreeBSD and old hardware lover).