Open Source SLOF

I just tried to download and build the SLOF open source release. The SLOF release itself can be downloaded here (note that an IBM ID, aka registration, is required). Let me just say that is has been a very pleasant experience - everything worked out of the box!

The release tar ball contains a file INSTALL with pretty good instructions on what needs to be done to compile the code. What's missing is a link to the required JS20/JS21/Bimini System-Interface Code. It's on the SLOF download page but it took me a moment to realize it's there.

Once the system interface code has been downloaded and extracted, run the install-oco.sh script that's included in the tar ball. It takes one parameter, the path to the extracted SLOF source code.

Also, the x86emu code needs to be pulled from the coreboot subversion repository. Execute the x86emu_download.sh script in other-licence/x86emu/ and it will do that for you.

Finally, export the CROSS environment variable. In my case I had to set it to "ppu-" by running

export CROSS=ppu-

Then, just run this command to compile the code:

make js2x

Almost all of the information above is included in the INSTALL file with the exception of the missing link. Again, this is a very pleasant surprise to me. There are other vendors where Open Source does not work so flawlessly. Hey there, Intel ;-).