Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
15 years ago

internal compiler error in Net-SNMP compilation

Did anyone run into that ? (build env is latest from GIT) ../../net-snmp-5.2.1/snmplib/parse.c: In function 'unload_all_mibs': ../../net-snmp-5.2.1/snmplib/parse.c:4057: error: unrecogniza...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
15 years ago

Hi, Hippo,

--- Quote Start ---

It would be nice if you can work as the chief maintainer. You surely know much better than I do. Please help the community.

--- Quote End ---

At first, we must consider the next three points.

1) How can we maintain the Nios Linux distribution and its community?

2) Why must we maintain the Nios Linux distri. and its community?

3) What does Altera consider about the Nios Linux distri. and its community?

To maintain a Linux distri., we need at least 5~8 experts who can contribute continuously (3 experts for Linux kernel itself, 2~3 experts for tool-chains, and 1 or more for its applications). Especially we only have incomplete tool-chains, so we must repair it, but I don't want to treat the 'Stallman's Black Magic' without some financial reward, because it's a quite hard and time-eating task. Moreover, Linux kernel is only 'a kernel' and we need some attractive and practical applications which run on the Nios Linux system. Present Nios Linux distri. is a 'cannon without shells'. How many experts can you prepare?

Second question deeply relates to 3). These source codes are the products of 'Open Source' communities, and such communities are maintained by many volunteers. Altera once used the products for their commercial benefit and threw back those to volunteers again. I think it's a little bit irresponsible and selfish behavior. What is the benefit for volunteers and customers of Altera to maintain this community? Moreover, we should consider that Altera is now planning to introduce the ARM and MIPS core into their FPGA. How does Altera treat the Nios after those? Anyway we must consider that we are all dancing on the stage of Open Source communities, and Altera must load those products into their ARM cores etc. So I think that Altera should read the famous paper 'The Cathedral and the Bazaar'

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/ (http://www.catb.org/%7eesr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/)

to succeed in the open source communities, because it has been proved that the qualities of their products which they spent a lot of money are quite low as they need the debugging of Sunday programmers.

Kazu