Rpmint

One of the first comments made about RPMint was the issue of performance. Specifically that RPM package builds should be done on a PC using a cross compiler. This is reasonably sound advice but not all the packages are going to be cross compiler ready. I have 3 solutions that I think work pretty well though when combined together that I'll talk about. The first thing is configure cache. I specify as part of the configure script a static configuration file.

One of the challenges of developing RPMint is rebuilding all of the packages using a modern compiler. Sparemint was built with gcc 2.95.3 almost exclusively which is incredibly dated. We are on GCC version 7 now! Unfortunately for ease of use, building software for the coldfire variant is going to require GCC 4.x at minimum. Often rebuilding an older package with a newer compiler exposes source code errors or incompatibilities. The typical path is.

Once upon a time there was Sparemint. A term used to collectively describe a group of RPM packages for FreeMiNT. RPM packages - for those that don’t know - are basically just software archives like a zip file with a bit of metadata built in. More importantly the system includes instructions and patches for compiling. Sparemint isn’t gone since what was built still exists and all.. But the domain no longer points at a valid website and nobody really controls it or maintains it.