Zeta Platform

!=Zeta_header.png!

{{toc}}

Zeta is the name of a virtual platform, or architecture.

!>screenshots.png!:/projects/zeta/wiki/screenshots

There are specifications (see the handbook), and a basic, not-yet-optimised emulator (cpu, ram, clock, mainboard). The architecture is simple, barely having the minimum needed to run linux with MMU.

The purpose is to play with the toolchain and the linux kernel, to learn more about those core technologies. Binutils and gcc are already ported at 80%25. (No static lib nor PIC code yet, userland compilation untested.) Using those tools (as "cross-compilers"), the real work can now begin : porting linux to Zeta. This is still work in progress. This kernel is called ZetaLinux.

Zeta is designed and written by "Thomas Capricelli":http://www.freehackers.org/thomas/free-software/

h1. Status

Zeta 0.6 was released in july 2007. The toolchain and the kernel were updated to latest version, and the handbook has been improved.

Version of external tools used:

<pre>

BINUTILS_VERSION = 2.17 

GCC_VERSION = 4.1.2 

KERNEL_VERSION = 2.6.22

</pre>

The whole chain was tested on i386 and amd64 host platforms. 

h1. Get the code

All the code can be found on http://sources.freehackers.org/ : you can either download tarballs or clone the repositories using "mercurial":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercurial_(software) ("homepage":http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki) if you know what this is.

There are 4 repositories:

* Zeta-binutils is a port of binutils to Zeta

* Zeta-gcc is a port of gcc to Zeta

* Zeta-linux is a port of the linux kernel to Zeta

* Zeta is the main repository, with specification, documentation, test cases and the emulator.

h1. Quickstart

First you need to install the toolchain. The default is to install everything under /opt/zeta, and your user should have write permission there. Else you need to slightly change the top of zeta.binutils/Makefile and zeta.gcc/Makefile

<pre>

# from the directory zeta.binutils

make install

# from inside zeta.gcc

make install

</pre>

Then you need to check your installation.

<pre>

# from the directory zeta/tests

make

</pre>

You should get this at the end:

<pre>

##########################################

########     Testsuite OK       ##########

##########################################

</pre>

Then you need to cross-compile the kernel

<pre>

# from the directory zeta.linux

make oldconfig

make clean

make

</pre>

Now compile the emultaor

<pre>

# from the directory zeta/emulator

make

</pre>

To try the graphical emulator, do the following:

<pre>

# from the directory zeta/emulator/gui

#./zeg <path to your zeta.linux directory>

# example :

./zeg ~/hg/zeta.linux

</pre>

h1. Developer information

* [[FAQ]]

* Tests

** [[tests_zeta|global tests]] : tests the whole Zeta toolchain

** [[tests_binutils|binutils]] : binutils upstream tests on Zeta

** [[tests_gcc|gcc]] : gcc upstream tests on Zeta

** [[tests_platforms|host platforms]] : checks that Zeta can be compiled/used on different platforms

* [[release checklist]]

The handbook describes tests further.

h1. Licencing

The whole code of the Zeta project is released under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL). 

h1. Future goals, ideas

* use "t2-project":http://www.t2-project.org to create the first distribution ?

* there are lot of testing suites over there..

* even benchmarks, such as "nbench":http://www.tux.org/~mayer/linux/bmark.html

* documentation for tests in the handbook

* uclib

* busybox

* framebuffer

* qtopia

* opie, etc..