[talk] LiteBSD and RetroBSD: the hardware for the July meeting

[Brian Callahan]

Hi everyone --

I'm doing next month's meeting on RetroBSD and LiteBSD. The hardware
these things run on are cheap and readily available, and likely the
meeting will be much more fun if people are hacking along with me.

So here's a list of hardware depending on whether or not you want to run
RetroBSD or LiteBSD. If you need help deciding, RetroBSD is a port of
2.11BSD and LiteBSD is a 4.4BSD-Lite2 based OS (like all the modern big
BSDs).

No matter what, you'll need a microSD card.

RetroBSD:
http://retrobsd.org/wiki/doku.php/board/index
I recommend the Olimex PIC32-RetroBSD and the chipKIT Max32. Keep in
mind that if you go with the Max32, you'll need an Arduino Ethernet
shield R3 (for its microSD card slot).

LiteBSD:
http://litebsd.org/
I recommend the chipKIT WiFIRE board and the Olimex EMZ64. If you buy
the EMZ64 you will need their UEXT to USB RS232 adapter:
https://www.olimex.com/Products/Modules/Interface/MOD-USB-RS232/open-source-hardware
-- alternatively, you could use telnet to access the EMZ64 (this is
indeed what I do with my EMZ64) but it is slower and you'll need a switch.

I do ask that if you purchase from Olimex, you mention me. Olimex has
been great with supporting the RetroBSD and LiteBSD communities and it
would be nice to show them that we RetroBSD/LiteBSD devs are
contributing back to them. Their hardware is also all Open Hardware,
which I think is nice.

Also, as of this morning, LiteBSD builds on FreeBSD! I will be
submitting a port to build the LiteBSD toolchain, but I can provide a
(10.x) binary for those who want to play around before the meeting.

Hope to see everyone out for the meeting with hardware!

~Brian