Posted on the OpenBSD-misc mailing list, shedding some light on what's going   
   with the Pegasos hardware...   
      
   OpenBSD/pegasos is gone.   
      
   From what originally sounded like promising Open Source support, the   
   relationship between Genesi and Dale Rahn has turned quite sour.   
      
      
   I was initially contacted in Oct 2002 regarding porting OpenBSD to   
   the Pegasos I system. After some months, they contracted me to port   
   and support OpenBSD on the Pegasos I for a small amount of money and   
   5 boards for the use of myself and other OpenBSD developers. Due to   
   the production/hardware problems in the Pegasos I boards, I ended up   
   receiving one board. After the port was up and running with snapshots   
   and source changes available, it became clear that those systems were   
   not to ship in quantity, and the effort was stopped.   
      
   I was then contacted early in October 2003 asking me to update the port   
   for the 3.4 release. Because the funding for the DARPA Grant which   
   had been paying me was running out, I updated the code, made several   
   improvements and had it ready for a simultaneous release with the   
   official OpenBSD release.   
      
   I was hired on Oct 27 2003 as a non-benefits employee. Genesi wanted   
   me to port and support OpenBSD on the Pegasos II system. When I was   
   hired, I tried to impress on Bill Buck (who hired me over the phone)   
   that documentation was required to write the software and support a   
   commercial offering based on the Pegasos boards. I was reassured that   
   documentation would not be a problem.   
      
   Genesi was in talks with ShopIP regarding shipping Pegasos based   
   firewall boxes running ShopIP's crunchbox software. They were chasing   
   the high revenue opportunity.   
      
   Because of my status in OpenBSD and the fact that Genesi was (to be)   
   paying me a salary I worked on finishing the Pegasos port and getting it   
   into the OpenBSD tree.   
      
   Things appeared to be going well, however a minor delay was announced   
   with our Dec 1 paychecks. They were to be delayed until about Dec 10   
   due to 'stock market issues'. I was flown out to New York City to help   
   with the presentation of the 'Guardian', the Pegasos Crunchbox at the   
   InfoSec conference. When at the conference some unusual negotiation was   
   occurring between ShopIP and Genesi, there were some questions raised   
   as to who the 'IP' of ShopIP belonged as apparently the developer had   
   not been paid for nearly 2 years. This apparently came out about the   
   time that Genesi and ShopIP were negotiating how the guardian was to be   
   configured and the proceeds distributed.   
      
   As the conference ended, the delayed payday arrived. Several of the   
   other 'employees' of Genesi were quite anxious to receive their checks   
   and a plan was made to FedEx the checks from the conference. Since I was   
   at the conference with Paul, I was written a check (for Oct and Nov) and   
   handed it.   
      
   Later I find out that the other checks which were to be FedEx'ed were   
   never sent. The check which I was handed (for $10,000) turned out to be   
   dated 12/11/01 (two years previous), the bank refused to honor the check   
   and did not even attempt to cash it. (Much later I find out that the   
   account did not have the money present, even if the check had gone thru   
   the bank).   
      
   After living thru a very uncomfortable Christmas, my smallest and most   
   miserable in my life because I had not seen any money from Genesi, I   
   finally blew up shortly after the new year and told them I was ready to   
   walk. Part of me was still hoping to get the 15,000 they owed me at that   
   point, or I would have walked then. This resulted in them paying me for   
   one month of work ('we have no money left') to keep me around.   
      
   The Pegasos II which had just shipped and was still sitting unopened on   
   the floor might have also influenced that money. So, I was mollified and   
   the OpenBSD port was started. Unfortunately, because of non-standard PCI   
   probing methods in the new northbridge, porting the software took longer   
   than expected.   
      
   After some workarounds from hints from thrice forwarded emails, I was   
   able to configure the system and get it running. It would have been   
   quite straightforward to have written this properly if they had provided   
   the documentation as they had planned. I pointed this out and stated   
   that to write the gigabit ethernet which was to be used in the Guardian   
   product, it would need that documentation otherwise a performant correct   
   driver could not be written. bPlan and the Linux developer Sven (who   
   by that time was unemployed due to Thendic-France closing) had the   
   documentation. I, however, as a Genesi employee was not allowed to   
   obtain the documentation.   
      
   Finally, (to shut me up I think), I was sent the linux driver for the   
   onboard gigabit. I had previously told them that having a linux driver   
   as reference would be nice but could not replace documentation, as most   
   linux drivers do not lend themselves to being comprehended in such a   
   way that the hardware is understandable and that a driver for OpenBSD   
   could be written. That and the fact I found they were not configuring   
   the gig-E interrupt correctly, but were tying it to the generic IRQ9 so   
   that it gets serviced occasionally, was quite amusing.   
      
   I continued attempting to improve the port for some time, meanwhile   
   working on OpenBSD/cats, however little progress was made on Pegasos.   
      
   It was announced that a new Pegasos II board run would occur and hints   
   appeared on the developer chat areas that new firmware enhancements   
   were to appear. Wanting OpenBSD to be able to support the new features   
   (reset!) of this firmware, I attempted to obtain a copy. After about a   
   week of begging on the chat sessions, I was able to locate someone who   
   had a copy of the early firmware and obtain a copy. The normal source,   
   the developer and the other bPlan representatives ignored all requests.   
      
   When I tested this new firmware on my machine, I panicked. OpenBSD would   
   not boot. It would load the kernel and hang. I IMMEDIATELY contacted   
   the Genesi and bPlan people claiming that this firmware had problems   
   and that these problems needed to be resolved before the hardware was   
   released. I offered my time to help locate the change which caused   
   the problem, whether it was an error in the new firmware or modified   
   assumptions that both the firmware and the OpenBSD kernel make. I   
   received exactly one response stating some things had changed, however   
   the reply was not specific enough to use to start debugging the issue.   
   All other attempts at contact were ignored. About 1.5 weeks later the   
   new boards were released and according to information by one of the   
   users, released with firmware made the day I contacted them (which was   
   newer that what I tested). No further communication was received after   
   _many_ attempts were made.   
      
   After over a week of this, the announcement that (again?) there would be   
   no payments made (was the end of the month again) and that the health   
   benefits which they had been promising for the last 3 months would be   
   delayed at least another month, I resigned (the date, March 1st). It was   
   quite clear that Bill Buck who was supposed to be CEO of Genesi and 'in   
   charge' had no power over bPlan. bPlan didn't care at all about OpenBSD   
   or the overall quality of the board in the embedded market. I received a   
   simple reply that was an acceptance of my resignation, and a statement   
   that "We will make every effort to pay you for the services you have   
   provided over the past several months".   
      
   At the point I left Genesi, I did not threaten or put any conditions on   
   OpenBSD/pegasos. I continued asking Genesi/bPlan for fixed firmware or   
   comments on what changed. No response ever came.   
      
   Finally I sent them a note stating that it was too late for any changes   
   to go into the OpenBSD release (which is at the end of the 3.5 release   
   cycle) and that we would not be able to release OpenBSD/pegasos based on   
   the support provided and that it would be removed from the tree after   
   3.5. This finally provoked a response: Since "you were not able to work   
   on Genesi related projects after February 4th" any "consulting fees"   
   would not paid past that date. In addition, I was to be billed for the   
   two boards which were sent to Theo de Raadt.   
      
   This is how I was treated in the employ of Genesi, I hope that no others   
   will be hurt by this company's empty promises or as a result of using   
   their shoddy products.   
      
   So here I am after having worked for Genesi for 4.5 months, paid for   
   almost _5_weeks_, and searching for a job. Sigh.   
      
   Dale Rahndrahn@dalerahn.com   
       
      
      
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