[gentoo-mips] Please test SGI mips stages

[Matt Turner <mattst88@gentoo.org>]

Hi,
I've completed a round of stages suitable for SGI mips systems.

They're available here: http://dev.gentoo.org/~mattst88/mips-stages/

In order to use them, you really need to have an existing Linux
installation (or BSD, perhaps?) since we don't have any working
netboot or CD images. (Please respond if lack of bootable media is
preventing you from testing. I really need to know what the demand
is.)

The stages are all multilib, meaning they support o32, n32 (default),
and n64 ABIs. n32 is the default ABI and it gives a rather nice
speed-up over the o32 ABI previously used. With multilib, glibc must
be compiled three times, so if you have no need for the o32 and n64
ABIs, you may switch profiles and on your next glibc build, they'll be
removed. Once removed, it's not trivial to get them back. If you wish
to switch the default ABI of your system, you should switch to another
multilib profile and recompile your system.

The mips3 stage is compiled with -mfix-4000 -mfix-4400 so it should be
suitable for any MIPS III system using R4xxx CPUs such as the Indigo,
Indy, and Indigo2.

The mips4 stage is suitable for systems with R5xxx CPUs such as the Indy and O2.

The mips4-r10k stage (will be uploaded in a few hours) is suitable for
supported R10k systems, such as the Indigo2 and Origin 2xx (and
perhaps R10k O2s?).

Please test and let me know of your results. If you are unable to test
due to lack of boot media, please tell me what kind of systems you'd
like boot media to be made for.

Thanks!
Matt

PS: there are a rapidly diminishing number of bugs that prevent MIPS
stages from being built without modifying the portage tree. They are
listed here:
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=354877
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=355283
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=358149
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=373361 (for r10k stages)

If you'd like to help offset the cost of electricity used to create
these and future stages, please send me a private email. :)