[gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[J. Scott Kasten]

Hi guys,

http://dev.gentoo.org/~kumba/mips/livecd/x-rc6/

I found an RC6 candidate here, but the file permissions are such that it 
cannot be downloaded.  I was very interested to try it out across several 
SGI platforms.

I'm trying to get a feel for where support for SGI hardware stands.  Am 
interested to see first hand what works, what doesn't, and what bugs still 
need to be squashed.  Especially what hasn't been tried yet.  :)

Thanks,
-S-

---

J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com>

Public  Key: http://www.jsk.homeunix.net:7777/jsk/JSK-GPG-Key.asc
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Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> http://dev.gentoo.org/~kumba/mips/livecd/x-rc6/
> 
> I found an RC6 candidate here, but the file permissions are such that it 
> cannot be downloaded.  I was very interested to try it out across 
> several SGI platforms.
> 
> I'm trying to get a feel for where support for SGI hardware stands.  Am 
> interested to see first hand what works, what doesn't, and what bugs 
> still need to be squashed.  Especially what hasn't been tried yet.  :)
> 
> Thanks,
> -S-

Actually, I locked it on my dev site after putting it on the mirrors.  Check 
your local mirror for it in experimental/mips/livecd/x-rc6/.  I just checked 
OSU's copy, and it lets you fetch the image.  Be sure to read the README :)


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Mike Martin]

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I recently downloaded and attempted to boot an Octane with this disk. It
died mounting the root partition:

mount: Mounting /newroot/dev/loop0 on /newroot/mnt/livecd failed: Invalid
argument

Not sure what happened. I assume I burnt the disk correctly else it wouldn't
have made it that far. Any suggestions?

MikeM

On 1/22/07, Kumba <kumba@gentoo.org> wrote:
>
> J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> >
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > http://dev.gentoo.org/~kumba/mips/livecd/x-rc6/
> >
> > I found an RC6 candidate here, but the file permissions are such that it
> > cannot be downloaded.  I was very interested to try it out across
> > several SGI platforms.
> >
> > I'm trying to get a feel for where support for SGI hardware stands.  Am
> > interested to see first hand what works, what doesn't, and what bugs
> > still need to be squashed.  Especially what hasn't been tried yet.  :)
> >
> > Thanks,
> > -S-
>
> Actually, I locked it on my dev site after putting it on the
> mirrors.  Check
> your local mirror for it in experimental/mips/livecd/x-rc6/.  I just
> checked
> OSU's copy, and it lets you fetch the image.  Be sure to read the README
> :)
>
>
> --Kumba
>
> --
> Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead
>
> "Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small
> hands
> do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are
> elsewhere."  --Elrond
> --
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Kumba]

Mike Martin wrote:
> I recently downloaded and attempted to boot an Octane with this disk. It 
> died mounting the root partition:
> 
> mount: Mounting /newroot/dev/loop0 on /newroot/mnt/livecd failed: 
> Invalid argument
> 
> Not sure what happened. I assume I burnt the disk correctly else it 
> wouldn't have made it that far. Any suggestions?
> 
> MikeM


It's really hard to say.  I tested it on all of my systems before uploading, and 
  with the Octane, this means an external drive (funny enough, an O2 CD drive 
jammed into a Sun 411 case).  And that booted fine on both my Octane and Indy.

"Invalid Argument" from mount could mean a wide array of things (yay for Unix's 
legacy of non-descriptive, ambiguous errors).  The process that occurs on an SGI 
bootcd for us is a rather complex one:

1. arcload boots from the DVh partition of the CD
	(yes, these CDs have partitions)
2. arcload finds and boots a kernel
3. kernel loads, and executes /init in an embedded initramfs file linked
	into the kernel
4. /init does some prep work, and launches `getdvhoff` to scan the CD
	for the offset of the next partition (where / lives), and passes a
	number representing this offset back to `losetup`.
5. losetup uses this number to "point" /dev/loop0 at this offset, which
	effectively makes /dev/loop0 a block device with data on it.
6. mount tries to mount /dev/loop0 and pivot_root into the real Gentoo
	filesystem.


Quite likely, step #5 might've failed somewheres along the line.  The offset has 
to be exact to the bit, so maybe something got whacked in the burn and the 
detected offset is invalid.  Hard to say without more information.  Thus, when 
it got to step #6, boom.

I'd try re-burning the disk at a slower speed, use only CD-R's of decent quality 
(TDK, Memorex, Sony, Ricoh/Ritek, etc,.. brands), and use cdrecord (or whatever 
license-unencumbered version is out there.  stupid license wars).  A few people 
reported getting it to work with a windows burn tool, but we have little data on 
that, thus why cdrecord is the suggested tool.

Mostly, you were able to read the kernel into memory, which is ~8MB.  It's 
possible the disc you burned was good enough to get those 8MB off to boot the 
kernel, but when it went looking for the meat, it got denied and pwned.



--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Mike Martin]

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Thanks for your help. I will try another burn. I'm using cdrecord and am
using (I believe) good media. What command parameters for cdrecord would you
recommend?

For fun I tried booting with a different external CD-ROM drive ... with
identical results.

I will also try the disk out on a R4600 Indy.

Thanks for your hard work.
MikeMartin

On 1/22/07, Kumba <kumba@gentoo.org> wrote:
>
> Mike Martin wrote:
> > I recently downloaded and attempted to boot an Octane with this disk. It
> > died mounting the root partition:
> >
> > mount: Mounting /newroot/dev/loop0 on /newroot/mnt/livecd failed:
> > Invalid argument
> >
> > Not sure what happened. I assume I burnt the disk correctly else it
> > wouldn't have made it that far. Any suggestions?
> >
> > MikeM
>
>
> It's really hard to say.  I tested it on all of my systems before
> uploading, and
>   with the Octane, this means an external drive (funny enough, an O2 CD
> drive
> jammed into a Sun 411 case).  And that booted fine on both my Octane and
> Indy.
>
> "Invalid Argument" from mount could mean a wide array of things (yay for
> Unix's
> legacy of non-descriptive, ambiguous errors).  The process that occurs on
> an SGI
> bootcd for us is a rather complex one:
>
> 1. arcload boots from the DVh partition of the CD
>         (yes, these CDs have partitions)
> 2. arcload finds and boots a kernel
> 3. kernel loads, and executes /init in an embedded initramfs file linked
>         into the kernel
> 4. /init does some prep work, and launches `getdvhoff` to scan the CD
>         for the offset of the next partition (where / lives), and passes a
>         number representing this offset back to `losetup`.
> 5. losetup uses this number to "point" /dev/loop0 at this offset, which
>         effectively makes /dev/loop0 a block device with data on it.
> 6. mount tries to mount /dev/loop0 and pivot_root into the real Gentoo
>         filesystem.
>
>
> Quite likely, step #5 might've failed somewheres along the line.  The
> offset has
> to be exact to the bit, so maybe something got whacked in the burn and the
> detected offset is invalid.  Hard to say without more information.  Thus,
> when
> it got to step #6, boom.
>
> I'd try re-burning the disk at a slower speed, use only CD-R's of decent
> quality
> (TDK, Memorex, Sony, Ricoh/Ritek, etc,.. brands), and use cdrecord (or
> whatever
> license-unencumbered version is out there.  stupid license wars).  A few
> people
> reported getting it to work with a windows burn tool, but we have little
> data on
> that, thus why cdrecord is the suggested tool.
>
> Mostly, you were able to read the kernel into memory, which is ~8MB.  It's
> possible the disc you burned was good enough to get those 8MB off to boot
> the
> kernel, but when it went looking for the meat, it got denied and pwned.
>
>
>
> --Kumba
>
> --
> Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead
>
> "Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small
> hands
> do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are
> elsewhere."  --Elrond
> --
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Kumba]

Mike Martin wrote:
> Thanks for your help. I will try another burn. I'm using cdrecord and am 
> using (I believe) good media. What command parameters for cdrecord would 
> you recommend?
> 
> For fun I tried booting with a different external CD-ROM drive ... with 
> identical results.
> 
> I will also try the disk out on a R4600 Indy.

for cdrecord:
cdrecord -vv -pad speed=16 dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 -tao <iso file>

Check the md5sum/sha1sum against what's listed on the mirrors too.

An R4600 Indy might be risky.  R4600 CPUs are some of the most error prone 
things.  So many hacks/workarounds in the kernel for them.  YMMV.



--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[J. Scott Kasten]

A belated thanks!  Sorry for slow reply, but I've been installing.  :)

I ended up using RC5 to bootstrap an IP32-R5K to partition the disk and 
add the netboot image and arcload to the volume header.  From there, I was 
able to run the normal install.  Thanks to the obvious hard work of lots 
of gentoo people, it went smooth.

I have already emerged my way up to loadable kernel modules, IPv6, 
XORG-X11, and am typing this mail on the system now.  It seems to be rock 
solid.  After I've thorougly checked my kernel out over a couple weeks, 
I'll post the config to Stuart's hardware compatibility page.

A few questions though.

[1] From looking at other configs there, and having just walked through 
the 2.17.10 config process, it looks like the alsa mips ip32 sound device 
has been disabled.  I cannot even select it in 2.17.10.  I was wondering 
what the status of this driver was.  Judging from submitted configs, it 
looks like people had been enabling it at 2.16 or earlier.

[2] What is the root password for the RC6 CD?  :)

I noticed in the RC6 comments that no-one had tested on the Indigo2, IP22 
arch.  I have a headless I2 (formerly extreeme) and will test boot it 
sometime this comming weekend.

[3] Has anyone tried Firewire in the O2 PCI slot?  I have an ADS 
Technologies combo Firewire/USB 2.0 PCI card comming soon.  This uses an 
ALI chipset.  I pulled the USB config from the RC6 CD kernel.  I suspect 
it won't be much to make the USB portion work.  It will be interesting to 
see about the firewire.  Fortunately Firewire chipsets are more 
standardized than USB.  I'll report back when I know something here.

Thanks,
-S-

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Kumba wrote:

> Actually, I locked it on my dev site after putting it on the mirrors.  Check 
> your local mirror for it in experimental/mips/livecd/x-rc6/.  I just checked 
> OSU's copy, and it lets you fetch the image.  Be sure to read the README :)
>
>
> --Kumba
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Andrew Gaffney]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> [2] What is the root password for the RC6 CD?  :)

Try 'sudo su -' or 'sudo -s' (whichever you prefer).

-- 
Andrew Gaffney                            http://dev.gentoo.org/~agaffney/
Gentoo Linux Developer                                   Installer Project
-- 
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Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Mike Martin]

Sorry for the delay. Here's what I've tried/found.

I did another burn at a slower speed as you suggested. Prior to this I
confirmed that the MD5Sum matched the one listed on the download site.
The burn finished without error. Booting from the burnt CD failed in
an identical manner as before. I also tried the same disk on an Indy,
which also failed in an identical manner. On an Indigo2 it also
failed, however since video wasn't working, I couldn't see the error.
I believe it would have been the same.

I also tried multiple CD-Rom drives (4 in total). This didn't have a
noticable effect.

Of interest is that the RC5 disk does boot perfectly, however since
the ethernet driver in the RC5 build was messed up, I can't do
anything usefull with it!

Can anyone help? I  would really like to get these machines functional!

Thanks in advance.
Mike Martin

On 1/23/07, Kumba <kumba@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Mike Martin wrote:
> > Thanks for your help. I will try another burn. I'm using cdrecord and am
> > using (I believe) good media. What command parameters for cdrecord would
> > you recommend?
> >
> > For fun I tried booting with a different external CD-ROM drive ... with
> > identical results.
> >
> > I will also try the disk out on a R4600 Indy.
>
> for cdrecord:
> cdrecord -vv -pad speed=16 dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 -tao <iso file>
>
> Check the md5sum/sha1sum against what's listed on the mirrors too.
>
> An R4600 Indy might be risky.  R4600 CPUs are some of the most error prone
> things.  So many hacks/workarounds in the kernel for them.  YMMV.
>
>
>
> --Kumba
>
> --
> Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead
>
> "Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands
> do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
> --
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Stephen P. Becker]

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> Can anyone help? I  would really like to get these machines
> functional!

Sure, use install via netboot, which has been our recommended method
from the beginning anyway.

-Steve

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Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Mike Martin]

That's the easy answer. Unfortunately the Octane (which is the one I
want to get working) resides on a network where netboot is not
allowed. Believe me, I've tried to do this.

The Indy, happily netboots (on my home network). I tried to boot it
and the Indigo2 from CD to test whether the problem what the Octane,
that CD or the X-RC6 distribution.

>From my understanding the intention of the X-RC6 cd is not to provide
the primary method of installing the OS. It is more of an experiment
to see if what can be done and provide a quick "hey look what Linux
can do" demo environment. I'm looking to use it for exactly that.

Thanks!
Mike Martin

On 2/2/07, Stephen P. Becker <geoman@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > Can anyone help? I  would really like to get these machines
> > functional!
>
> Sure, use install via netboot, which has been our recommended method
> from the beginning anyway.
>
> -Steve
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Mike Martin]

Success!

I have successfully burnt and booted my SGI Octane from Kumba's X-RC6
distribution. The trick was in the burning. I was burning it from SUSE
in a DVD burner. For whatever reason, it didn't work. I then tried
burning it using cdrecord under Windows XP. I know everything says you
can't burn the disk in Windows, but it was the only other machine I
had with a burner. It worked.

For the record I used this file:
http://smithii.com/files/cdrtools-2.01-bootcd.ru-w32.zip
downloaded from this site: http://smithii.com/cdrtools
with this command: cdrecord -vv -pad speed=12 dev=1,0,0 -tao
livecd-mips3-gcc4-X-RC6.img

I've used the disk to boot my Octane and my Indy, both into X without
any other problems.

Thanks everyone for your help!
Now I just need to figure out how to install and boot from the hard drive!

MikeMartin

On 2/2/07, Mike Martin <mikemartin@linux.ca> wrote:
> That's the easy answer. Unfortunately the Octane (which is the one I
> want to get working) resides on a network where netboot is not
> allowed. Believe me, I've tried to do this.
>
> The Indy, happily netboots (on my home network). I tried to boot it
> and the Indigo2 from CD to test whether the problem what the Octane,
> that CD or the X-RC6 distribution.
>
> From my understanding the intention of the X-RC6 cd is not to provide
> the primary method of installing the OS. It is more of an experiment
> to see if what can be done and provide a quick "hey look what Linux
> can do" demo environment. I'm looking to use it for exactly that.
>
> Thanks!
> Mike Martin
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Kumba]

Mike Martin wrote:
> Success!
> 
> I have successfully burnt and booted my SGI Octane from Kumba's X-RC6
> distribution. The trick was in the burning. I was burning it from SUSE
> in a DVD burner. For whatever reason, it didn't work. I then tried
> burning it using cdrecord under Windows XP. I know everything says you
> can't burn the disk in Windows, but it was the only other machine I
> had with a burner. It worked.
> 
> For the record I used this file:
> http://smithii.com/files/cdrtools-2.01-bootcd.ru-w32.zip
> downloaded from this site: http://smithii.com/cdrtools
> with this command: cdrecord -vv -pad speed=12 dev=1,0,0 -tao
> livecd-mips3-gcc4-X-RC6.img
> 
> I've used the disk to boot my Octane and my Indy, both into X without
> any other problems.
> 
> Thanks everyone for your help!
> Now I just need to figure out how to install and boot from the hard drive!

Interesting, what DVD Burner and what burning program?  I suspect a DVD drive 
that has a firmware bug in its handling of burnable CDs.  Probably such a subtle 
thing, QA missed it at the factory, or we're the only kind of setup that 
triggers it.

And we never said Windows was impossible, just no one's every really tried it 
before and reported success.  But you did, since win32 version of 
cdr-whateveritscallednow will do the trick nicely.



--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> [1] From looking at other configs there, and having just walked through 
> the 2.17.10 config process, it looks like the alsa mips ip32 sound 
> device has been disabled.  I cannot even select it in 2.17.10.  I was 
> wondering what the status of this driver was.  Judging from submitted 
> configs, it looks like people had been enabling it at 2.16 or earlier.

O2 doesn't have a working sound driver.  I dunno what the alsa mips thing is, 
but it's probably dead code.  A few people have, apparently, created a working 
sound driver, but they've never released the source, so, it's kinda like Duke 
Nukem Forever.

The only known driver was designed in the old 2.5 days and 2.6.1 timeframe, but 
attempts to forward port it never do too well.  It can be compiled, but all it 
does is make ears bleed with static.  Someone with an O2, free time, decent 
knowledge of sound hardware and kernel development, and a few pots of coffee 
needs to step forward and help us get the thing to work.


> [2] What is the root password for the RC6 CD?  :)
> 
> I noticed in the RC6 comments that no-one had tested on the Indigo2, 
> IP22 arch.  I have a headless I2 (formerly extreeme) and will test boot 
> it sometime this comming weekend.

There's isn't one available.  LiveCDs run pwgen to auto-scramble the password on 
bootup, so you have to use sudo to change it.

I2 IP22 testing is kinda limited, since my only R4400 motherboard just up and 
died for no reason.  So it's now an IP28 machine (that I haven't managed to boot 
for a few months now).  Plus it and Indy R4K are the only mips3-class machines 
we still support, and the Indy R4K series have always been a gamble.  Especially 
the R4600.


> [3] Has anyone tried Firewire in the O2 PCI slot?  I have an ADS 
> Technologies combo Firewire/USB 2.0 PCI card comming soon.  This uses an 
> ALI chipset.  I pulled the USB config from the RC6 CD kernel.  I suspect 
> it won't be much to make the USB portion work.  It will be interesting 
> to see about the firewire.  Fortunately Firewire chipsets are more 
> standardized than USB.  I'll report back when I know something here.

I haven't, but given that USB2 sometimes works better than the onboard scsi (w/ 
flash drives), it might work.  Give it a shot with some common firewire device 
that hopefully isn't too complicated, and let us know what happens.



--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

[gentoo-mips] Firewire & USB 2.0 on O2 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

Well, I can report some successes here with the ADS Technologies combo 
firewire and USB 2.0 PCI card in an SGI O2.

For the record, this card is on the shelf at most Circuit City stores for 
about $69 + tax.  You can also web order as I did at "thenerds.net" for 
about $38 + 9.99 shipping + tax.  They have 3 left.  The vendor part 
number is DLX-180.  Search on that or on ADS Technologies.  Although there 
are other combo cards out there, I picked this one because I could see the 
ALI logo on the main chip through the plastic bubble case at the store.

The card actually comes in two formats that I have seen so far for the 
same manufacturer part number.  The Circuit City in my locale has one with 
3 external USB 2.0, 2 external Firewire, and one internal Firewire port. 
The one that I received from "thenerds.net" has 2 external USB 2.0 and 2 
external Firewire.  Internally it has one Firewire and one USB 2.0.
All formats have 3 ports of each - they just differ on how many are 
exposed externally verses internally.

I finally received the dual feature card and stuffed it in the O2 over the 
weekend.  When booted up, the kernel automagically modprobed the firewire 
and USB stuff on it's own.

In regards to USB, I seem to have a thumb drive working perfectly at this 
point.  Here's the details:

* The kernel loaded the USB core, and loaded 3 instances of the USB OHCI
   driver, and 1 instance of the EHCI driver.  This didn't seem quite right
   to me, but what the heck.  Let's smoke test something anyway.

* I stuck my flash stick and voila - sdb and sdb1 magically instantiated.
   I mounted, read some files under VFAT, and unmounted.

* I pulled the stick out, and ......ew... black screen, dead box.
   Perhaps time to examine why there's so many USB drivers loaded?

* If I recall correctly, the EHCI driver is the right one for a USB 2.0
   chipset.  I tried turning off the USB OHCI driver in the various
   /etc/*mod* files but the kernel was still loading multiple USB OHCI and
   one EHCI.  So, being quite determined, I moved usb_ohci.ko to where the
   kernel loader couldn't find it and reran depmod.  I rebooted, and
   now I have USB core and USB EHCI only.

* SUCCESS! I was now able to plug, mount, read/write, unmount, and unplug
   the thumb drive several times without any problems.

In regards to the firewire, as I had indicated, the firewire OHCI 
modprobed fine and identified the host controller.  I plugged a firewire 
DVD-burnitall and received an attatchment event and some device table 
info, but the process stopped there - no sr1 or other driver popped into 
existance.

* I plugged and unplugged several times and received event notifications
   and no crashes or other faults.  I consider this promissing.

* It's been quite a while since I tried firewire on a linux box, but I
   beleive there is more to the process to get this working that what I
   have done thus far.  I just need to go through some docs and make sure I
   have all the required kernel pieces and userland pieces in place.  The
   suspicion is that it will "just work" when everything is set up.

TODO's.  I would like to exercize the USB and firewire more thorougly.

* The DVD-burnitall drive I have has both firewire and USB 2.0 jacks.  It
   would be a really good test to plug in the USB side and show that we can
   read and burn CD/DVD.  Honestly though, I'm just tickled to death that
   my thumb drives seem to function so that I can move files back and forth
   between work and home easily.

* After disk burning, I would like to try USB bluetooth.  I have all the
   kernel side modules built.  It would be another good exercise to show
   that a bluetooth adaptor works.  From there we got phone and pda sync,
   BT networking, etc.  It would be educational to see just how far one can
   get with all that.

* Firewire testing.  If I can get firewire support installed correctly, it
   would be neat to see just how far we can push that with DVD burning,
   external disks, or DV downloads.

I'll try and get my kernel config posted over at Stuart's hardware page 
today.

Happy hacking guys,

-S-

On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

>>  [3] Has anyone tried Firewire in the O2 PCI slot?  I have an ADS
>>  Technologies combo Firewire/USB 2.0 PCI card comming soon.  This uses an
>>  ALI chipset.  I pulled the USB config from the RC6 CD kernel.  I suspect
>>  it won't be much to make the USB portion work.  It will be interesting to
>>  see about the firewire.  Fortunately Firewire chipsets are more
>>  standardized than USB.  I'll report back when I know something here.
>
> I haven't, but given that USB2 sometimes works better than the onboard scsi 
> (w/ flash drives), it might work.  Give it a shot with some common firewire 
> device that hopefully isn't too complicated, and let us know what happens.
>
> --Kumba
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Question - Kumba LiveCD RC6

[Mike Martin]

> Interesting, what DVD Burner and what burning program? I suspect a DVD drive
> that has a firmware bug in its handling of burnable CDs.  Probably such a subtle
> thing, QA missed it at the factory, or we're the only kind of setup that
> triggers it.

It unsuccessfully burnt on a "GCA-4166B" in an HP AMD64 machine using
"cdrecord-clone" version 2.02 for x86-64 under SUSE Enterprise Desktop
10.

> And we never said Windows was impossible, just no one's every really tried it
> before and reported success.  But you did, since win32 version of
> cdr-whateveritscallednow will do the trick nicely.

Ture enough. I added the word impossible for dramatic effect.

MikeMartin
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

[gentoo-mips] O2 Sound and Misc Stuff. [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

I've seen the old driver patch you refer to floating around out there. 
After I've done my USB and firewire experiments, I wouldn't mind taking a 
look at this to see how bad it is.  An SGI without sound is kind of like a 
car without wheels....


Over all, I've been quite impressed.  Most things that I try seem to be 
generally working.  I've already succeeded in building the box up as a 
general desktop system.  X11, WindowMaker, transparent Xterms, NLS, DDD, 
gvim, GIMP, Firefox 2.0, QT, openGL (some GL works, some crash the X 
server), XFIG, gv (pdf and ps viewer), xv, gtk, imagemagik, tetex, 
ghostscript, etc...

I've also done some work to verify IPv6.  The kernel module loads, the 
machine auto addresses, and the 6-to-4 driver loads.  I still need to 
rebuild some userland with USE=ipv6 to fully check it out, but I'm not 
expecting any surprises at this point.

The PPTP and PPP-MPPE vpn support is working.  I've spent entire days 
plugged into my work VPN during my work from home days using the O2 as an 
X console and VPN access node.  No surprises here.

The file system chosen for my box is IBM's JFS.  In work life, I've been 
doing embedded stuff with JFS for a couple years now.  I first tried it 
with gentoo and mips under kernel 2.13 about a year and a half ago.  And 
under 2.17.10-mips, it is still proving to be solid and exceptionally well 
performing as I've emerged about 500 packages in the last couple weeks - 
no crashes, no oops, no data corruption, rock solid.  I know people on 
non-intel are skeptical of it, but I've been warming up to it a lot and 
have never seen issues, but I've had issues with reiser that made it 
unacceptable.  There's a lot in terms of performance and features to 
recommend this file system - assuming stability of course.  :)  It's 
definately worthy of consideration when setting up a new non-intel box.

Cheers,

-S-

On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

> J. Scott Kasten wrote:
>>
>>  [1] From looking at other configs there, and having just walked through
>>  the 2.17.10 config process, it looks like the alsa mips ip32 sound device
>>  has been disabled.  I cannot even select it in 2.17.10.  I was wondering
>>  what the status of this driver was.  Judging from submitted configs, it
>>  looks like people had been enabling it at 2.16 or earlier.
>
> O2 doesn't have a working sound driver.  I dunno what the alsa mips thing is, 
> but it's probably dead code.  A few people have, apparently, created a 
> working sound driver, but they've never released the source, so, it's kinda 
> like Duke Nukem Forever.
>
> The only known driver was designed in the old 2.5 days and 2.6.1 timeframe, 
> but attempts to forward port it never do too well.  It can be compiled, but 
> all it does is make ears bleed with static.  Someone with an O2, free time, 
> decent knowledge of sound hardware and kernel development, and a few pots of 
> coffee needs to step forward and help us get the thing to work.
>
> --Kumba
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

[gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

I have an I2 IP22 with 256MB RAM, and R4400 that is alive and well.  I 
pulled the extreem board set to keep it cooler since I couldn't use that 
under linux anyway.  (Actually, there's a few patches floating now that 
get basic console support on extreeme.)

I will try LiveCD RC6 on the serial console and let you know that it comes 
up.  Although I've had debian on it for over a year, and plan to keep that 
on there for other purposes, I would be happy to test boot anything you 
need.

-S-

  On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

> I2 IP22 testing is kinda limited, since my only R4400 motherboard just up and 
> died for no reason.  So it's now an IP28 machine (that I haven't managed to 
> boot for a few months now).  Plus it and Indy R4K are the only mips3-class 
> machines we still support, and the Indy R4K series have always been a gamble. 
> Especially the R4600.
>
> --Kumba
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] O2 Sound and Misc Stuff. [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Alex Deucher]

On 2/9/07, J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I've seen the old driver patch you refer to floating around out there.
> After I've done my USB and firewire experiments, I wouldn't mind taking a
> look at this to see how bad it is.  An SGI without sound is kind of like a
> car without wheels....
>
>
> Over all, I've been quite impressed.  Most things that I try seem to be
> generally working.  I've already succeeded in building the box up as a
> general desktop system.  X11, WindowMaker, transparent Xterms, NLS, DDD,
> gvim, GIMP, Firefox 2.0, QT, openGL (some GL works, some crash the X
> server), XFIG, gv (pdf and ps viewer), xv, gtk, imagemagik, tetex,
> ghostscript, etc...
>
> I've also done some work to verify IPv6.  The kernel module loads, the
> machine auto addresses, and the 6-to-4 driver loads.  I still need to
> rebuild some userland with USE=ipv6 to fully check it out, but I'm not
> expecting any surprises at this point.
>
> The PPTP and PPP-MPPE vpn support is working.  I've spent entire days
> plugged into my work VPN during my work from home days using the O2 as an
> X console and VPN access node.  No surprises here.
>
> The file system chosen for my box is IBM's JFS.  In work life, I've been
> doing embedded stuff with JFS for a couple years now.  I first tried it
> with gentoo and mips under kernel 2.13 about a year and a half ago.  And
> under 2.17.10-mips, it is still proving to be solid and exceptionally well
> performing as I've emerged about 500 packages in the last couple weeks -
> no crashes, no oops, no data corruption, rock solid.  I know people on
> non-intel are skeptical of it, but I've been warming up to it a lot and
> have never seen issues, but I've had issues with reiser that made it
> unacceptable.  There's a lot in terms of performance and features to
> recommend this file system - assuming stability of course.  :)  It's
> definately worthy of consideration when setting up a new non-intel box.

Be careful.  I tried to use JFS on some sparc boxes, and ran into some
subtle bugs that no one seemed to be able to solve that led to
filesystem corruption:  things like disappearing/reappearing files and
directories.  On the other hand I've had no problems with JFS on AMD64
or x86.

Alex


>
> Cheers,
>
> -S-
>
> On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:
>
> > J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> >>
> >>  [1] From looking at other configs there, and having just walked through
> >>  the 2.17.10 config process, it looks like the alsa mips ip32 sound device
> >>  has been disabled.  I cannot even select it in 2.17.10.  I was wondering
> >>  what the status of this driver was.  Judging from submitted configs, it
> >>  looks like people had been enabling it at 2.16 or earlier.
> >
> > O2 doesn't have a working sound driver.  I dunno what the alsa mips thing is,
> > but it's probably dead code.  A few people have, apparently, created a
> > working sound driver, but they've never released the source, so, it's kinda
> > like Duke Nukem Forever.
> >
> > The only known driver was designed in the old 2.5 days and 2.6.1 timeframe,
> > but attempts to forward port it never do too well.  It can be compiled, but
> > all it does is make ears bleed with static.  Someone with an O2, free time,
> > decent knowledge of sound hardware and kernel development, and a few pots of
> > coffee needs to step forward and help us get the thing to work.
> >
> > --Kumba
> --
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

[gentoo-mips] JFS on non-intel [ Was O2 Sound and Misc Stuff]

[J. Scott Kasten]

I'm interested in your data point.  Do you happen to remember about which 
kernel that was?  There was some general badness that affected multiple 
file systems in late 2.6.13 on into 2.6.14 or so in the way that you 
describe.  Not sure they ever really knew what the smoking gun was.

Used JFS for about 6 months with the gentoo mips 2.6.13 kernel and did 
not find any issues.  Briefly with Sparc32, but don't remember 
which kernel.  On Intel, I've done extensive regressions with it.

If anyone is interested, I have a thrasher script written specifically for 
this purpose.  It's a multi-threaded ruby script that creates a randomized 
directory tree, with random files, containing random data.  A CRC check is 
kept on each file.  The threads run in parallel rewriting data in the 
middle of files, truncating, resizing, creating voids, forcing the file 
system into writing multiple extents, exercising tail packing, unlinking 
files with open handles, etc...

-S-

On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:

> On 2/9/07, J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Be careful.  I tried to use JFS on some sparc boxes, and ran into some
> subtle bugs that no one seemed to be able to solve that led to
> filesystem corruption:  things like disappearing/reappearing files and
> directories.  On the other hand I've had no problems with JFS on AMD64
> or x86.
>
> Alex
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] JFS on non-intel [ Was O2 Sound and Misc Stuff]

[Alex Deucher]

On 2/9/07, J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I'm interested in your data point.  Do you happen to remember about which
> kernel that was?  There was some general badness that affected multiple
> file systems in late 2.6.13 on into 2.6.14 or so in the way that you
> describe.  Not sure they ever really knew what the smoking gun was.
>
> Used JFS for about 6 months with the gentoo mips 2.6.13 kernel and did
> not find any issues.  Briefly with Sparc32, but don't remember
> which kernel.  On Intel, I've done extensive regressions with it.
>
> If anyone is interested, I have a thrasher script written specifically for
> this purpose.  It's a multi-threaded ruby script that creates a randomized
> directory tree, with random files, containing random data.  A CRC check is
> kept on each file.  The threads run in parallel rewriting data in the
> middle of files, truncating, resizing, creating voids, forcing the file
> system into writing multiple extents, exercising tail packing, unlinking
> files with open handles, etc...
>

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=7852301&forum_id=43911
http://www.mail-archive.com/sparclinux@vger.kernel.org/msg00333.html

Alex

> -S-
>
> On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
>
> > On 2/9/07, J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Be careful.  I tried to use JFS on some sparc boxes, and ran into some
> > subtle bugs that no one seemed to be able to solve that led to
> > filesystem corruption:  things like disappearing/reappearing files and
> > directories.  On the other hand I've had no problems with JFS on AMD64
> > or x86.
> >
> > Alex
> >
> --
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] JFS on non-intel [ Was O2 Sound and Misc Stuff]

[J. Scott Kasten]

Alex, thanks.  I read through it in detail.  That finally triggered my 
memory.  There were multiple issues that affected 2.6.12 - 2.6.14.

In your case, it probably wasn't JFS specifically, but most likely an 
interaction between JFS and the LVM layer.  I never tried that feature.
This affected 2.6.12 and 2.6.13

http://www.arcknowledge.com/gmane.comp.file-systems.jfs.general/2005-10/msg00020.html

Here is also an interesting LWN article about the 4k page issue that came 
out at the same time and how it affected device_mapper, LVM and such 
things. (See the second section.)

http://lwn.net/Articles/149977/

Here's a complaint about 2.6.13 and 2.6.14 on AMD with ext3.  This is just 
an example of other complaints that were comming in.

http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/09/27/62

In short, there were multiple sources of corruption at that time and you 
could have been bitten by any of them.  Hopefully things are more settled 
now, but I certainly will watch out for any issues.

-S-

On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:

> On 2/9/07, J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>  I'm interested in your data point.  Do you happen to remember about which
>>  kernel that was?  There was some general badness that affected multiple
>>  file systems in late 2.6.13 on into 2.6.14 or so in the way that you
>>  describe.  Not sure they ever really knew what the smoking gun was.
>
> http: //sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=7852301&forum_id=43911
> http: //www.mail-archive.com/sparclinux@vger.kernel.org/msg00333.html
>
> Alex
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] JFS on non-intel [ Was O2 Sound and Misc Stuff]

[Alex Deucher]

On 2/9/07, J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Alex, thanks.  I read through it in detail.  That finally triggered my
> memory.  There were multiple issues that affected 2.6.12 - 2.6.14.
>
> In your case, it probably wasn't JFS specifically, but most likely an
> interaction between JFS and the LVM layer.  I never tried that feature.
> This affected 2.6.12 and 2.6.13
>
> http://www.arcknowledge.com/gmane.comp.file-systems.jfs.general/2005-10/msg00020.html
>
> Here is also an interesting LWN article about the 4k page issue that came
> out at the same time and how it affected device_mapper, LVM and such
> things. (See the second section.)
>
> http://lwn.net/Articles/149977/
>
> Here's a complaint about 2.6.13 and 2.6.14 on AMD with ext3.  This is just
> an example of other complaints that were comming in.
>
> http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/09/27/62
>
> In short, there were multiple sources of corruption at that time and you
> could have been bitten by any of them.  Hopefully things are more settled
> now, but I certainly will watch out for any issues.

Thanks for the update!  those indeed look like they may have been the
cause of my problems.  Too bad I can't test that set up again to see
if it works today.

Alex

>
> -S-
>
> On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
>
> > On 2/9/07, J. Scott Kasten <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>  I'm interested in your data point.  Do you happen to remember about which
> >>  kernel that was?  There was some general badness that affected multiple
> >>  file systems in late 2.6.13 on into 2.6.14 or so in the way that you
> >>  describe.  Not sure they ever really knew what the smoking gun was.
> >
> > http: //sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=7852301&forum_id=43911
> > http: //www.mail-archive.com/sparclinux@vger.kernel.org/msg00333.html
> >
> > Alex
> >
> --
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] O2 Sound and Misc Stuff. [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> The file system chosen for my box is IBM's JFS.  In work life, I've been 
> doing embedded stuff with JFS for a couple years now.  I first tried it 
> with gentoo and mips under kernel 2.13 about a year and a half ago.  And 
> under 2.17.10-mips, it is still proving to be solid and exceptionally 
> well performing as I've emerged about 500 packages in the last couple 
> weeks - no crashes, no oops, no data corruption, rock solid.  I know 
> people on non-intel are skeptical of it, but I've been warming up to it 
> a lot and have never seen issues, but I've had issues with reiser that 
> made it unacceptable.  There's a lot in terms of performance and 
> features to recommend this file system - assuming stability of course.  
> :)  It's definately worthy of consideration when setting up a new 
> non-intel box.

I wouldn't say we're skeptical, just that no one wanted to run it long enough to 
validate it at a working FS under non-x86 architectures.  JFS is the one I've 
not really messed with too much, so I always held a neutral point of view. 
RiserFS3 ate half my x86 filesystem once, but I think we all have been down that 
road.  XFS I tried once on x86 under 2.6.1, and it liked to oops quite a bit. 
Plus the slow deletion time was always a nuisance.  Thus, I stuck with ext3.

Come to think of it, actually, I did try JFS once on mips, but I believe there 
was a compile bug in the driver when I did, so I just moved on.  Can't recall.


But, tis good to know someone have tested it so extensively.  Maybe in the next 
documentation pass, we'll have to mark it as viable.


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] O2 Sound and Misc Stuff. [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

Alex Deucher wrote:
> 
> Be careful.  I tried to use JFS on some sparc boxes, and ran into some
> subtle bugs that no one seemed to be able to solve that led to
> filesystem corruption:  things like disappearing/reappearing files and
> directories.  On the other hand I've had no problems with JFS on AMD64
> or x86.


I believe there were known issues between JFS and sparc (sparc64 especially) at 
some point, but I can't recall completely (either whether that was the case, or 
a timeframe either).


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> I have an I2 IP22 with 256MB RAM, and R4400 that is alive and well.  I 
> pulled the extreem board set to keep it cooler since I couldn't use that 
> under linux anyway.  (Actually, there's a few patches floating now that 
> get basic console support on extreeme.)
> 
> I will try LiveCD RC6 on the serial console and let you know that it 
> comes up.  Although I've had debian on it for over a year, and plan to 
> keep that on there for other purposes, I would be happy to test boot 
> anything you need.

You know of patches?  The only guy we know of whose remotely written any Extreme 
(XZ) patches is one 'onion' over in the linux-mips IRC channel.  Of course, I 
don't believe he's ever released screen shots or source code, thus we've always 
regarded his claims as vapourware.  Did someone else create patches, or did he 
finally put them out and not tell anyone?

If you have a location of the patches, I'd be interested in knowing where 
they're at so I can see if they'll fit into mips-sources when I get around to 
putting out 2.6.19 (yeah, It's wayyyyy behind).  2.6.20 still has problems on 
Octane last I checked (-rc6), so I dunno when that'll be out.

But yeah, I've got an Extreme board set in an IP26 (R8000, w00t!) that I can 
yank out and stuff in my IP28 to see if it boots the kernel and prints messages 
(IP28's userland is all whacked up, so I doubt it'll ever boot again).



--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

Well, it may not be vaporware.

http://www.tal.org/~milang/o2/

Got to this site.  It's mostly O2 stuff, but if you look carefully in his 
screen shots, there are two that are supposedly of this FB console for 
extreme.  One shows text, another a floating boxes animation.

Go into his kernel directory, and you can download the IP22 kernel ready 
to run.

I looked carefully through all his patches and links.  The extreme patch 
is not to be found.  I don't even see an email for this "milang" fellow. 
However, interestingly, some of the kernel config files are labled 
"onion".

If we get lucky, the right search terms in the world brain (google) might 
just yeild fruit.  I'll keep poking at it.

-S-

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

> You know of patches?  The only guy we know of whose remotely written any 
> Extreme (XZ) patches is one 'onion' over in the linux-mips IRC channel.  Of 
> course, I don't believe he's ever released screen shots or source code, thus 
> we've always regarded his claims as vapourware.  Did someone else create 
> patches, or did he finally put them out and not tell anyone?
>
> If you have a location of the patches, I'd be interested in knowing where 
> they're at so I can see if they'll fit into mips-sources when I get around to 
> putting out 2.6.19 (yeah, It's wayyyyy behind).  2.6.20 still has problems on 
> Octane last I checked (-rc6), so I dunno when that'll be out.
>
> But yeah, I've got an Extreme board set in an IP26 (R8000, w00t!) that I can 
> yank out and stuff in my IP28 to see if it boots the kernel and prints 
> messages (IP28's userland is all whacked up, so I doubt it'll ever boot 
> again).
>
> --Kumba
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

You've got an R8K drooool..... we're not worthy!!!!  :)

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

> But yeah, I've got an Extreme board set in an IP26 (R8000, w00t!) that I can 
> yank out and stuff in my IP28 to see if it boots the kernel and prints 
> messages (IP28's userland is all whacked up, so I doubt it'll ever boot 
> again).
>
>
> --Kumba
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Stephen P. Becker]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1591 bytes --]

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 08:58:53 -0500 (EST)
"J. Scott Kasten" <jscottkasten@yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> Well, it may not be vaporware.

Depends on your definition of vaporware.  If "doing 90% of the
work and then refusing to release the code because he never quite
finishes any fucking project and is embarrased by his code" qualifies,
then yes, it is vaporware. This guy has a history of doing exactly
this, and it is extremely frustrating.  Also, he absolutely refuses to
provide the patch if you ask him directly.


> http://www.tal.org/~milang/o2/
> 
> Got to this site.  It's mostly O2 stuff, but if you look carefully in
> his screen shots, there are two that are supposedly of this FB
> console for extreme.  One shows text, another a floating boxes
> animation.

That is indeed onion's site.


> Go into his kernel directory, and you can download the IP22 kernel
> ready to run.

Yes, I have tested this kernel and it does indeed work.  Again though,
no code...


> I looked carefully through all his patches and links.  The extreme
> patch is not to be found.  I don't even see an email for this
> "milang" fellow. However, interestingly, some of the kernel config
> files are labled "onion".
> 
> If we get lucky, the right search terms in the world brain (google)
> might just yeild fruit.  I'll keep poking at it.

No, it won't.  If there isn't a patch on onion's site, then there isn't
a patch anywhere (unless by chance somebody else independently wrote a
patch and then never bothered to announce it to the linux-mips
community).

-Steve

[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

Hmmm...that's unfortunate.  Does anyone know how to contact him?

He hasn't had a chance to learn to hate me yet...maybe I might have some 
luck.

-S-

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007, Stephen P. Becker wrote:
>
> Depends on your definition of vaporware.  If "doing 90% of the
> work and then refusing to release the code because he never quite
> finishes any fucking project and is embarrased by his code" qualifies,
> then yes, it is vaporware. This guy has a history of doing exactly
> this, and it is extremely frustrating.  Also, he absolutely refuses to
> provide the patch if you ask him directly.
>
>
>> http://www.tal.org/~milang/o2/
>>
>> Got to this site.  It's mostly O2 stuff, but if you look carefully in
>> his screen shots, there are two that are supposedly of this FB
>> console for extreme.  One shows text, another a floating boxes
>> animation.
>
> That is indeed onion's site.
>
>
>> Go into his kernel directory, and you can download the IP22 kernel
>> ready to run.
>
> Yes, I have tested this kernel and it does indeed work.  Again though,
> no code...
>
>
>> I looked carefully through all his patches and links.  The extreme
>> patch is not to be found.  I don't even see an email for this
>> "milang" fellow. However, interestingly, some of the kernel config
>> files are labled "onion".
>>
>> If we get lucky, the right search terms in the world brain (google)
>> might just yeild fruit.  I'll keep poking at it.
>
> No, it won't.  If there isn't a patch on onion's site, then there isn't
> a patch anywhere (unless by chance somebody else independently wrote a
> patch and then never bothered to announce it to the linux-mips
> community).
>
> -Steve
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> Well, it may not be vaporware.
> 
> http://www.tal.org/~milang/o2/
> 
> Got to this site.  It's mostly O2 stuff, but if you look carefully in 
> his screen shots, there are two that are supposedly of this FB console 
> for extreme.  One shows text, another a floating boxes animation.
> 
> Go into his kernel directory, and you can download the IP22 kernel ready 
> to run.
> 
> I looked carefully through all his patches and links.  The extreme patch 
> is not to be found.  I don't even see an email for this "milang" fellow. 
> However, interestingly, some of the kernel config files are labled "onion".
> 
> If we get lucky, the right search terms in the world brain (google) 
> might just yeild fruit.  I'll keep poking at it.
> 
> -S-

Yeah, milang == onion.  He's done this not only for Extreme's console driver, 
but also a semi-working O2 sound driver.  In both cases, he's either claimed 
that his code quality is poor, or his girlfriend was taking up too much time, or 
some other lame excuse.  Even when we randomly nag him on #mipslinux on IRC, he 
just ignores us now :P

This is why for O2's driver, we've just randomly tinker with the only known 
source code version.  Another linux-mips dev, Ladislav Michel (I think) of 
debian apparently also has/had a driver at one point for early 2.6.  But I don't 
know if it's the same as the source one already out there (which was written by 
a "vivian", if I recall correctly), or if his is related to onion's purported 
driver at all.



--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> You've got an R8K drooool..... we're not worthy!!!!  :)

Yup, and the kernel has some of the code in place for it, TLB code IIRC.  It 
just needs R8K cache handling code, and some of the IP28 tweaks from Peter 
Fuerst's IP28 patchset (not IP28-specific tweaks, but tweaks that I believe are 
64bit specific, which are denoted in his patch's source as IP2628_*), and the 
thing *might* boot.  But that's just pure conjecture.


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Johnathon Schade]

On 2/11/07, Kumba <kumba@gentoo.org> wrote:

> Yeah, milang == onion.  He's done this not only for Extreme's console driver,
> but also a semi-working O2 sound driver.  In both cases, he's either claimed
> that his code quality is poor, or his girlfriend was taking up too much time, or
> some other lame excuse.  Even when we randomly nag him on #mipslinux on IRC, he
> just ignores us now :P
>
> This is why for O2's driver, we've just randomly tinker with the only known
> source code version.  Another linux-mips dev, Ladislav Michel (I think) of
> debian apparently also has/had a driver at one point for early 2.6.  But I don't
> know if it's the same as the source one already out there (which was written by
> a "vivian", if I recall correctly), or if his is related to onion's purported
> driver at all.
>
>
>
> --Kumba

the "vivian" you mention is actually vivien aka glaurung... the
address for her site where her patches can be found is
http://www.linux-mips.org/~glaurung/

but I'm not enough of a kernel dude to check if there is indeed the
needed patch there...

hope this helps someone out there... :)

-- 
Don't let a good lap go to waste... Adopt a rescued animal today
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gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

Johnathon Schade wrote:
> 
> the "vivian" you mention is actually vivien aka glaurung... the
> address for her site where her patches can be found is
> http://www.linux-mips.org/~glaurung/
> 
> but I'm not enough of a kernel dude to check if there is indeed the
> needed patch there...
> 
> hope this helps someone out there... :)

glaurung was a guy, last I heard....



--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Jerry Jackson]

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:02:58 -0500, Kumba <kumba@gentoo.org> wrote:

> glaurung was a guy, last I heard....
>


I could be wrong, I don't know who it is, was going from the email address  
on the link I posted... No offense intened to anyone, but a name like  
vivien is something I envision a girl with... here's the email link off  
the page...

[quote] You can contact me at the following address  
<vivien.chappelier@linux-mips.org> [/quote]

-- 
Don't let a good lap go to waste...  Adopt a shelter pet today!
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Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

Well, a real man subscribes his WIFE to the linux kernel list.  It's the 
gift that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving.....  :-)  Oh well, 
that's what happens when you're doing email at 3 am.


Regarding the glaurung site, yes, there is an ALSA patch for a 
mips-sgi-O2-AD1834 driver against kernel 2.6.1.  The driver is incomplete, 
but has the core functionality there.  It will be a week or so, before I 
can start, but I will see what it takes to start pulling this patch 
forward.

-S-

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

> Johnathon Schade wrote:
>>
>>  the "vivian" you mention is actually vivien aka glaurung... the
>>  address for her site where her patches can be found is
>>  http://www.linux-mips.org/~glaurung/
>>
>>  but I'm not enough of a kernel dude to check if there is indeed the
>>  needed patch there...
>>
>>  hope this helps someone out there... :)
>
> glaurung was a guy, last I heard....
>
>
>
> --Kumba
>
> -- 
> Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead
>
> "Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small 
> hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." 
> --Elrond
> -- 
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Stephen P. Becker]

> Regarding the glaurung site, yes, there is an ALSA patch for a 
> mips-sgi-O2-AD1834 driver against kernel 2.6.1.  The driver is
> incomplete, but has the core functionality there.  It will be a week
> or so, before I can start, but I will see what it takes to start
> pulling this patch forward.

Yes yes...we're very well aware of that patch, and have been for years
now. You probably do not want to start with that one.  There is a much
newer version floating around somewhere in the linux-mips mailing list
archives from some fellow that updated it to 2.6.13 or so.  That would
probably be a better starting point, although I think it is still a
heaping pile of shit.  People that really know what they are doing have
indicated that it would likely be best to start from scratch, but
whatever, knock yourself out.

-Steve
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

I'll look for that.  I was thinking that I had seen a newer one.

Where's the best place to find any info we have on the hardware?

-S-

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007, Stephen P. Becker wrote:

>> Regarding the glaurung site, yes, there is an ALSA patch for a
>> mips-sgi-O2-AD1834 driver against kernel 2.6.1.  The driver is
>> incomplete, but has the core functionality there.  It will be a week
>> or so, before I can start, but I will see what it takes to start
>> pulling this patch forward.
>
> Yes yes...we're very well aware of that patch, and have been for years
> now. You probably do not want to start with that one.  There is a much
> newer version floating around somewhere in the linux-mips mailing list
> archives from some fellow that updated it to 2.6.13 or so.  That would
> probably be a better starting point, although I think it is still a
> heaping pile of shit.  People that really know what they are doing have
> indicated that it would likely be best to start from scratch, but
> whatever, knock yourself out.
>
> -Steve
> -- 
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> I'll look for that.  I was thinking that I had seen a newer one.
> 
> Where's the best place to find any info we have on the hardware?



Datasheet:
http://avmaster.bnx.homelinux.net/datasheets/ad1843.pdf

Engineer-to-Engineer Note:
http://avmaster.bnx.homelinux.net/datasheets/ad1843-ee_51.pdf


Mighty is the Google.


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

Thanks!  I did do some research on the linux-mips list also.  I did find 
an alsa mips driver that dates to 2.6.6, but it was for a mips eval board, 
not for the O2.  I'll keep looking.  Even if we end up with somehting new 
from scratch, it would be helpful to see what was done for the O2 before.

-S-

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

> J. Scott Kasten wrote:
>>
>>  I'll look for that.  I was thinking that I had seen a newer one.
>>
>>  Where's the best place to find any info we have on the hardware?
>
>
>
> Datasheet:
> http://avmaster.bnx.homelinux.net/datasheets/ad1843.pdf
>
> Engineer-to-Engineer Note:
> http://avmaster.bnx.homelinux.net/datasheets/ad1843-ee_51.pdf
>
>
> Mighty is the Google.
>
>
> --Kumba
>
> -- 
> Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead
>
> "Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small 
> hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." 
> --Elrond
> -- 
> gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
>
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> Thanks!  I did do some research on the linux-mips list also.  I did find 
> an alsa mips driver that dates to 2.6.6, but it was for a mips eval 
> board, not for the O2.  I'll keep looking.  Even if we end up with 
> somehting new from scratch, it would be helpful to see what was done for 
> the O2 before.
> 
> -S-

FYI, the Octane uses an ALSA mips driver, so if you're looking for any tips on 
making a (new|old) driver for the AD1843 chip ALSA compatible, that might be of 
use.  Granted, the only thing in comparison the sound chips on both systems have 
in common is that they have an SGI label stamped on them.  Everything else is 
guesswork :)


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

I had considered looking at the other drivers for IP22 and Octane to see 
what I could learn in comparison to the old 2.6.1 driver.  Should be fun. 
:)

-S-

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:

> FYI, the Octane uses an ALSA mips driver, so if you're looking for any tips 
> on making a (new|old) driver for the AD1843 chip ALSA compatible, that might 
> be of use.  Granted, the only thing in comparison the sound chips on both 
> systems have in common is that they have an SGI label stamped on them. 
> Everything else is guesswork :)
>
>
> --Kumba
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> I had considered looking at the other drivers for IP22 and Octane to see 
> what I could learn in comparison to the old 2.6.1 driver.  Should be 
> fun. :)
> 
> -S-


IP22 won't be of much use.  That uses the old OSS interface, and when upstream 
finally dumps those, IP22 will be without sound unless someone ports it to ALSA.


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[J. Scott Kasten]

Well, I guess I do have some work cut out for me then.  I never tried the 
sound on my IP22 simply because without a console, multi-media wasn't much 
fun.  Yes, we should do an alsa version for that too.  I'd still prefer to 
tackle the O2 first though.

-S-

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007, Kumba wrote:
> IP22 won't be of much use.  That uses the old OSS interface, and when 
> upstream finally dumps those, IP22 will be without sound unless someone ports 
> it to ALSA.
>
>
> --Kumba
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-mips] Indigo2 IP22 [Was LiveCD RC6]

[Kumba]

J. Scott Kasten wrote:
> 
> Well, I guess I do have some work cut out for me then.  I never tried 
> the sound on my IP22 simply because without a console, multi-media 
> wasn't much fun.  Yes, we should do an alsa version for that too.  I'd 
> still prefer to tackle the O2 first though.
> 
> -S-

Good luck :)  If you get anything that builds and does something functional, 
post it and I'll give it a spin.  As soon as I pin down this IP32 prom crash I'm 
seeing in 2.6.20 now (joy).


--Kumba

-- 
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead

"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
-- 
gentoo-mips@gentoo.org mailing list