Subject: Re: installation problem.

From: Ulf Carlsson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:07:20 +0100 (CET)

Hello again.

I'm getting pretty tired. No progress at all. Is my configuration special
in any way?

System: IP22
Processor: 100 Mhz R4000, with FPU
Primary I-cache size: 8 kbytes
Primary d-cache size: 8 kbytes
Secondary cache size: 1024 Kbytes
Memory size: 32 Mbytes
Graphics: Indy 8-bit
SCSI Disk: scsi(0)disk(4)
SCSI Disk: scsi(0)disk(6)

Are not all indys almost identical? It's very strange IMO that .72 hangs
before it prints anything on the screen. I think I've tested almost
everything by now.

Those harddrive problems don't matter right now. It's possible to run over
nfs so.. it's the kernel paging error which is the problem. I think this
error might be caused by my pc, because I don't get that error when the
network is down or the pc is shut down, but I can't boot when the pc is
down because I'm using nfs root system. Maybe the pc sends out signals on
the network which sgi linux can't handle (just a thought).

I am not blaming you SGI/Linux developers for creating a bad system in any
way. It would have been really nice if it worked :)

What will I do?

/Ulf Carlsson

---

From: "William J. Earl" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 09:34:05 -0800

> before it prints anything on the screen. I think I've tested almost
...

     No, there are many different CPU types for the Indy, in order
of appearance:

	R4000PC, 100 MHZ
	R4000SC, 100 MHZ
	R4600PC, 100 and 133 MHZ
	R4400SC, 150 and 200 MHZ
	R4600SC, 133 MHZ
	R5000PC, 150 and 180 MHZ
	R5000SC, 180 MHZ

In the above, "PC" means that there is no secondary cache and "SC"
means that there is.  The R4000 and R4400 are functionally very similar, except
for cache size.  The R4600 and R5000 are also similar, but with
a very different cache organization from the R4000 and R4400.  Various
revision of the processors (and more than one revision was shipped
for each processor) have different errata, so the kernel must work around
various processor errata according to the processor type and revision.
As I understand it, the currently checked-in source must be recompiled
to provide R4600/R5000 PC and SC versions for Indy, and those versions
may not be fully tested on all R4000 and R4400 revisions.  In the not
distant future, a single kernel will likely support all the processors,
as does the IRIX kernel, but that is more work than just selecting
the processor type at compile time.

---

From: Thomas Bogendoerfer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 22:42:53 +0100

> the processor type at compile time.

the R4000PC part of the .72 current works at least on my Magnum clone. But
I've got an error report, that my kernel doesn't work on a Magnum with a
R4000SC. So I guess it's really related to the processor handling in the
kernel.

Thomas.

-- 
See, you not only have to be a good coder to create a system like Linux,
you have to be a sneaky bastard too ;-)
                   [Linus Torvalds in <[email-masked]>]

---

From: Alistair Lambie <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 10:53:34 +1300

>  > before it prints anything on the screen. I think I've tested almost

Wouldn't be a pre newport graphics machine would it?  Has this been tried?  Just
a thought.

Cheers, Alistair

-- 
Alistair Lambie                         [email-masked]
Silicon Graphics New Zealand                SGI Voicemail: 2431455
Level 5, Cigna House,                           Ph: +64-4-494 6325
40 Mercer St, Wellington, NZ                   Fax: +64-4-494 6321

---

From: "William J. Earl" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:24:38 -0800

...

     No, "Graphics: Indy 8-bit" is Newport.  Is this really the "SC" kernel for Indy,
not the "PC" kernel?

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 23:56:17 +0100

> various processor errata according to the processor type and revision.

In case of the R4000 we still have some work to do with respect to the
errata stuff.

> the processor type at compile time.

The code in the CVS archive is plain buggy for certain configurations.
Given the number of possible configurations possible everything else but
a single kernel binary would be braindead.  Especially because the price
we have to pay for a single Indy binary isn't that high.

  Ralf

---

From: Ulf Carlsson <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 14:52:25 +0100 (CET)

> Wouldn't be a pre newport graphics machine would it?  Has this been tried?  Just

Pre newport, what's that? Do you mean that I'm the only one with this
configuration trying to run SGI/Linux, darn... thought this was one of the
most common configurations of the Indy.

/ulf

-----------------------------------------
-     grimsy - http://grimsy.ml.org     -
-----------------------------------------

---

From: Alex deVries <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 15:20:55 -0500 (EST)

> > >  > before it prints anything on the screen. I think I've tested almost

Ah, I think I know the problem.  There are some problems with the .72 make
depend which screws up the console.  The version that's uploaded may not
have the console compiled in properly.  That should be clear from the
config file that' sin the tar.gz file.

I could quite easily get you a binary that does have it compiled in. If I
don't have it on linus by tomorrow, pester me.

Been there, done that.

I might think about doing the update to .89, but I don't want to try to do
what anybody else is doing, since 10 Alex hours = 1 Ralf hour.  But, my
other projects with GTK and RPM are kind of at a standstill because of
waiting for others to release components and sorting out endless loops of
design logic.  So, maybe I'll take a stab at it.

- Alex