Subject: Re: MIPS 2.1.89 now in CVS

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 04:27:42 +0100

On Tue, Mar 24, 1998 at 09:06:06PM -0600, David A Willmore wrote:

> > I've upgraded the MIPS port to 2.1.89.  Aside of the still unresolved
> > problem in exit_mm() which I've reported some hours ago is seems to be
> > working on Indys.  Haven't yet tested the rest of my hardware collection.
> >
> > I'm particularly interested in reports about the NCR53C9x driver on
> > Olivetti M700 / Magnum 4000.
> 
> Hey! :)  I've got a 53c90 card for the ISA bus that I would like to use on a
> x86 machine.  Any idea how easy it would be to modify this driver to work with
> a very generic card like that?  Funny that I didn't find any of this code in
> the normal 2.1.90.  I take it your code isn't merged in?

Actually adding the necessary changes shouldn't be difficult.  Check out
the files drivers/scsi/{sparc,jazz}esp.[ch] in one of the snapshots on
ftp.linux.sgi.com.  You'll have to provide a similar machine / bus specific
backend like for these two architectures.  Actually an ISA specific backend
should be easier to implement than these two.

You're right, things have not been merged back but I intend to do this in
the near future.  I just wanted to do some bug bashing in the MIPS kernel.
Things are looking _better_ than ever now, so the time his near.

I just hope penguin central doesn't release 2.2.0 before I do my mergeback ...

(The world will be safe from me for today, I'm going to the CeBIT ...)

  Ralf

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From: Thomas Bogendoerfer <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 00:04:26 +0100

> should be easier to implement than these two.

depends on the DMA engine used on the board. When the card uses the normal
PC DMA controller it will be dead slow and a horror to implement (welcome
to world of 64K segments). If the board has it's own DMA engine, you need
documentation for it. And without DMA you will need a new driver.

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]>]

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From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 23:37:25 +0000 (GMT)

> documentation for it. And without DMA you will need a new driver.

Can anyone working on generic 53c9x support also talk to the Linux mac folks
who are also working on this right now. Incidentally we'll also be wanting
to abuse the mips sonic driver soon too 8)

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From: Thomas Bogendoerfer <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 00:47:57 +0100

On Thu, Mar 26, 1998 at 11:37:25PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> who are also working on this right now. 

the 53c9x mips support is a "port" of the sparc esp driver, which I did
based on work from the m68k people (fastlane, blizzard, etc.). And I also
verified that the changed esp still runs on a Sparc (at least on my SS2).

> Incidentally we'll also be wanting

So I should put fixing it higher on my todo list:-) ? It still has problems
with real network traffic. I know the reason, but didn't have time to fix
it, yet.

Thomas.

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From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 00:08:00 +0000 (GMT)

> verified that the changed esp still runs on a Sparc (at least on my SS2).

Thats the same path the Mac people are taking

> with real network traffic. I know the reason, but didn't have time to fix

Not instantly but the later macs use the sonic (the nubus plugin cards are
all NE2000's in disguise)