From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (cthulhu.engr.sgi.com [192.26.80.2]) by neteng.engr.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/960327.SGI.AUTOCF) via ESMTP id AAA12750; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 00:53:19 -0800 Return-Path: Received: (from daemon@localhost) by cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/960327.SGI.AUTOCF) id IAA04390 for linux-list; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 08:52:33 GMT Received: from yon.engr.sgi.com (yon.engr.sgi.com [150.166.61.32]) by cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/960327.SGI.AUTOCF) via ESMTP id AAA04385 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 00:52:32 -0800 Received: from cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (cthulhu.engr.sgi.com [192.26.80.2]) by yon.engr.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/960327.SGI.AUTOCF) via ESMTP id AAA21948; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 00:48:51 -0800 Received: from sgi.sgi.com (sgi.engr.sgi.com [192.26.80.37]) by cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/960327.SGI.AUTOCF) via ESMTP id AAA04316; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 00:52:05 -0800 Received: from caipfs.rutgers.edu (caipfs.rutgers.edu [128.6.37.100]) by sgi.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/950213.SGI.AUTOCF) via ESMTP id AAA13341; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 00:52:00 -0800 Received: from jenolan.caipgeneral (jenolan.rutgers.edu [128.6.111.5]) by caipfs.rutgers.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id DAA29450; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 03:45:24 -0500 (EST) Received: by jenolan.caipgeneral (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id DAA22966; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 03:45:15 -0500 Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 03:45:15 -0500 Message-Id: <199703140845.DAA22966@jenolan.caipgeneral> From: "David S. Miller" To: ariel@cthulhu.engr.sgi.com CC: linux@yon.engr.sgi.com In-reply-to: <199703140018.QAA20671@yon.engr.sgi.com> (ariel@yon.engr.sgi.com) Subject: Re: Hello world! Sender: owner-linux@cthulhu.engr.sgi.com Precedence: bulk From: ariel@yon.engr.sgi.com (Ariel Faigon) Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 16:18:06 -0800 (PST) 3) The target Linux/Indy filesystems were NFS mounted. Basically we need to mkfs.ext2(8) on the local Indy (as IRIX supports XFS and EFS both of which are proprietary, Sigh) It would be best to have a seprate disk (rather than a partition which may disappear in case of human error) Get SILO to work, get the latest gcc to work native and we can start working on userland. In all actuality I did have real Linux ext2 filesystems on my test box, only the kernel was network obtained. In fact the stock ext2 filesystem utilities can be compiled on non-Linux platforms out of the box, they use GNU autoconf. In fact this is what I did to get going initially. I still had to use IRIX fdisk to label the disk, but then from IRIX I just ran the mke2fs program to make the ext2 filesystem. Then I'd boot Linux quickly using nfsroot, mount the ext2 filesystem I had just created, and I constructed a partition by copying files over from the nfs partition in this way. It was a pain, but it worked and I was more interested in seeing results than doing it right at the time. ;-) Also the rapid pace at which I was making changes to libc which caused all of the binaries on the partition to be unusable (because of a change of symbols in the dynamic linker etc.) actually warranted this scheme. A boot loader is really needed though. There are essentially two or three approaches most ports take to this task: 1) If the machine provides a "BIOS" or ROM interface that the loader can use to access the raw disk to do I/O operations, the boot loader only needs to be very minimal. It uses the ext2 filesystem library, teaches the library at init time to use functions which it provides to do I/O. It will do so via the ROM interfaces. Also, some knowledge of the disk labeling scheme is necessary as well. This is the scheme used by the Sparc port's boot loader, it is the easiest way to approach this problem and it does not lack any features. 2) The Alpha port sticks essentially a miniature kernel into the boot loader. Although I dislike this scheme, I have been told that they do need to do things this way. Pretty much the boot loader has full device drivers in it. I'd suggest scheme 1, I am nearly positive the SGI proms provide all the facilities necessary to do what I have described. And if I remember correctly the boot loader that Ralf is using on his SRM machines does in fact do all of this. It would be beneficial to go and look at the available boot loaders already coded, I have a sneaking suspician that someone willing to stare at all of the code in those boot loaders can get the thing working on an INDY in say 5 or 6 days time with no prior knowledge. Asking David some questions might be a good idea too. I'm not sure he is currently on the list, I'll ask him if he's interested to join. If I am not on there now, please add me. I'll listen in. Larry and I are working on setting up linux.sgi.com outside the SGI firewall. My intention is to set up tcpwrappers so that only the developers (Ralf, Miguel, Mike) and SGI people could login and give you complete control of the machine. At which point you can install ssh or whatever and start sharing sources. The "official" initial post-David merged source tree should come from Ralf. Right. ---------------------------------------------//// Yow! 11.26 MB/s remote host TCP bandwidth & //// 199 usec remote TCP latency over 100Mb/s //// ethernet. Beat that! //// -----------------------------------------////__________ o David S. Miller, davem@caip.rutgers.edu /_____________/ / // /_/ ><