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 (971110.SGI.8.8.8/960327.SGI.AUTOCF) via SMTP id EAA13102 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 04:25:58 -0800 (PST) Return-Path: Received: (from majordomo-owner@localhost) by cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/960327.SGI.AUTOCF) id EAA17415 for linux-list; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 04:22:05 -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 EAA17410 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 04:22:04 -0800 Received: from rachael.franken.de (rachael.franken.de [193.175.24.38]) by sgi.sgi.com (950413.SGI.8.6.12/970507) via ESMTP id EAA29467 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 04:22:02 -0800 env-from (rachael.franken.de!hub-fue!alpha.franken.de!tsbogend) Received: from hub-fue by rachael.franken.de via rmail with uucp id for cthulhu.engr.sgi.com!linux; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 13:21:37 +0100 (MET) (Smail-3.2 1996-Jul-4 #4 built DST-Sep-8) Received: by hub-fue.franken.de (Smail3.1.29.1 #35) id m0xwR41-002OiUC; Sun, 25 Jan 98 13:21 MET Received: (from tsbogend@localhost) by alpha.franken.de (8.8.7/8.8.5) id MAA02143; Sun, 25 Jan 1998 12:47:32 +0100 Message-ID: <19980125124731.10567@alpha.franken.de> Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 12:47:31 +0100 From: Thomas Bogendoerfer To: ralf@mailhost.uni-koblenz.de Cc: Oliver Frommel , Mike Shaver , Alex deVries , SGI Linux Subject: Re: root-be-0.03.tar.gz References: <34C6E304.680D7541@netscape.com> <19980123045725.54480@uni-koblenz.de> <19980123232420.65169@alpha.franken.de> <19980124141627.19289@uni-koblenz.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: Mutt 0.85 In-Reply-To: <19980124141627.19289@uni-koblenz.de>; from ralf@mailhost.uni-koblenz.de on Sat, Jan 24, 1998 at 02:16:27PM +0100 Sender: owner-linux@cthulhu.engr.sgi.com Precedence: bulk > > is there a way to do a raw disk access via ARC firmware ? Mabye we could > > use some bits from SILO (Sparc Linux Loader) and get ext2fs access this > > way. > > Thatīs one way. Another would be to do it like the Alpha Milo. which would be IMHO a real overkill (Alpha Milo is nearly a complete Linux kernel with some special stuff for bringing up the hardware). It makes sense for Alphas as there are ARC only machines out, and the ARC PAL code isn't suited for Linux. So you have to replace the PAL code and after that the ARC firmware isn't able to do anything, so Alpha Milo has to boot the kernel itself. To this it needs to access the hardware and as the Linux drivers has already been available, why not use them ? Alpha Milo can also be used as the real firmware on some Alpha boards (I've flashed Alpha Milo, so my Alpha doesn't see any ARC stuff). For Mips Milo we don't need to change PAL code change or other strange stuff and with raw partition access we can do all what we want. > Raw access should work by accessing something like > scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(0) or so. Milo should actually already > provide all the framework required for easy implementation of ext2fs > access. good, I will to some tests:-) 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 <4rikft$7g5@linux.cs.Helsinki.FI>]