strange problem with my oli M700

strange problem with my oli M700

[Thomas Bogendoerfer]

Hi,

I'm trying to read the firmware prom of my Olivetti M700 (Magnum 4000 clone).
When access the address 0x9fc00000 (which is the KSEG0 address of the prom)
the box freezes immidiately. Does anybody know why ? And how could I access
the prom otherwise ?

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>]

Re: strange problem with my oli M700

[ralf]

On Thu, Jan 29, 1998 at 09:27:05PM +0100, Thomas Bogendoerfer wrote:

> I'm trying to read the firmware prom of my Olivetti M700 (Magnum 4000 clone).
> When access the address 0x9fc00000 (which is the KSEG0 address of the prom)
> the box freezes immidiately. Does anybody know why ? And how could I access
> the prom otherwise ?

Did you try uncached accesses via KSEG1?  I wouldn't wonder if the used
PROMs can't cope with the bursts generated for filling a cacheline.

  Ralf

Re: strange problem with my oli M700

[ralf]

On Thu, Jan 29, 1998 at 10:17:50PM +0100, ralf@uni-koblenz.de wrote:

> > I'm trying to read the firmware prom of my Olivetti M700 (Magnum 4000 clone).
> > When access the address 0x9fc00000 (which is the KSEG0 address of the prom)
> > the box freezes immidiately. Does anybody know why ? And how could I access
> > the prom otherwise ?
> 
> Did you try uncached accesses via KSEG1?  I wouldn't wonder if the used
> PROMs can't cope with the bursts generated for filling a cacheline.

Which btw reminds me that enabling the second level cache on a Indy also
makes call into the ARC firmware crash.  Dunno why.

  Ralf

New to group

[Jeremy Welling]

Hello People,
    Just wondering if the web page for sgi-linux is a bit out of date with the
install instructions.  There's all kinds of stuff on the ftp server that isn't
mentioned anywhere.  I'll probably skim the news archive after this.  I have an
Indy.  I run Linux on my pc, and am very interested in this port.  What is the
status of the xserver?  What are the current goals of the port?  How long do you
expect before the dual boot is running?   I would be willing to run it and
participate as a beta tester and have subscribed to this list.  If you could post an
installation walkthrough or something updated for the latest changes, that would be
great.
Thanks,
Jeremy Welling
UofMich Engr Student

Re: strange problem with my oli M700

[Thomas Bogendoerfer]

On Thu, Jan 29, 1998 at 10:17:50PM +0100, ralf@uni-koblenz.de wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 29, 1998 at 09:27:05PM +0100, Thomas Bogendoerfer wrote:
> 
> > I'm trying to read the firmware prom of my Olivetti M700 (Magnum 4000 clone).
> > When access the address 0x9fc00000 (which is the KSEG0 address of the prom)
> > the box freezes immidiately. Does anybody know why ? And how could I access
> > the prom otherwise ?
> 
> Did you try uncached accesses via KSEG1?  I wouldn't wonder if the used
> PROMs can't cope with the bursts generated for filling a cacheline.

uncached access works. Thanks.

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>]

Re: strange problem with my oli M700

[William J. Earl]

ralf@uni-koblenz.de writes:
 > On Thu, Jan 29, 1998 at 09:27:05PM +0100, Thomas Bogendoerfer wrote:
 > 
 > > I'm trying to read the firmware prom of my Olivetti M700 (Magnum 4000 clone).
 > > When access the address 0x9fc00000 (which is the KSEG0 address of the prom)
 > > the box freezes immidiately. Does anybody know why ? And how could I access
 > > the prom otherwise ?
 > 
 > Did you try uncached accesses via KSEG1?  I wouldn't wonder if the used
 > PROMs can't cope with the bursts generated for filling a cacheline.

     I am pretty certain that is the case for the Magnum.  That is, you
must use 0xbfc00000, not 0x9fc00000.

Re: strange problem with my oli M700

[Andrew Dyer]

On Thu, 29 Jan 1998, Thomas Bogendoerfer wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to read the firmware prom of my Olivetti M700 (Magnum 4000 clone).
> When access the address 0x9fc00000 (which is the KSEG0 address of the prom)
> the box freezes immidiately. Does anybody know why ? And how could I access
> the prom otherwise ?
> 

Accesses through kseg0 generate burst reads on the CPU bus.  If the memory
controller doesn't support it for that region of memory, the system could
hang.  Since the system reset vector is in kseg1 (ie 0xbfc00000), accesses
through that region have to work, or the machine wouldn't boot. 

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