Where to start with a R4000 Indigo

Where to start with a R4000 Indigo

[peter.zijlstra]

Hi,.

I recently acquired a R4000 50MHz Indigo without an IRIX install nor CD
with it. No CD-Rom player either, however I did order one, network however
does seem to work. And as I am a linux fanatic and professional programmer 
myself I would like to see whether I could help a bit with bringing linux to
this system.

As Indigo support isn't finished and I have nothing but a bare BIOS
to start with; and have no experience with the machine to begin with;
I have to ask for _help_ :)

Where do I start reading and tinkering to get linux; for as far as it's
sort of running; on my system ?

Are there any specs for the machine, especially for those parts that need
most urgent development and which parts are that ?


kind regards,
	Peter Zijlstra

Re: Where to start with a R4000 Indigo

[mjpento]

Hi Peter,

	I am in the same boat as you essentially, only I am a little 
worse off. I own 2 Indigo R3000's and would love to see a port of 
Linux or NetBSD or something of that nature done for the machine, but 
alas, I fear that if I don't start one on my architecture there may 
never be a port to the R3000.
	There is some hope for you. I believe someone on this list 
told me a while back that a port is being developed by someone to the 
R4000 Indigo, someone here might be able to shed some more light on 
that for you as I have no idea who is doing that.
	There is also the Plan 9 effort, which is an OS that is/was 
being developed by AT&T that supports the R4000 and maybe even the 
R3000. You may be able to get information about the architecture of 
the Indigo from this code. I have been unsuccessful in this respect, 
but, maybe you will have better luck than I. Here are some Plan 9 
links to get you started:

http://www.vitanuova.com/plan9/
http://www.fywss.com/plan9/plan9faq.html

	As far as getting information from SGI, I wouldn't bother 
with that, as anyone else in here would agree. The chances of them 
giving you any information are slim to none. The expense of having 
someone at SGI pull documentation for the Indigo (if it even still 
exists) is too high. So, architecture information and specifications 
are very hard to come by.
	I am thinking about *attempting* to start a port of some 
linux distribution to the R3000, but I have to admit, the task seems 
a bit daunting. On other platforms, this is difficult with the proper 
documentation. You may also want to take a look at the Linux/MIPS 
page and check out the Indy port, which is the only functional Linux 
port to the SGI platform that I am aware of.
	I hope that some of this information will help you out. 
Remember to try the MIPS website also as there may be some useful 
bits of data there that will shed some light for you.

Thanks,
Mike


>Hi,.
>
>I recently acquired a R4000 50MHz Indigo without an IRIX install nor CD
>with it. No CD-Rom player either, however I did order one, network however
>does seem to work. And as I am a linux fanatic and professional programmer
>myself I would like to see whether I could help a bit with bringing linux to
>this system.
>
>As Indigo support isn't finished and I have nothing but a bare BIOS
>to start with; and have no experience with the machine to begin with;
>I have to ask for _help_ :)
>
>Where do I start reading and tinkering to get linux; for as far as it's
>sort of running; on my system ?
>
>Are there any specs for the machine, especially for those parts that need
>most urgent development and which parts are that ?
>
>
>kind regards,
>	Peter Zijlstra

Re: Where to start with a R4000 Indigo

[Rafal Boni]

In message <p05001900b7233ce422ce@[192.168.1.3]>, Mike writes: 

-> 	I am in the same boat as you essentially, only I am a little 
-> worse off. I own 2 Indigo R3000's and would love to see a port of 
-> Linux or NetBSD or something of that nature done for the machine, but 
-> alas, I fear that if I don't start one on my architecture there may 
-> never be a port to the R3000.

Quick note re: NetBSD: If you get the hardware support going, there is
already R3000 support in the tree, so the port to the R3000 Indigo should
be no harder than the one to the R4000 Indigo.

-> 	There is also the Plan 9 effort, which is an OS that is/was 
-> being developed by AT&T that supports the R4000 and maybe even the 
-> R3000. You may be able to get information about the architecture of 
-> the Indigo from this code. I have been unsuccessful in this respect, 
-> but, maybe you will have better luck than I. Here are some Plan 9 
-> links to get you started:
-> 
-> http://www.vitanuova.com/plan9/
-> http://www.fywss.com/plan9/plan9faq.html

If you've been unsuccessful in finding the Plan9 Indigo code, I have
been told it's only available on CD, and if any/either of you is interested
in it, I will try and track down the info for ordering it and/or confirming
that it contains useful info (I know someone who just ordered it to help
with a NetBSD port to the Indigo).

-> 	As far as getting information from SGI, I wouldn't bother 
-> with that, as anyone else in here would agree. The chances of them 
-> giving you any information are slim to none. The expense of having 
-> someone at SGI pull documentation for the Indigo (if it even still 
-> exists) is too high. So, architecture information and specifications 
-> are very hard to come by.

Agreed.  I've been told (and have no reason to disbelieve) that the primary
issue is making sure the docs are unencumbered by third-party IPR before 
being released and since this involves both technical people and lawyers,
it can't be cheap. 

--rafal

----
Rafal Boni                                              rafal.boni@eDial.com
 PGP key C7D3024C, print EA49 160D F5E4 C46A 9E91  524E 11E0 7133 C7D3 024C
    Need to get a hold of me?  http://800.edial.com/rafal.boni@eDial.com

Re: Where to start with a R4000 Indigo

[Pete Popov]

peter.zijlstra@chello.nl wrote:

>Hi,.
>
>I recently acquired a R4000 50MHz Indigo without an IRIX install nor CD
>with it. No CD-Rom player either, however I did order one, network however
>does seem to work. And as I am a linux fanatic and professional programmer 
>myself I would like to see whether I could help a bit with bringing linux to
>this system.
>
>As Indigo support isn't finished and I have nothing but a bare BIOS
>to start with; and have no experience with the machine to begin with;
>I have to ask for _help_ :)
>
>Where do I start reading and tinkering to get linux; for as far as it's
>sort of running; on my system ?
>
>Are there any specs for the machine, especially for those parts that need
>most urgent development and which parts are that ?
>
Are you sure this system is an Indigo and not an Indigo2? I thought the 
Indigo's are R3000 based and the Indigo2 is R4000 based. If it's an 
Indigo2, linux already runs on it. I've got our HardHat Linux 2.0 
booting and running of the hard drive. There's also a port of RedHat7.1. 
on oss.sgi.com.

Pete

Re: Where to start with a R4000 Indigo

[Keith M Wesolowski]

On Sat, May 12, 2001 at 01:11:17PM -0700, Pete Popov wrote:

> Are you sure this system is an Indigo and not an Indigo2? I thought the 
> Indigo's are R3000 based and the Indigo2 is R4000 based. If it's an 

Indigo initially had R3000 and later had R4000, offered as both an
upgrade board and a new system.  Indigo2 came with various R4000 and
R4400 CPUs (and then R8k and R10k later).

-- 
Keith M Wesolowski <wesolows@foobazco.org> http://foobazco.org/~wesolows
------(( Project Foobazco Coordinator and Network Administrator ))------
	"Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss put
	 in an honest day's work." -- The fortune file

Re: Where to start with a R4000 Indigo

[Thiemo Seufer]

Pete Popov wrote:
[snip]
>Are you sure this system is an Indigo and not an Indigo2? I thought the 
>Indigo's are R3000 based and the Indigo2 is R4000 based.

There were both R3000 and R4000 based Indigos (and a R4400 upgrade).
The Indigo2 is at least a R4400 Machine.


Thiemo