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* Re: Resurrecting mkLinux
@ 1999-04-07 10:24 Benjamin Herrenschmidt
  1999-04-07 18:52 ` a sun
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 17+ messages in thread
From: Benjamin Herrenschmidt @ 1999-04-07 10:24 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linuxppc-dev; +Cc: a sun


On Wed, Apr 7, 1999, a sun <asun@saul9.u.washington.edu> wrote:

>once a working boot loader is done, it actually shouldn't be too
>difficult to get things working. the hairiest part will probably be
>the tweaking that head.S needs. however, the apus code actually
>fiddles with the exception table and copies its virttophys constant
>into a specific memory location. i think we should be able to do
>something similar with the nubus powermac code as well to deal with
>memory holes if need be.

I think I'll finally have to dive into this now ;-)

So basically, I'll keep BootX behaviour similar, but the device-tree
pointer in the boot-infos will be 0, and I'll add a couple of fields
(machine ID and memory ranges extracted from MacOS nanokernel). I'll make
sure the internal video is located at 1MB phys instead of 0.

Just a question: Where should I place the kernel ? Current BootX copies
the kernel pages at 0 (physical). Should I do the same with a hole in the
kernel, should I do the same without a hole (overriding video memory: the
screen will display garbage during boot), or should I put the kernel in
the first large enough physically contiguous piece of memory I find and
let it relocate itself ?

BootX can do any kind of relocation quite easily before entering the
kernel, the little "bootstrap" that I run when switching to supervisor
and before entering the kernel will, after disabling the MMU, execute a
list of page copy operations, this list is pre-built by BootX, and so can
easily be adapted to make the necessary hole.

What is the APUS bootloader doing ? (Will it load the kernel at a fixed
address ?)

For those who didn't follow earlier discussions, there are actually two
problems with the memory mappings:

 - The on-board video uses the in-RAM framebuffer at either 0 or 1Mb
(physical). I know how to change it from 0 to 1Mb if MacOS sets it to 0.

 - The memory banks are generally not physically contiguous. Depending on
the motherboard and the organisation and population of the SIMM slots
(each SIMM bank resides at a fixed address, and I think on-board soldered
RAM lives at 0).

I'm working on BootX now (still those problems with boards still doing
DMA while the kernel is beeing copied), I'll try to find some time to put
some basic code for NuBus this week. Stay tuned.

-- 
           E-Mail: <mailto:bh40@calva.net>
BenH.      Web   : <http://calvaweb.calvacom.fr/bh40/>





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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread
* RE: Resurrecting mkLinux
@ 1999-04-08 22:56 Ben Martz
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 17+ messages in thread
From: Ben Martz @ 1999-04-08 22:56 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linuxppc-dev


>On 06-Apr-99 Roy Wood wrote:
>>
>> I've got a little time and an old 6100, so I'm giving some thought to
>> raiding the mkLinux sources and getting a monolithic version of the
>> kernel going (i.e. getting rid of the whole Mach layer).
>>
...
>>
>> Anyway, I was hoping some of you people here might be able to offer
>> advice or have some useful comments about what I'm considering doing.
>>
>> Anybody?  Anyone?
>>
>
>Your biggest problems will be:
>  * Booting - perhaps BootX can be made to help here
>  * Lack of Open Firmware - used to "size up" the hardware
>  * 601 support - biggest worries are actually the in the hardest
>    to debug - boot time and machine initialization.
>
>Other than that, it should work.  Of course, I'm not saying it is
>easy or else I would have done it myself long ago...

Roy,

I have some very old booting code from the defunct PowerOS project that
works just fine on x100 machines. (It was the second public use of the Gary
mode hack that I am aware of, after MkLinux) I also have some more recent
work based on BootX that you may find useful.

http://home.earthlink.net/~benmartz/poweros/

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, you won't find any of the kernel code up
there because I am still working on it =) It's just a little project that I
am doing for my own enjoyment to stretch my mind a little.


----
Ben Martz - benmartz@earthlink.net



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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread
[parent not found: <Pine.LNX.4.03.9904071324330.27618-100000@mercator.cs.kuleuven.ac.be>]
* Resurrecting mkLinux
@ 1999-04-06 18:41 Roy Wood
  1999-04-06 23:16 ` David A. Gatwood
  1999-04-07  7:12 ` Gary Thomas
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 17+ messages in thread
From: Roy Wood @ 1999-04-06 18:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linuxppc-dev


I've got a little time and an old 6100, so I'm giving some thought to 
raiding the mkLinux sources and getting a monolithic version of the 
kernel going (i.e. getting rid of the whole Mach layer).

My plan is to get video working first, then the ADB keyboard, followed by 
SCSI and network support.  Oh-- and maybe serial too, eventually.

Stop me right now if this is a stupid idea, please, but don't forget to 
tell me why it is.  :-)


Anyway, I was hoping some of you people here might be able to offer 
advice or have some useful comments about what I'm considering doing.

Anybody?  Anyone?


-Roy

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~1999-04-08 22:56 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 17+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
1999-04-07 10:24 Resurrecting mkLinux Benjamin Herrenschmidt
1999-04-07 18:52 ` a sun
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1999-04-08 22:56 Ben Martz
     [not found] <Pine.LNX.4.03.9904071324330.27618-100000@mercator.cs.kuleuven.ac.be>
1999-04-07 11:37 ` Jesper Skov
1999-04-06 18:41 Roy Wood
1999-04-06 23:16 ` David A. Gatwood
1999-04-07  1:11   ` Dave Weis
1999-04-07  3:09     ` David A. Gatwood
1999-04-07  8:26     ` a sun
1999-04-07 14:15       ` Jesper Skov
1999-04-07 14:52         ` Benjamin Herrenschmidt
1999-04-07 15:25           ` Geert Uytterhoeven
1999-04-07 17:27         ` a sun
1999-04-07 17:42           ` David A. Gatwood
1999-04-07  8:38     ` Geert Uytterhoeven
1999-04-07  7:12 ` Gary Thomas
1999-04-08  9:42   ` Hubert Figuiere

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