Re: Debian with R10000 Processors
* Jens Seidel <jensseidel@users.sf.net> [2008-03-09 20:18]:
> What would be necessary to add support for Octane?
>
> Is it sufficient to provide a kernel and maybe a bootloader? The
> problem with Octane is that only a few kernel versions are supported
> by upstream and merging patches to newer kernels is probably not
> easy.
>
> What else is missing (except testing)?
- We'd definitely want to have proper Octane support in the mainline
kernel first. Maintaining the patches in the Debian kernel tree is
a major headache. The good news is that Thomas Bogendoerfer intends
to work on Octane support in the near future.
- Once there's support in the mainline kernel, adding an Octane
kernel image to Debian would be easy.
- Figure out how to boot. arcboot probably won't work, but arcload
is already in the archive. Test that.
- Integrate arcload support into debian-installer. I think it cannot
generate tftp images yet, so a solution for that is needed. Also,
we have to answer the question whether we should move all SGI machines
over to arcload or whether some stay should with arcboot.
- Integrate Octane support into debian-installer. (Once the arcload
issue has been sorted out, the rest should be easy.)
- Be willing to test and maintain Octane support in Debian.
--
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/
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