Re: Proposed build system: PREP
On Mon, Oct 06, 2003 at 11:43:59AM +0100, Leigh Brown wrote:
> Sven Luther said:
> > Could you test the prep kernel at :
> > http://people.debian.org/~luther/powerpc/2.4.22, and instruct us about :
> >
> > 1) The different method of booting from a prep system.
> >
> > 2) if there are auto-booting CDroms, or if you just have to enter the
> > right value from the OF (in case you have an OF).
> >
> > 3) the output of your /proc/cpuinfo.
> >
> > 4) do you believe they are smp prep systems ?
> >
> > And if you would volunteer to test some of our debian-installers setups
> > when they are ready, it would be real nice.
>
> Hi Sven,
>
> I know there are several RS/6000 PReP systems around, and that there
> are people running Debian on them. The 7043-140 should boot okay on
> the 2.4.22 kernel, and I'll try your test kernel when I get a chance,
> on mine. There are also some other RS/6000 PReP models that work, but
> require some kernel patches. They are:
>
> 7248-133
> 7024-E20
> 7024-E30
> 7025-F30
> 7025-F40
> 7043-240
>
> There might be others.
>
> All these RS/6000's can boot off CD-ROM if the PReP kernel has been
> configured using the mkisofs -prep-boot option. The 7034-240 and
> 7025-F40 support up to two CPUs, but the PReP boot loader doesn't
> know how to bootstrap the second CPUs on these machines.
>
> I also have a Motorola PowerStack that is PReP, and it should work
> with a stock kernel as well. There is support in the PReP boot
> loader for an SMP Motorola machine, but I've never seen such a
> beast.
The MVME machines I have (2400 and 2600 series) are essentially
PreP although the configuration is called PowerPlus in the kernel
for some reasons. The MVME5100 is also the same AFAICT although it has
a different configuration of the host bridge at startup (more
CHRP like, but residual data and no OF).
I find it quite stupid to distinguish them from PreP only because
they have a different host bridge (Raven/Falcon/Hawk). This said
I wrote my own bootloader for them which never made it to the
official tree for several reasons but mostly my fault (I'm very
bad at pushing changes and "marketing", although my bootloader has
some nice features that no other has).
The MVME5500 is a completely different beast (it should be
available now or soon), with a Marvell Galileo host bridge.
Regards,
Gabriel
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