Gentoo, 2.6.x, RaQ 3i (updated 2005/07/28)

patricko · n00b Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 9

Hi,

http://www.no-l.org/pages/cobalt-patch.html

Constructive comment
http://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2004/07/msg00023.html

The X-Cobalt Kernel developer - Tim Hocking
http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0203.0/0131.html
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0308.0/1181.html

patricko · n00b Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 9

I dont think XTR and 550 have ALi 7101 watchdog
They are using Nat Semi SuperI/O
/*
* Set up the Nat. Semi SuperI/O for XTR. It has a
* minimum of a 1 minute timeout.
*/

/* superi/o -- select pm logical device and get base address */
superio_pm_port = superio_ldev_base(PC87317_DEV_PM

/*
* Set up the Nat. Semi SuperI/O for 550 aka Alpine. It has a
* minimum of a 1 minute timeout.
*/
unsigned char tmp;

/* superi/o -- select pm logical device and get base address */
superio_pm_port = superio_ldev_base(PC87417_DEV_SWC);

http://tlug.up.ac.za/guides/lkcg/drivers_i2c_busses.html
My raq4i got a chip M1543 which have PMU - watchdog.
But cant find any of such in XTR and 550
In fact they dont have the chip.

Serverworks northbridge/southbridge chip got some interfaces for inbuilt watchdog

[raq3/4]
I2C Hardware Bus support
ALI 1535 I2C_ALI1535
Module name: i2c
If you say yes to this option, support will be included for the SMB Host controller on Acer Labs Inc. (ALI) M1535 South Bridges. The SMB controller is part of the 7101 device, which is an ACPI-compliant Power Management Unit (PMU). This driver can also be built as a module. If so, the module will be called i2c-ali1535.
ALI 15x3 I2C_ALI15X3
Module name: i2c
If you say yes to this option, support will be included for the Acer Labs Inc. (ALI) M1514 and M1543 motherboard I2C interfaces. This driver can also be built as a module. If so, the module will be called i2c-ali15x3.

[XTR/550]

Intel PIIX4 I2C_PIIX4
Module name: i2c
If you say yes to this option, support will be included for the Intel PIIX4 family of mainboard I2C interfaces. Specifically, the following versions of the chipset are supported: Intel PIIX4 Intel 440MX Serverworks OSB4 Serverworks CSB5 Serverworks CSB6 SMSC Victory66 This driver can also be built as a module. If so, the module will be called i2c-piix4.

lleo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 7

Hi ill0gical,
This may be a stupid question, but when I try to compile a 2.6.10 kernel on fedora core 3 to be used on a cobalt raq 3i it fails with the following error:

arch/i386/kernel/cobalt.c: In function `cobalt_halt':
arch/i386/kernel/cobalt.c:24: sorry, unimplemented: inlining failed in call to 'ledonoff': function body not available
arch/i386/kernel/cobalt.c:205: sorry, unimplemented: called from here
make[1]: *** [arch/i386/kernel/cobalt.o] Error 1
make: *** [arch/i386/kernel] Error 2

Is your 2.6.10 patch gentoo specific only and should not be used on other distros?
My logic tells me that it shouldn't be but I am no expert.
Thanks, Lleo_

JeffW_ · Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 7:48 pm Post subject:

What version GCC are you running?
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lleo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 7

Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc/i386-redhat-linux/3.4.2/specs
Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --disable-checking --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-java-awt=gtk --host=i386-redhat-linux
Thread model: posix
gcc version 3.4.2 20041017 (Red Hat 3.4.2-6.fc3)

This is a vanilla install
Thanks, Lleo_

JeffW_ · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 12:59 am Post subject:

I compiled under GCC 3.3.2. I'll take a look at the code.
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lleo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 7

Just to let you know, that I managed to boot a cobalt raq 3i of a vanilla fedora core 3 install with your kernel/modules from the gentoo stage 3 package.
I could not compile a kernel though, got the same error as earlier.
Thanks, Lleo_

atopian · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 29 Location: Columbus, OH

I ran into an oddly similar issue on another peice of code in a completely unrelated src. I believe the issue was resolved by moving the static inline function up above the function calling it. It appears GCC 3.4.3 has become stricter on its function prototyping.
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JeffW_ · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:57 pm Post subject:

Definitely helps me find some direction here. I'm going to have to build a system with GCC 3.4.x to test though.
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lleo_ · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 7

You were right on atopian, moved the function 'ledonoff' in front of 'cobalt_halt' and worked.
illogical: I had to address two "error: label at end of compound statement" errors where a semicolon was needed in lines 273 and 573 in drivers/lcd.c
- default:
+ default:;
there were few other warnings, but compilation completed with success under FC3.
Thanks for the patch.
Cheers, Lleo_

atopian · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 29 Location: Columbus, OH

It seems a few minor things were missed in the RaQ3 config:

Device Drivers -> Character Devices:
<*> /dev/nvram support

Its needed by cmos to twiddle with cmos options on the command line.

Device Drivers -> Multi Device Support
[*] Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM)
<*> RAID support
< > Linear (append) mode
<*> RAID-0 (striping) mode
<*> RAID-1 (mirroring) mode
< > RAID-10 (mirrored striping) mode (EXPERIMENTAL) (NEW)
<*> RAID-4/RAID-5 mode

Also XFS support is required for compatability with the RaQ550 load.
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atopian · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 29 Location: Columbus, OH

More happiness on the gentoo front.

I freed up some time this week and hacked away at the cobalt-rom. Originally functionality was provided for netkernel, which was (in theory) supposed to use nfs to load a stage2 kernel. Functionality was, well, broken. So to fix it i patched in new functionality to allow netboot from a disk kernel.

More information on the rom image can be found at
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=6681585&forum_id=36910

Now, to boot a kernel with a root fs that is not a standard xfs fs (like a reiserfs system or selinux), just set up a small partition on the front of the disk to contain vmlinux.bz2 and vmlinux-net.bz2. Then it can bounce from the first partion (a standard xfs fs) to the second partition. Tada life is good

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robinBones · n00b Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 22

Hi guys,

I downloaded the stage probided in the oritinal thread, and unpacked it onto a fresh harddrive using. I used the partitioning information proved in the gentoo manual.
hda1 = 50 MB boot
hda2 = 512 swap
hda3 = remaining root

I setup the fstab file same as my working system.

When I boot, I get a a kernel error each time on the LCD. Using the console, it looks like it is having trouble finding the gentoo kernel.

should the boot partition / directory be part of the root partition to use on the raq?

I can change the boot device in the cobal console menu.. should it be on hda1, or hda3? I treid all the settings I could think of.

this is where is stops in the console
---------------------------------------------------
Cobalt system type is Pacifica
Cobalt Networks LED driver 1.0 (modified by jeff@404ster.com)
Cobalt Networks LCD driver 4.0 (modified by jeff@404ster.com)
Cobalt Networks Serial Number driver 1.6 (modified by jeff@404ster.com)
Cobalt Networks Watchdog Timer driver 1.0 (modified by jeff@404ster.com)
Cobalt Networks Sensor driver 1.0 (modified by jeff@404ster.com)
Cobalt Networks RAM Info driver 1.0 (modified by jeff@404ster.com)
VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block(3,3)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,3)

atopian · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 29 Location: Columbus, OH

robin: in the monitor you will want to do the following

<space at the ROM prompt>
boot
set_boot_dev hda1
set_root_dev hda3
set_boot_type disk
main
quit

That should make it work.
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robinBones · n00b Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 22

Thanks for your response.. that got me past the error I was having, now I have a new problem..

Freeing unused kernel memory: 64k freed
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.
disabling network interfaces.
Rebooting in 5 seconds..

any ideas?

robinBones · n00b Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 22

Sorry about that last post, turns out I had the wrong hard drive plugged in..
Things are up a running fine, thanks for provising the stage and all the other information.

astinus · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:28 am Post subject:

Very nice! Your work is much appreciated, I've turned my RAQ3 from paperweight to useful web appliance.

wjholden · l33t Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 826 Location: Augusta, GA

JeffW_ · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 7:24 am Post subject:

JeffW_ · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:09 am Post subject:

Also of note, I'm going to be doing a lot of house cleaning, ie. fixing some of Tim's original code as certain parts of it are using depricated functions. I'll also be cooking up some new stage 4 tarballs.
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mzeeuw · n00b Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 3

First of all, I would like to thank ill0gical for the good work.

As an alternative to my screwed up IBM PC 315 server I started to look for a decent second hand. It had to be sleek, simple, comparable to my 315 server (which had 6 SCSI disks) at a much lower energy consumption. I ebayed around and found a nice and sleek Sun Cobalt Cube, of which I new nothing, until I found ill0gical's posting. I gambled that it could do the job for a reasonable price and effort (install wise).

Well, indeed all worked accordingly the description. Nonetheless, to me it was far from easy. As a starter I was a newbie to Gentoo. OK, I've been doing my things with Linux for years now, but only with out of the box solutions like Red Hat, Suse and Debian. Gentoo is different indeed. Even more so, since I was not able to emerge and compile my system reliable. It kept on bailing out on numerous compile jobs over and over again. One package could compile, whilst others reluctantly failed. However, retries sometimes solved this.

Finally, I found out that the gcc compiler stressed the CPU/memory combination beyond it's limits. The cube worked well with it's original PC-100 SDRAM and OS from the past. But here, the Cube was put to work in a serious manner. I thought, let's give it a try, and fit faster memory from my Apple G4. So I took one bank of 512 Mb PC-133 SDRAM out, fitted it in my little Cube. Fired it up, and ever since it worked flawlessly.

Of course, I had trouble with some individual packages getting to work (and somtimes search for alternatives). But now, I have it running with:

netatalk, squid, sshd, samba, cups, dhcpd, named, fetchmail, iptables, apache, postfix, courier-imap, and some others I might forgot...

Ever since, it's doing a environmental friendly job at an average load of some 10%. It supports my 20 (or so) desk tops, and serves as a gateway to my DSL-router too.

Kind regards,

Marcel Zeeuw.

atopian · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 29 Location: Columbus, OH

Yea, doing any kind of update on the R3/Q3/R4 can be a bit... umm.. taxing on the system.

The best solution ive found is to dish the work load out to a machine more capable of handling it. Either by using the tar.bz2 images via chroot or something more complex, depending on your environment.

The earlier is better with anyone with a modern PC and a RaQ. Build a stage3 image inside of a chrooted environment and then modify the make.conf appropriately, and rebuild everything from the ground it.. It _really_ makes life quicker when twiddling with a raq/qube system.
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JeffW_ · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:18 pm Post subject:

I've been working on the kernel patch and I have it compiling under GCC 3.4.3. I've also updated all the deprecated calls and I am working to resolve all compile warnings (remaining warnings are all regarding incompatible pointer types when dealing with pointers to functions). There is also a fix (ie. partial code removal) I need to move in that someone on the Gentoo kernel team did to fix a problem. Once all that is done I'll get the stage4 builds going along with some better instructions. I'll update the first post when I have more news.
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BulletSponge · Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:44 pm Post subject: serial boot raq 550

in the tutorial, to serial boot the machine, it says you need to transfer the kernel in a binary only form.

i have no idea how to do this.
googling turned up no results, but i'm probably searching with the wrong terms.
if someone could give me some instructions, i'd be really appreceative

Thanks!

atopian · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 29 Location: Columbus, OH

Bullet, check the paragraph in ill0gicals original post that states.