mips gentoo

kyle · n00b Joined: 29 Aug 2002 Posts: 5

Hello,

I am interested in getting gentoo running on mips computers, mainly sgi because that is what I have. Is there any interest in this?? Would anyone be willing to help with this??. I have a Indigo2 R10k, which is not currently supported (processor cache problems) and an indy which works well with linux.

Anyways, I will let you know how it goes...

cheers,
kyle

rac · Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2002 4:41 am Post subject:

I can provide a bit of cheerleading and consulting, although not much actual heavy lifting. I did some work a few years ago in the porting effort to get Linux running on MIPS handhelds; specifically the Casio Cassiopeia. Probably the first place to start with porting Gentoo is libsandbox and the missingos Python extension. Once you have those working, and Python is OK, Portage should be pretty much ready to go.
_________________
For every higher wall, there is a taller ladder

kyle · n00b Joined: 29 Aug 2002 Posts: 5

Thanks, I will post here if i run into any troubles.. I plan to start working on this next weekend becuase school starts this week and will be busy.

I will let you know how it goes

xphyr · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2002 Posts: 16 Location: Rochester, NY

Wow ... kinda weird two totally seperate people thinking the same thing. I just posted an e-mail to the gentoo-user mailing list yesterday about this. I am looking to build a updated distribution for the Cobalt RAQ2 machines which are also based on MIPS processors. I also have access to a SGI Indigo2 Impact machine. Let me know if you decide to start working on this so we dont duplicate work.

kyle · n00b Joined: 29 Aug 2002 Posts: 5

Yeah, that is good i think

...

Whate processor do you have in your indigo2.. there is no frabebuffer for the impact boards, so you would have to use it over serial.... I just saw some posts on the linux-mips mailing list today about the cobalt stuff... anyways..... i am getting all of my cross compiling stuff ready on a sun box right now (running gentoo)... i actually hope to put this on the net in the next month, along with my indy once I get that going... i think it would be benificial to have a mips box on the net so people could work on it.. etc..

let's keep in touch.
kyle

Guest · Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2002 12:02 am Post subject:

I would be intrested seeing gentoo on my old raq2 I have laying in my closet, (gotta love the nevada mips cpu).

kyle · n00b Joined: 29 Aug 2002 Posts: 5

I am working on getting debian installed on my indy to build the gentoo stuff with... the alpha port has given me insperation

...

xphyr · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2002 Posts: 16 Location: Rochester, NY

Man ... great minds think alike or something ... I too am using debian to build up the gentoo system for my RAQ2. I have a partially working directory right now, and that is only becuase it take FOREVER to compile anything on a 250MHZ MIPS processor .... As for the guest who said they would like to get Gentoo on thier RAQ, stay tuned ... I will have some preliminary stuff up soon I hope, with instructions on an NFSROOT and net boot. (Just as long as life doesnt get in the way....)

skeep · n00b Joined: 26 Sep 2002 Posts: 2

How about an SGI O2?

Seems no Linux exists for it currently.

I am far too much a noob to know how to do anything with Python but I thought I would throw the question out there.

Here are the specs I have for my SGI O2
R5000
256Megs RAM

Everything else is very integrated. If no port is to be made let me know cause e-bay has been calling my O2's name.

-skeep

grendle · n00b Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 7

This was asked on the linux-mips mailing list recently.....

aparently linux does run on it:
http://www.linux-mips.org/~glaurung for pre-built kernels.

So this should not be too hard to get linux running on this.. especially if we can get gentoo running on it

...

ebay is a god send for old workstations

...

skeep · n00b Joined: 26 Sep 2002 Posts: 2

That is interesting thanks!

I'll have to check that out!

-skeep

Kumba · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2002 10:03 am Post subject:

Well, I've recently come into ownership of an SGI Indigo2, R4400 @ 250MHz system (the Purple Ones), and am planning on trying to port Gentoo over to it. I don't know the first thing about Porting, Cross-Compiling, or whatever else is needed., so this should prove to be both a fun experiment, and an annoying hassle.

I'm figuring on installing Debian MIPS Port first, and then using a chrooted environment off of there to get Python, and Portage's libsandbox and missing.os (interesting names) to work, and would like input and/or advice from anyone else in this thread that may have ported Gentoo, or any app for this matter. My other idea was to setup mips-linux cross compilers on my sparc64 system running Gentoo, but I currently have no idea how to go about doing this either.

I think it'd be interesting (and helpful) if the ebuilds neccessary for system development could all be converted into a set of giant ebuilds designed for Cross compiling. For example, emerging cross-compile/mips-linux-0.0.1.ebuild would fetch binutils, gcc, glibc, and other neccessary tools, and unpack, apply gentoo patches, build each for the specific platform that the ebuild is named after, and install them appropriately so they won't override the main system compilers and libraries. It'd be interesting, none the less. Ideas?

Anyways, to get back on topic, I have no idea how far I'll get in the actual idea of porting. One of the hassles will be keeping a portage tree up-to-date and keeping a "mips" keyword in each ebuild. I think I'll solve this by making a dirty bash shell script to run through the portage tree and tacking on "mips" to the KEYWORDS= value in every ebuild.

I still need to get SCSI disks, and a few cables to get this SGI system running, but I figured it was best to go ahead and start planning things out, and getting people's ideas and opinions on this concept.

--Kumba
_________________
"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic

RockHound · Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2002 4:24 pm Post subject:

Hi there,

got a rather old Indigo 2 Extreme from my dad sitting here. I would love to help betatest if you get anything running. It's just an old dust collector right now, which is a shame, and i would like to use it as a server.

Oh well, would be really cool to get Gentoo running since its the bomb. :-)

Syonyk · n00b Joined: 16 Nov 2002 Posts: 15

If anyone wants IRIX CDs I can probably copy/send some out... Since it is licensed per system.

I quite enjoy my Indigo 2. Very stable, and quite powerful for it's age. It would make a nice serv... er, wait, it is =o) Among other things.

I wonder if SGI would help out providing information on interfacing with the video subsystem to help the open source community out?

-=Russ=-
_________________
Wabash: 195mhz R10k Indigo 2, 256mb, 2x4gb, IRIX 6.5
TheLaptop: Titanium PowerBook, 800mhz G4, 1 gig/60gig, OS X
Sleeping Giant: Quad PPro 200 Proliant 6000, gig of RAM, Gentoo

Kumba · Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2002 12:12 am Post subject:

I'm interested, several people have mentioned that Indigo2 systems are slow, mainly those running R4400 250MHz processors. The one I have has a 2MB cache on the processor, but I am unsure how this affects speed.

Now I know it's not proper to compare different architectures, but but to compare the "feel" of the speed of a machine, shouldn't a 250MHz system at least feel somewhat close a Pentium II 300MHz? I know absolutely nothing about the MIPS architecture. A textbook for a class I'm taking discusses differents between Pentium II, UltraSPARC II, and picoJava chips, so I've got an understanding between those archs, but shouldn't the clockspeed of these machines make them somewhat snappy/responsive for their age?

I doubt Indigo2 units could compile as slow as my 83MHz Pentium Overdrive machine (Packard Bell Legend 10CD), but I dunno. So what's the rough, guesstimatable speed equivalents between machine architectures?

--Kumba
_________________
"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic

Syonyk · n00b Joined: 16 Nov 2002 Posts: 15

The 4400s are fairly slow chips, compared to the later MIPS series.

I haven't used one, so I can't say what it's comparable to, but I know that my 195mhz R10k CPU whomps all over the 4400s (even the faster ones), and I'd say it's comperable to a mid to high P2 in terms of performance.

My CPU design class is based around MIPS - the CPUs are very easy to pipeline/scale, so the advances in each line are far beyond mhz - the 10ks are a perfect example. Slower, but whomp all over the earlier generation of chip.

-=Russ=-
_________________
Wabash: 195mhz R10k Indigo 2, 256mb, 2x4gb, IRIX 6.5
TheLaptop: Titanium PowerBook, 800mhz G4, 1 gig/60gig, OS X
Sleeping Giant: Quad PPro 200 Proliant 6000, gig of RAM, Gentoo

tuxus · Retired Dev Joined: 03 Nov 2002 Posts: 15

i have build a stage1 for mips with some problems to build gcc and glibc

problems:
gcc libffi patch for mips
many *.o was differs
glibc can't build

i copying debian glibc in to the stage1

i such other people for help on this port

who interest on a beta test ?

xphyr · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2002 Posts: 16 Location: Rochester, NY

I too am working on getting Gentoo on MIPS, which system are you compiling for? I am trying to get it to work on the Cobalt RAQ and Cube. I am curious did you find a listing some place of what files are actually in a "stage1" tarball? I have tried looking around with not to much luck.

Mark

torgeir · n00b Joined: 08 Dec 2002 Posts: 3

I'm interested in getting gentoo to work on my Indy and I don't mind putting in some hours to get it working..

Where is that stage1? I want to test it!

ben_h · Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:07 pm Post subject:

Hi all, I saw in the GWN that there's a head of MIPS development now. I've just got an SGI Oxygen from my dad's office -- I built a dual Athlon to replace it

I'm really interested in getting Linux, and Gentoo in particular, running on it. I'm not exactly a competent coder yet but I'm getting there, and I'm really happy to get stuck into it and help with MIPS development for Gentoo, even if all I do initially is testing on my oxygen.

So, count me in.

For the record by O2 has a 180MHz R5000 and 192MB of RAM.

Galahad · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 126

If you do this, I'll be happy to test it (Indigo2 Impact, R10K).

Kumba · Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 3:31 am Post subject:

Galahad · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 126

Programming knowledge - yes, linux kernel programming - zero.

davidsmind · n00b Joined: 25 May 2002 Posts: 61

I have an O2 doing NOTHING right now. I'd be willing to scrap the info that's on it to test out and debug a few beta versions of gentoo-mips. Contact me at davidsmind AT linuxbasics DOT com if and when something is available.

Thorbjorn · n00b Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 23