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iMike
Apprentice
Joined: 01 Apr 2005
Posts: 217
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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 Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:19 pm Post subject: SGI O2 gottchas? |
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In my recent attempt to build gentoo on an SGI O2, somethings have gone more smoothly than about a year ago when I did this, and some more difficult. First, the manual updates and the livecd--I use the latest rX (r5, I guess, don't have it here right now)--along with arcload are absolutely wonderful! Thanks so much for the good work! 
The tougher sailing I've had could be because I am trying to do things a little "smarter" than before. This is where I could use some advice on whether I am asking for trouble and any other "SGI O2 gottchas" I should be aware of.
A. Know problems I could use some help with:
1. The 2.6.22.6-mipsgit-20070902 kernel appears to dump a TON of messages of the form:
| Code: | | Jan 7 16:25:50 louie CRIME memory error at 0x3e0a59e0 ST 0x02010000<INV,GBE,NONFATAL> |
to syslog. Anyone already know the variable to shut this off?
2. According to the emerge message with the above kernel:
| Code: | * - X support is limited to the generic fbdev driver. No X gbefb
* driver exists for O2 yet. Patches are welcome, however :) |
I interpreted this as meaning I should have | Code: | | # CONFIG_FB_GBE is not set |
in my kernel config; however, with this I get no console messages when booting, which could be helpful. Note I do have | Code: | CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y |
B. Am I shooting myself in the foot with these?
1. I use CCACHE
2. I use the "update" script as described in this associated thread.
3. I would like to use DISTCC (with faster non-mips machine in the build farm, but have not dared yet)
4. The above all concern a standard one-disk system. On the other O2 I am building I use RAID 1 mirrored over two same-sized, same-characteristic, disks. (BTW, I got about as far with this update as with my one that failed previously, making me suspect it is something other than a hardware error.) Any reason to completely stay away from RAID? If I recall correctly, someone once in this forum said Kumba had used it successfully.
Thanks for any tips.
/iMike |
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Redhatter
Retired Dev
Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Posts: 548
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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| Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:24 am Post subject: Re: SGI O2 gottchas? |
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| iMike wrote: | In my recent attempt to build gentoo on an SGI O2, somethings have gone more smoothly than about a year ago when I did this, and some more difficult. First, the manual updates and the livecd--I use the latest rX (r5, I guess, don't have it here right now)--along with arcload are absolutely wonderful! Thanks so much for the good work!
The tougher sailing I've had could be because I am trying to do things a little "smarter" than before. This is where I could use some advice on whether I am asking for trouble and any other "SGI O2 gottchas" I should be aware of.
A. Know problems I could use some help with:
1. The 2.6.22.6-mipsgit-20070902 kernel appears to dump a TON of messages of the form:
| Code: | | Jan 7 16:25:50 louie CRIME memory error at 0x3e0a59e0 ST 0x02010000<INV,GBE,NONFATAL> |
to syslog. Anyone already know the variable to shut this off? |
AFAIK some O2 systems may generate quite a few of these messages, but they aren't the end of the world. I have no idea how to disable them.
| Quote: | 2. According to the emerge message with the above kernel:
| Code: | * - X support is limited to the generic fbdev driver. No X gbefb
* driver exists for O2 yet. Patches are welcome, however :) |
I interpreted this as meaning I should have | Code: | | # CONFIG_FB_GBE is not set |
in my kernel config; however, with this I get no console messages when booting, which could be helpful. Note I do have | Code: | CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y |
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No, you should interpret that as:
| Code: | | VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev" |
in /etc/make.conf
and appropriate settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf ... if you intend to use X.
It's worth noting that no MIPS-based SGI system has a VGA compatible graphic card, thus CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE will never do anything useful on such machines. 
| Quote: | B. Am I shooting myself in the foot with these?
1. I use CCACHE |
As do I... that should be fine
I've never tried that update script... assuming it doesn't try to merge stuff that's particularly experimental however, I don't see this being the problem.
| Quote: | | 3. I would like to use DISTCC (with faster non-mips machine in the build farm, but have not dared yet) |
Doable, but not trivial.
| Quote: | | 4. The above all concern a standard one-disk system. On the other O2 I am building I use RAID 1 mirrored over two same-sized, same-characteristic, disks. (BTW, I got about as far with this update as with my one that failed previously, making me suspect it is something other than a hardware error.) Any reason to completely stay away from RAID? If I recall correctly, someone once in this forum said Kumba had used it successfully. |
RAID does work ... but obviously for that to work correctly, the underlying hardware has to work correctly.
_________________
Stuart Longland (a.k.a Redhatter, VK4MSL)
I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere...
Gentoo/MIPS Cobalt developer, Mozilla herd member. |
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Galahad
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 126
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:28 am Post subject: |
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| cross platform distcc is not hard to do, there's a howto somewhere around in a gentoo wiki |
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