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Naopic Tastalian | 15 Jun 2005 11:51
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NetBSD-2.0.x

Hello,

I recently bought a Linux Kit for my PS2 in order to install NetBSD on it. First
of all, I was surprised to see that only a snapshot for an old NetBSD-1.5ZC was
available online, and as it didn't work very well I decided to compile a new
release from NetBSD-2.0 branch.

As I'm mostly a newbie to NetBSD it took me a day, but I managed to make it and
put it on my local FTP server. Installation worked and, apart from a few
problems, I can boot and use my system. So, I'd like to propose you a tarball
of my releasedir, as it might help others to install a more recent version of
the system.

But, as I said there are a few problems with it : first of all, sysinst from the
installation kernel segfaults, so I had to use the NetBSD-1.5ZC installation
kernel.

Then, the /dev partition mounted at boot (mfs) isn't large enough for the system
(many write errors), and I don't know how to configure that.

And, it's not *really* a problem, but as NetBSD can't read or write Playstation
2 Memory Cards I'd like to make a dualboot "Linux/NetBSD" on the machine ; but
it's not possible as NetBSD's installation seems to erase my MBR.

So it seems there are still things to improve, but I'd really like to have an
up-to-date NetBSD server running on my PS2 and I'd like to help if there are
things I can do (testing, debug, programmation/algorithmic etc.)

Regards,
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Ed Schouten | 15 Jun 2005 17:16
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My todo (Was: Re: NetBSD-2.0.x)

Hey Naopic,

* Naopic Tastalian <tastalian <at> free.fr> wrote:
> I recently bought a Linux Kit for my PS2 in order to install NetBSD on
> it. First of all, I was surprised to see that only a snapshot for an
> old NetBSD-1.5ZC was available online, and as it didn't work very well
> I decided to compile a new release from NetBSD-2.0 branch.
> 
> As I'm mostly a newbie to NetBSD it took me a day, but I managed to
> make it and put it on my local FTP server. Installation worked and,
> apart from a few problems, I can boot and use my system. So, I'd like
> to propose you a tarball of my releasedir, as it might help others to
> install a more recent version of the system.

Wow, that's great to hear that the port still works (I still need to
find myself a Sync-on-Green capable display, so I still have to use
Linux for the time being).

> And, it's not *really* a problem, but as NetBSD can't read or write
> Playstation 2 Memory Cards I'd like to make a dualboot "Linux/NetBSD"
> on the machine ; but it's not possible as NetBSD's installation seems
> to erase my MBR.

The reason NetBSD doesn't support the memory cards (yet) is because the
driver shipped with Linux isn't a real default 'filesystem on top of a
block device' setup. I looked in the source some time ago (trying to
patch the latest 2.4), but it seems that the 'ps2mc' and 'ps2mcfs'
drivers are mangled together. I guess the real Playstation 2 Memory Card
Filesystem code is handled by the Playstation 2 Linux Runtime
Environment (not sure though).
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Naopic Tastalian | 16 Jun 2005 13:25
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Re: My todo

Hey Ed,

> The reason NetBSD doesn't support the memory cards (yet) is because the
> driver shipped with Linux isn't a real default 'filesystem on top of a
> block device' setup. I looked in the source some time ago (trying to
> patch the latest 2.4), but it seems that the 'ps2mc' and 'ps2mcfs'
> drivers are mangled together. I guess the real Playstation 2 Memory Card
> Filesystem code is handled by the Playstation 2 Linux Runtime
> Environment (not sure though).

And I guess the Playstation 2 Linux Runtime Environment's source isn't
available, is it ?

> - Port Linux 2.4.31 to the Sony Playstation 2
> - Patch a recent toolchain to support the Sony Playstation 2
> - Build a Linux From Scratch install

Wow, that already represents much work :)

> - Patch the native NetBSD toolchain to support the Sony Playstation 2

I'm still a newbie to NetBSD : what do you mean by "native toolchain" ? I used
the toolchain to build a NetBSD/playstation2 system from an i386 machine, and
it worked (I precise I had to edit some code from /usr/pkgsrc/cross/mips* in
order to compile).

> - Improve some NetBSD drivers if possible
> - Port Linux 2.6 to the Sony Playstation 2
>
> Well, I hope there are any guys out there who are planning the same as
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Martin Husemann | 16 Jun 2005 14:32
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Re: My todo

>- Patch a recent toolchain to support the Sony Playstation 2

I think someone had that done already, look at the archives for this mailing
lists a few months back.

> I'm still a newbie to NetBSD : what do you mean by "native toolchain" ?

The emotion engine specific stuff is neither in gcc/binutils-current nor in
the gcc that ships with NetBSD. The latter is the reason why
NetBSD/playstation2 is not included in the formal binary releases.

Martin
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Ed Schouten | 16 Jun 2005 16:50
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Re: My todo

* Martin Husemann <martin <at> duskware.de> wrote:
> >- Patch a recent toolchain to support the Sony Playstation 2
> 
> I think someone had that done already, look at the archives for this
> mailing lists a few months back.

A few months ago I mailed a new package for the mipsEEel toolchain with
GCC 3.2.3 and Binutils 2.15, but I want to patch GNU's current version
if possible. It would be nice if it would be in the main releases in the
future.

Yours,
--

-- 
 Ed Schouten <ed <at> fxq.nl>
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Ed Schouten | 16 Jun 2005 13:54
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Re: My todo

* Naopic Tastalian <tastalian <at> free.fr> wrote:
> And I guess the Playstation 2 Linux Runtime Environment's source isn't
> available, is it ?

No, but we have the Linux kernel source, so we can find out how we have
to use the RTE.

> >- Port Linux 2.4.31 to the Sony Playstation 2
> >- Patch a recent toolchain to support the Sony Playstation 2
> >- Build a Linux From Scratch install
> 
> Wow, that already represents much work :)

Yep. I'm almost finished with Linux 2.4.31 (I've already been working on
it for a while). I've already imported most drivers and arch stuff, but
it doesn't compile cleanly yet. (A lot has changed since 2.4.17)

> >- Patch the native NetBSD toolchain to support the Sony Playstation 2
> 
> I'm still a newbie to NetBSD : what do you mean by "native toolchain"
> ? I used the toolchain to build a NetBSD/playstation2 system from an
> i386 machine, and it worked (I precise I had to edit some code from
> /usr/pkgsrc/cross/mips* in order to compile).

Your i386 toolchain builds a mipsel toolchain at the beginning of the
'./build.sh' process. The toolchain from pkgsrc is only needed to
compile the kernel because it understands the PS2 vector instructions
and such and the kernel is the only part of NetBSD/playstation2 that
uses these.
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