gmane.os.netbsd.ports.prep

[Q] Support for Bull Estrella

Hiya

A while ago I managed to get my hands on a Bull Estrella series
200 (100MHz 604, GD5434 graphic chip, symbios 53c810 SCSI).

I spend an *extremely* frustrating couple of weeks trying to
install Linux on it (turns out that the SCSI driver is broken
for new kernels, and there's no X for old kernels )-:

Can anyone tell me if NetBSD PReP will support this beast?
It's quite old, but it's a nice bit of kit to play with...

Also, does anyone know what kind of RAM the board takes? (It's
72 pin, but I don't know if it's parity/buffered/whatever).

Cheers,

--Jon

<http://www.witchspace.com>

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Klaus Klein | 21 Apr 11:21

Re: [Q] Support for Bull Estrella

Jonathan Belson <jon <at> witchspace.com> writes:

> A while ago I managed to get my hands on a Bull Estrella series
> 200 (100MHz 604, GD5434 graphic chip, symbios 53c810 SCSI).
> 
> I spend an *extremely* frustrating couple of weeks trying to
> install Linux on it (turns out that the SCSI driver is broken
> for new kernels, and there's no X for old kernels )-:
> 
> Can anyone tell me if NetBSD PReP will support this beast?
> It's quite old, but it's a nice bit of kit to play with...

NetBSD/prep does support that machine.

However, there's currently no release available with support for it in
it.  I'm in the process of (finally) producing a new binary snapshot
for it; the current hold-up is a problem with the release distrib
framework, but those should be resolved "soon".

> Also, does anyone know what kind of RAM the board takes? (It's
> 72 pin, but I don't know if it's parity/buffered/whatever).

All the information I can find in the board's manual is: 8--64 MB,
either with or without parity.

- Klaus

headers

Jonathan Belson | 21 Apr 11:41

Re: [Q] Support for Bull Estrella

Klaus Klein wrote:
> Jonathan Belson <jon <at> witchspace.com> writes:
> 
> NetBSD/prep does support that machine.
> 
> However, there's currently no release available with support for it in
> it.  I'm in the process of (finally) producing a new binary snapshot
> for it; the current hold-up is a problem with the release distrib
> framework, but those should be resolved "soon". 

Excellent, I'll look forward to it.  Does the port currently
support X?  I've got the patches needed to get the X CL driver
to work with linuxppc; I don't know if they were ever integrated
with the main tree.

>>Also, does anyone know what kind of RAM the board takes? (It's
>>72 pin, but I don't know if it's parity/buffered/whatever). 
> 
> All the information I can find in the board's manual is: 8--64 MB,
> either with or without parity.

Interesting - I tried some 72 pin SIMMs I had lying around but
they didn't work.  I'll see if I can dig out some more.

Do you have the manual in electronic form?  I have found next
to no docs for this system.

--Jon

<http://www.witchspace.com>

(Continue reading)

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Klaus Klein | 21 Apr 12:08

Re: [Q] Support for Bull Estrella

Jonathan Belson <jon <at> witchspace.com> writes:

>             I've got the patches needed to get the X CL driver
> to work with linuxppc; I don't know if they were ever integrated
> with the main tree.

Could you give me a pointer to these, for reference purposes?

> Do you have the manual in electronic form?  I have found next
> to no docs for this system.

I couldn't find them on Motorola's site this morning, but you can
download the board's manuals at:

http://daq-nt100.mps.ohio-state.edu/daqiii/archive/Manuals/Motorola/ultra60x-reference.pdf
http://daq-nt100.mps.ohio-state.edu/daqiii/archive/Manuals/Motorola/ultra-installation.pdf

- Klaus

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Jonathan Belson | 21 Apr 12:30

Re: [Q] Support for Bull Estrella

Klaus Klein wrote:
> Jonathan Belson <jon <at> witchspace.com> writes:

> 
>>            I've got the patches needed to get the X CL driver
>>to work with linuxppc; I don't know if they were ever integrated
>>with the main tree.
> 
> Could you give me a pointer to these, for reference purposes?

They were emailed to me by someone on one of the linuxppc lists.
I'll email you directly since the files are about 30KB.

>>Do you have the manual in electronic form?  I have found next
>>to no docs for this system.

> http://daq-nt100.mps.ohio-state.edu/daqiii/archive/Manuals/Motorola/ultra60x-reference.pdf
> http://daq-nt100.mps.ohio-state.edu/daqiii/archive/Manuals/Motorola/ultra-installation.pdf

Cheers for that.  I have vague memories of my motherboard being a
Blackhawk, does this ring any bells?

--Jon

<http://www.witchspace.com>

headers

Klaus Klein | 21 Apr 12:57

Re: [Q] Support for Bull Estrella

Jonathan Belson <jon <at> witchspace.com> writes:

> > http://daq-nt100.mps.ohio-state.edu/daqiii/archive/Manuals/Motorola/ultra60x-reference.pdf
> > http://daq-nt100.mps.ohio-state.edu/daqiii/archive/Manuals/Motorola/ultra-installation.pdf
> 
> Cheers for that.  I have vague memories of my motherboard being a
> Blackhawk, does this ring any bells?

The board ought to have gone by the name `Ultra'; I'm not too familiar
with Motorola nomenclature, but comparing it with the Blackhawk entry
in Linux at least the interrupt routing is different while the
documentation above at least fits my machine.

- Klaus

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Klaus Klein | 21 Apr 11:51

Re: [Q] Support for Bull Estrella

I wrote:

> Jonathan Belson <jon <at> witchspace.com> writes:
> 
> > A while ago I managed to get my hands on a Bull Estrella series
> > 200 (100MHz 604, GD5434 graphic chip, symbios 53c810 SCSI).
> > 
> > I spend an *extremely* frustrating couple of weeks trying to
> > install Linux on it (turns out that the SCSI driver is broken
> > for new kernels, and there's no X for old kernels )-:
> > 
> > Can anyone tell me if NetBSD PReP will support this beast?
> > It's quite old, but it's a nice bit of kit to play with...
> 
> NetBSD/prep does support that machine.

What I forgot to mention: there is no working X server yet.

- Klaus