Hello everyone!

My RISCServer 4200 is finally back and operational after a serial 
console stunt that I won't be repeating. So, I hacked together what I 
believe is necessary for the 4200 to boot. I run the kernel and get a 
blue screen, which from reading the archives I believe is normal. 
However,I'm not having any luck getting a real serial console to work. 
I've built a GENERIC, PCCONS, and RAMDISK kernel, none of which show 
any screen activity nor any serial activity on my Portmaster. I have 
created this "COMCONS" kernel config, like so:

*** GENERIC     Thu Jan 22 18:54:36 2004
--- COMCONS     Thu Jan 29 02:14:39 2004
***************
*** 174,179 ****
   #pc0          at jazzio?
   #opms0                at jazzio?
! vga0          at jazzio?      # Jazz localbus VGA
! pckbc0                at jazzio?      # PC keyboard controller
   com0          at jazzio?
   com1          at jazzio?
--- 174,179 ----
   #pc0          at jazzio?
   #opms0                at jazzio?
! #vga0         at jazzio?      # Jazz localbus VGA
! #pckbc0               at jazzio?      # PC keyboard controller
   com0          at jazzio?
   com1          at jazzio?
***************
*** 218,223 ****
   mcclock0      at isa? port 0x70

! pc0           at isa? irq 1                   # generic PC console 
device
! opms0         at isa? irq 12                  # PS/2 auxiliary port 
mouse
   #vga0         at isa?
   #pckbc0               at isa?                         # PC keyboard 
controller
--- 218,223 ----
   mcclock0      at isa? port 0x70

! #pc0          at isa? irq 1                   # generic PC console 
device
! #opms0                at isa? irq 12                  # PS/2 
auxiliary port mouse
   #vga0         at isa?
   #pckbc0               at isa?                         # PC keyboard 
controller
***************
*** 354,363 ****
   #### Workstation Console attachments

! wsdisplay*    at vga?
! wsdisplay*    at tga?
! pckbd*                at pckbc?       # PC keyboard (kbd port)
! wskbd*                at pckbd?
! pms*          at pckbc?       # PS/2-style mouse (aux port)
! wsmouse*      at pms?

   #### Pseudo devices
--- 354,363 ----
   #### Workstation Console attachments

! #wsdisplay*   at vga?
! #wsdisplay*   at tga?
! #pckbd*               at pckbc?       # PC keyboard (kbd port)
! #wskbd*               at pckbd?
! #pms*         at pckbc?       # PS/2-style mouse (aux port)
! #wsmouse*     at pms?

   #### Pseudo devices

And it's now compiling. My questions are:

1. ) Will the ARC Firmware pass a "console=com1" parameter to the 
kernel with the "Run a program" menu option? It doesn't seem to pay any 
attention to that flag, if it does. Perhaps my kernel is borked?
2. ) It seems like in the list that someone said video on the 2200 was 
fixed. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the 4200 uses the same video 
subsystem as the 2200, but perhaps at a different location. Does video 
work or not?
3. ) Since I expect this thing to boot soon, my next project is 
tackling SMP support for -arc, as well as adding support for the EISA 
bus and my DPT RAID card in this beast. Is there anyone out there 
that'd like to give me a few pointers on what all needs to be done to 
make this port SMP-capable? It is my understanding that a majority of 
the code is shared with other MIPS projects, like pmap.c, but I don't 
really know of any other MIPS SMP machines that are supported.

Thanks!

Zach Lowry