On Tue, 22 Jun 1999, SUNAGAWA Keiki wrote:

> Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@nas.nasa.gov> wrote:
> 
> Bill> 601 support probably isn't that hard, just Im' not
> Bill> aware of anyone doing it yet. :-(
> 
> MkLinux's bootx (1.0.1 and 1.0.2) faild to boot on the
> 8100/80 when I tried under System 7.5.3 available on Apple's
> ftp site...

This is booting a NetBSD kernel I assume?

> Any suggestions?  Do we need to port mac68k's booter
> application?

Not necessarily. If we can figure out what exactly bootx wants, we might
be able to go with it.

I see three major areas that need work to make macppc support the X100
class machines (i..e the 6100, 7100, 8100, etc):

1) Make netbsd deal with a 601. This includes writing code so a 601 can
emulate powerpc instructions which it doesn't impliment. As a general
thing, such a facility might let us emulate POWER2 too, but that's for the
future.

One of the other developers sent me this URL which might help:
http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/doc_link/en_US/a_doc_lib/aixassem/alangref/toc.htm

2) Get suport for the hardware in these beasts. Most of this can be stolen
from port-mac68k. nubus would become an MI bus (moving from
arch/mac68k/nubus to dev/nubus) and other bits of the hardare support
would get shared. For now, a kernel compile could just reach into
arch/mac68k.

3) Figure out how to make the macppc kernel usable both with and without
OF. So we can boot the same kernel in both types of system.

I think the latter can be achieved by: a) having two different kernel
entry points, one for use w/ OF and the other for use when booting onto an
OF-less machine. b) make two different mainbus's. The current one would
only attach if OF were present, and the new one would only attach if it
were absent.

I can't help much w/ coding on this, but am willing to lend advice. :-)

Take care,

Bill