Subject: Re: Setting I/O devices for a PCI video card
To: Rui Paulo <rpaulo@netbsd-pt.org>
From: Michael <macallan18@earthlink.net>
List: port-macppc
Date: 04/09/2005 19:26:12
Hello,

you'll probably want to run a -current kernel. We did quite a lot of /very/ useful bugfixes and additions just before 2.0 was released so they didn't make it into the release and I have no idea how much of it was back-ported to 2.0.x. These include:
- vastly improved interrupt handling - 2.0 will lose interrupts which among lots of other things makes the serial ports almost useless, in -current they work fine at rather high speeds ( I could only test 38.400 bps though )
- support for synchronous transfers with the internal SCSI controller, by default it does only asynchronous which limits throughput to ~5MB/s, with the fix I get about 8-9MB/s with a Seagate Barracuda. Needs to be disabled for ZIP drives though but that can be done on a per-target basis
- a bugfix that allows interrupts to work correctly with the lower 4 slots - in 2.0 cards behind the bridge don't always get an interrupt assigned
- if you have an E100 board - I made a patch that allows the Ethernet part to work. No UW-SCSI though.
- fixes for the onboard Ethernet - in 2.0 lots of people get abysmal performance ( but not all - for me it worked fine )
- improved multiprocessor handling in case you have a Gemini board.

I can make such a kernel for you if you want, just tell me which additional drivers you need and what kind of CPU(s) you use.

have fun
Michael