Re: G5 Support - Please try a kernel

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hello,

On Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:40:04 +0000
Sevan Janiyan <venture37%geeklan.co.uk@localhost> wrote:

> I've just flipped the switch so that the kernels from the POWERMAC_G5 &
> POWERMAC_G5.MP configs are built as standard in NetBSD-HEAD and will
> appear in
> http://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/latest/macppc/binary/kernel/
> 
> These kernels are currently intended to be netbooted via TFTP after
> being gunzipped. Still lots to do but it should mean that it's a lot
> easier for users to test new builds.

Some clarification from the (mostly) guilty party:
- these are 32bit kernels, they can run regular userlands from
  nyftp.netbsd.org. If you want to build a G5-specific userland use
  -mcpu=970 -m32
- I have two G5s, one PowerMac7,3, that's the dual 970FX with liquid
  cooling and AGP, and a PowerMac11,2, with one 970MP ( as in, two
  cores ) and PCIe. They have completely different cooling systems,
  both work, and both depend on the operating system to keep the CPUs
  alive. Other models will need adjustments in order for the cooling
  system to work properly, or at all. So if you test this on anything
  other than the models mentioned above DO NOT TORTURE THEM until
  support for the cooling system is added. The 970FX especially can get
  very hot very fast. Relatively lightweight tasks like looking through
  dmesg or extracting sets should be fine, and they will cool down when
  sitting idle, but I wouldn't recommend anything like compiling
  anything non-trivial.
- If you test this on a machine with unsupported CPU cooling ( as in,
  envstat does not show at least one sensor *and* at least one fan with
  CPU in their names, and sane readings ) please send me the dmesg and
  ofctl -p output so I can add them.
- you can boot from harddisk, ofwboot.xcf has 970-specific code. It
  needs this in macppc/stand/ofwboot/Makefile though:
  # PR port-macppc/44895
  #SRCS+=		alloc.c			# use ./alloc.c
  CPPFLAGS+=	-DHEAP_VARIABLE		# use libsa alloc.c
  We should probably make this the default, I've been using it on all
  my machines for at least a year now.
- CPU speed control is supported on 970MP. Machines with 970 or 970FX
  use completely different mechanisms.
- audio works on machines with TAS3004 codecs, which includes
  PowerMac7,3 and some iMacs. Eventually I'll write a driver for at
  least the pcm3052 codec found in PowerMac11,2 ( and probably some
  newer iMacs )
- X should work on machines with nvidia graphics with the nv driver,
  radeons newer than r3xx ( which includes all radeons shipped in G5s
  as far as I know ) need DRM support which isn't there yet. You can
  stick an older one into the AGP slot though. Mine works Just Fine(tm)
  with a mac-radeon r360. Much smaller, cooler, and for our purposes
  *faster*, than the geforce 6800 ultra it shipped with.
- SMP mostly works but is completely untested with more than two CPUs,
  for lack of hardware in my hands. The machine will boot but CPU-heavy
  tasks like building packages with -j3 or so will cause random crashes
  ( userland crashes that is, the OS and other processes keep on
  running ). I assume there are some cache coherency / pmap issues to
  sort out. Single CPU machines should be about as stable as 32bit macs.

Things like USB, onboard SATA and ethernet should just work, I used some
PCI-X cards in the PowerMac7,3, PCIe cards *should* work but are
untested.

have fun
Michael