Subject: Re: MIPS RC3330 NetBSD port
To: Olivier LAHAYE <lahaye@cybercable.fr>
From: Wayne Knowles <w.knowles@niwa.cri.nz>
List: port-mips
Date: 07/10/2000 18:02:25
> Olivier LAHAYE wrote:
>
> I've just seen on the NetBSD port page that a port to these machines
> is underway.

Hi Oliver,

As the person who is currently doing the work I can assure you that is
true.
I have just retured from being overseas for 6 weeks and I'm now back
into getting
a NetBSD kernel up and running.

> I personnaly own an RC3330 8MB RAM, 630MB HD and mono FrameBuffer.
> And I can test some things.
> I'm at this moment seqrching for memory modules. 8MB is ridiculousely
> TOO short, but enought to try some boots.

I have never seen a 3330 in real life (I have several 3230's) but I
beleive they are
slightly faster variants of the 3230.  Someone correct me if I am wrong
here.

As for memory - you should be able to use standard 1MB or 4MB 30pin
SIMM's
from old 386 and 486 PC's without any trouble.   Because of the packing
density
they use vertical sockets and a special tool is required to extract
them.
Personally I don't have such a tool, but use a pair of forceps being
careful not to
damage anything.   You can mix 4MB and 1MB modules as long as the 4MB
modules are
in the lower bank.

8MB should be enough to get into single user mode.   My current kernel
doesn't
find all the memory at present to make sure I didn't step on anything I
didn't
know about.  This will be resolved shortly (see below)

> 
> BTW, do you know if it is possible to boot this machine from a CDROM?
> I have an Apple CD300 2x SCSI CDROM drive.
> I also have an athlon with a CD recorder. So I wonder if I can create
> a boot CDROM instead of a boot tape.

A quick test reveals that the PROM monitor understands RO disks.  The
problem
is they will need to have a MIPS BSD or SYSV label on them.

As for the NetBSD install - currenlty the development uses a network
boot 
procrocedure using bootp & tftp to get the kernel across.  This is the
most
convenient at this point in the development - CD installs should be
technically
possible but will be alte in the development cycle if there is a demand.

> (My tapes are becomming old, and If I do some test, I'd like to ensure
> that in a case of OS destruct, I can reinstall one).
> (there are no data except the OS on this machine)

Could I suggest you 'dd' the data off the tapes and write the raw files
onto 
another system.   The install process only knows about sequential tape
devices
(for RISC/os 4.52 anyway) so a CD install will require a lot of
wizardry.

You can also do a network install - this is where reading the tape using
'dd' will
prove invaluable.

> PS: This machine is very important to my eyes, because it is on this
> type of machine that I have learned unix and C/Motif programming (even
> if today, my programming knowledge is almost lost(I am sysadmin))

Over the past years it has been a love-hate relationship attempting to
port software.  Wish I had NetBSD running on it 7 years ago....

For those interested my progress to date is that the kernel boots and
some of the drivers are working.  The SCSI driver successfully probes
the bus, and the serial IO to the consoles works correctly.  The Lance
ethernet controller is currently being worked on as you can see in the
bootup message that follows:




Rx3230 MIPS Monitor: Version 5.43 OPT Mon May 13 17:31:12 PDT 1991 root
Memory size: 33554432 (0x2000000) bytes, 32 MB
Icache size: 32768 (0x8000) bytes
Dcache size: 32768 (0x8000) bytes
>> 
>> boot bootp()netbsd
210192+58672+230560 entry: 0xa0600000
Standalone Shell: Version 5.03 OPT Tue Jan 15 07:37:34 PST 1991 root

Loading bootp()netbsd
Obtaining netbsd from server netbsd-alpha.lab.niwa.cri.nz
741184+699088+122528 entry: 0x80021000
argc=1 argv=a06521a8 env=a0652530
Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
    The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

NetBSD 1.4.2 (HEWEY) #250: Sun Jul  9 21:53:52 PDT 2000
   
wdk@netbsd-alpha.lab.niwa.cri.nz:/home/wdk/netbsd/1.4.2/sys/arch/mipsco/compile/HEWEY
real mem  = 268435456
avail mem = 233332736
using 6553 buffers containing 26841088 bytes of memory
Mips Rc3230 Magnum
mainbus0 (root)
cpu0 at mainbus0: cpu0: MIPS R3000 CPU Rev. 3.0 with MIPS R3010 FPC Rev.
4.0
cpu0: 32kb Instruction, 32kb Data, direct mapped cache
hb0 at mainbus0
mkclock0 at hb0 addr 0xbd00000
asc0 at hb0 addr 0xb8000000 [old revision]: NCR53C94, 24MHz, SCSI ID 7
scsibus0 at asc0: 8 targets, 8 luns per target
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <DEC, RZ25L    (C) DEC, 0008> SCSI2
0/direct fixed
sd0: 510MB, 1872 cyl, 7 head, 79 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 1046206 sectors
cd0 at scsibus0 targ 4 lun 0: <TOSHIBA, CD-ROM XM-3401TA, 0283> SCSI2
5/cdrom removable
st0 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 0: <ARCHIVE, VIPER 150  21247, -005> SCSI1
1/sequential removable
st0: rogue, drive empty
zsc0 at hb0 addr 0xbb000000
zstty0 at zsc0 channel 0
zstty1 at zsc0 channel 1 (console)
le0 at hb0 addr 0xba000000: address 00:00:6b:82:52:44
le0: 8 receive buffers, 2 transmit buffers
panic: Level1 interrupt
Stopped in  at  0x800bce74:     jr      ra
db> 


After the lance ethernet and interrupt handlers are sorted out, I need
to find
the boot device and sort out disk label issues - after that I shouldn't
be far
off getting single user mode.  Bear in mind it is extreemly rough around
the
edges at this point as will any early development work.  Another week or
two
and we should have something to celebrate!!

You will also see that the port is based on NetBSD 1.4.2 instead of
current -
this is because I have not been a -current user and didn't want any
additional
surprises along the way.  At some stage in the future it will move to
-current

Wayne,
-- 
  _____	   	Wayne Knowles,  Systems Manager
 / o   \/   	National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd
 \/  v /\   	P.O. Box 14-901 Kilbirnie, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
  `---'     	Email:   w.knowles@niwa.cri.nz