Hi folks,
I've updated the web pages a bit, to reflect what we've been doing and
accomplishing lately with the DECStation code. This will hopefully reduce
the number of requests regarding the lack of updates for the past 5 months!
To let you know what I've been doing:
I've managed to steal the SGI console code (hi David!) and begin
to integrate it with the code from Frieder and Michael Engel. This
will also include a rough hack at David's z8530 driver from the SGI
code to suit the DS5000's. I'm also going to hack a version of
Frieder's graphics console code to suit the DS5000's, at least for
output (the keyboard/mouse interface is different). All of which
means we should soon have Real Consoles(tm) for all the DECStations!
I've uncovered the boot PROM callbacks for the DS2100/3100's and
using code from Mach (suitably attributed) have built an abstraction
that detects the machine type and allows the use of the PROM routines
on either a DS2100/3100 or DS5000. I know the console code for the
DS2100/3100's is well advanced, but felt that having a known good way
of printing on the console for emergency debugging under weird
conditions would probably prove useful! There's also the fact that
this code can be used for the boot loader program when we eventually
write one...
I've also managed to write code to do rudimentary enquiries of the
boot PROM environment variables to determine the 'configured' boot
console for the DS's. The code also attempts to initialise the
requested devices to act as the console. The 5000's use the
'osconsole' variable, and I'd like the DS2100/3100 owners to check
both the variable name and it's allowable values (and let me know
the meanings of those via this list!)
I hope to have a fair bit more done by Friday, and would like folks
on the list with DS's to test a kernel binary I will produce and
upload. I am particularly keen to know if it works on the
DS2100/3100's, as I'm reasonably confident that it will be o.k. for
the 5000's once it works on my 5000/2x.
I'd particularly like to work with Michael Engel and Frieder to
make sure that my hacks to their code (which mostly consist of moving
it about), still allow it to work on the DS2100/3100's *before* I
release the patches to Ralf to integrate into whatever kernel release
he's up to by the time this happens later next week!
Regards,
Paul
_______________________________________________________________________________
Paul M. Antoine, Net: paul@sw.oz.au
Softway Pty Ltd WWW: www.softway.com.au
PO Box 305, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012, Australia Tel: +61 2 9698 2322
Level 2, 79 Myrtle St, Chippendale, NSW 2008, Australia Fax: +61 2 9699 9174
"It is the lack of acceptance of diversity which threatens to
destroy society, NOT the free expression of it." - Me.
|