Subject: RPC Kernel hanging

From: Gary shipp <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Mar 18 16:27:13 1998

Can anyone help?

I have a RiscPC and have followed the installation instructions
on the web site , but when I try to boot the kernel to make sure it
works , it hangs after recognizing the HD and a matshita CD drive.
All the rest of the boot sequence appears to be as per the instructions.

Hope someone can help!

regards 
Gary

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From: Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 22:09:21 +0000 (GMT)

> All the rest of the boot sequence appears to be as per the instructions.

Exactly *what* hardware do you have?  What expansion cards do you have?
   _____
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  |   |        Russell King        [email-masked]        --- ---
  | | | |    http://www.arm.uk.linux.org/~rmk/home.html      /  /  |
  | +-+-+                                                     --- -+-
  /   |               THE developer of ARM Linux              |+| /|\
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    +-+-+ -------------------------------------------------  /\\\  |

unsubscribe: body of `unsubscribe linux-arm' to [email-masked]

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From: Ian Molton <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 01:55:25 +0000 (GMT)

On 18 Mar, Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]> wrote:

Hi there...

Just wondering, but I have an A5K with a couple of hundred spare megabytes
HD space.

It's running a proxy and a webserver under RiscOS, and I'm not installing
linux on it unless it'll make the machine more stable, faster, or suchlike.

I have an Acorn SCSI 1 and an Acorn Ethernet 1 card (the one with no rom
drivers).

I have a base spec A5000 4MB, other than that, and an Econet card (not
essential this works under linux tho)

How can I get linux on it (instuctions for the brain dead)
and will it be an advantage?

-- 
-Ian aka Lennier
Acorn Computers, the best in the world
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hawk/
BaBe - Womens human rights organisation in Croatia
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hawk/babe/

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From: Phil Norman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 10:37:42 +0000 (GMT)

> I have an Acorn SCSI 1 and an Acorn Ethernet 1 card (the one with no rom

I have an Ether1 myself.  The card, and the RiscOS driver are both 
horrendous, and I find that when the card decides it's being overtaxed, 
it takes out RiscOS a crashes it completely (ie mouse-stops-moving style 
crash).  I have a similar problem under linux with the driver, but it 
doesn't take out the OS (cos linux is clever like that) and just kills 
the ether1 til the next reboot.

As far as I can tell, the problem lies in the armlinux ether1 driver not 
resetting the card properly.  I've tried hacking about with the driver, 
comparing it with the RiscBSD driver (which, AFAICR, resets it properly), 
but I've had no luck yet (though I've only had time to spend a few hours 
on it so far).  So far the only thing I've managed is to utterly nuke the 
machine while booting ;-).

That said, the current ether1 driver will serve you much better than its 
RiscOS equivalent.  Even though the card won't reset after it's entered 
confused mode it won't take your machine out with it.  Also, linux is FAR 
better suited to a networked environment than RiscOS - basically if you 
need a machine to run on a network, a unix box is the top choice.

Hope this helps,
Phil

-- 
Rule of programming #2: Everything that can go wrong will go wrong,
	but only on other people's configurations.

Phil Norman, mailing from Exeter University.
email:	[email-masked]		[email-masked]
URL:	http://newton.ex.ac.uk/general/ug/norman

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From: Philip Blundell <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:08:09 +0000

>comparing it with the RiscBSD driver (which, AFAICR, resets it properly), 

The Ether1 driver could probably share a lot of code with the other 82586 
based cards if someone had the inclination to pull it out.  Ditto the ether3 
and seeq8005.

p.

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From: Ian Molton <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:28:20 +0000 (GMT)

> need a machine to run on a network, a unix box is the top choice.

Did you have all this running on an A5000 with 4MB ?

if so, how, and where do you get the relevant bits?

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From: Phil Norman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:05:20 +0000 (GMT)

> Did you have all this running on an A5000 with 4MB ?

No, a RiscPC SA with 22meg.  However, there are many people on the list 
with A5000s (or so it seems to me), so I'm sure they'll be able to give 
you any specific info you might need.  In fact, since the A5000 is 
ARM3-equipped, the Acorn Ether1 driver will probably work fine.  The main 
problem with it seemed to be the later ARMs (indeed anything ARM610 or 
over) being too fast, and doing some weird memory stuff.  This can be 
fixed by hacking a large loop into the driver module ;-).  This might 
also mean the armlinux driver will work well with an ARM3, but don't 
quote me.

> if so, how, and where do you get the relevant bits?

how = follow the normal installation instructions, available from the 
armlinux ftp site (ftp.arm.uk.linux.org).  Everything should be there.

where = same ftp site.

The ether1 driver will be compiled into the distributed kernels, and so 
armlinux should automatically pick it up.

See ya,
Phil

-- 
Linux: A penguin which jumps through Windows and leaps over Gates.

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From: Alan Cox <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:15:32 +0000 (GMT)

> based cards if someone had the inclination to pull it out.  

This would probably be a very good thing. Someone started this a very long
time ago but never finished it. I archived the pieces if anyone is
interested

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From: Ian Molton <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:58:47 +0000 (GMT)

> armlinux should automatically pick it up.

Excellent!

now... all I need is a 36 hour day :-)