Linux from Scratch
I have updated my RaQ2 build for Linux from Scratch to most of the latest packages for the RaQ2. A question was raised by some other memebers of the Linux from Scratch group, that frankly I didn't have the answers for. I appreciate your feedback on these questions.
1 - Will the build method I have currently work with any MIPS processor based machine, with the exception of the bootloader?
2 - Is there a bootloader for MIPS that will work on every machine, or is different for every MIPS based machine's firmware? If so any examples out there how to implement?
Thank you for your time and assistance
Signature · 3 lines
---- Jim Gifford [email protected]
Quoted 7 lines · Jim Gifford
I have updated my RaQ2 build for Linux from Scratch to most of the latest packages for the RaQ2. A question was raised by some other memebers of the Linux from Scratch group, that frankly I didn't have the answers for. I appreciate your feedback on these questions.
1 - Will the build method I have currently work with any MIPS processor based machine, with the exception of the bootloader?
The bulk of it would be largely the same -- however there would be a difference in that endianness, ABIs and ISAs have to be considered.
e.g.
Cobalt Servers are Little Endian running RM523[01] CPUs (MIPS IV ISA). All (MIPS-based) SGI machines are Big Endian, mainly with either MIPS III or MIPS IV class CPUs.
Therefore you use mips-unknown-linux-gnu as the HOST on SGI boxes, and mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu on Cobalts. (Some even use mips64-unknown-linux-gnu)
Quoted 3 lines
2 - Is there a bootloader for MIPS that will work on every machine, or is different for every MIPS based machine's firmware? If so any examples out there how to implement?
Okay, a lot of MIPS machines implement the ARCs firmware, but still there's a big variety of machines there -- so making one bootloader support them all would be an outright nightmare. Having said that, there are several bootloaders that do get used across multiple machines.
Some that come to mind:
- CoLo (the Cobalt Loader) for Cobalt servers
- ARCBoot for SGI machines
- U-Boot
- YAMON
and there are likely many more. They've all got their own differences -- just to give you an idea, have a look at my copy of the Gentoo/MIPS handbook[2] -- specifically the bootloader section[3]. This version covers setting up both Cobalt servers and SGI machines with Gentoo Linux. As you can see, there's a big difference between the machines.
Anyway, I hope that's answered some of your questions. :-) --
+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | Stuart Longland -oOo- http://stuartl.longlandclan.hopto.org | | Atomic Linux Project -oOo- http://atomicl.berlios.de | | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | | I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere | +-------------------------------------------------------------+
Footnotes:
1. Note that the IP12 and it's R4k cousin, the IP20 are currently unsupported in Linux at this time -- although people are working on that :-)
2. Got the clipboard applet ready? This is a long one:
<http://www.longlandclan.hopto.org/~stuartl/gentoo/docs/index.php/gentoo-doc/en/handbook/handbook-mips.xml>
3. Configuring the Bootloader:
<http://www.longlandclan.hopto.org/~stuartl/gentoo/docs/index.php/gentoo-doc/en/handbook/handbook-mips.xml?part=1&chap=10>
... and yes, eventually this will be put on the main Gentoo site... pending bug #81072: <http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81072>