- Vax-linux - LUG OWL

Git / GitWeb
by Jan-Benedict Glaw 10 Dez '12

10 Dez '12

Hi everybody! I've just installed GitWeb and pushed a very first GIT repo to it. For now, it's only a recently started project: Disassemble the Firmware update program for Cougar systems. They use (probably) early Flash chips to hold their boot code. That's not too much for now, but a start. I hope that more code will show up soon, especially the (bitrotten) old kernel sources, but also other code. I can host GIT repos for other people, too, of course. A GIT server (opposed to the HTTP-based cloning that's available right now) will follow, too. http://vax-linux.org/gitweb/ Have fun, JBG -- Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw(a)lug-owl.de +49-172-7608481 Signature of: They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety, the second : deserve neither liberty nor safety. (Ben Franklin)

1 1

Wiki, bitrot, code and greetings!
by Joel Heikkila 08 Dez '12

08 Dez '12

Hi all, A few points, questions and so on. First of all, it's exciting to see some new life to this project in the last year! I've noticed the wiki isn't configured still, which is a bit of a hindrance for starting to document things. The repository mentioned by Maciej in the Dec 2011 message > Anyway, the derivative has been made by taking a LMO kernel (i.e. one > from linux-mips.org) and applying VAX-specific bits from Jan-Benedict's > repository that used to live at: > > git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jbglaw/vax-linux.git > > and was last updated up to 2.6.23-rc4 according to my most recent daily > snapshot. I have no idea if the repository has been restored after the > kernel.org outage earlier this year. And I don't really know what the > status of the kernel port is as Jan-Benedict has been busy and distracted > with some more important matters recently. I have cc-ed him in case > (hope?) he has anything to add. is still down and presumably will continue to be. For that matter, ftp.linux-mips.org with Maciej's RPMs is also down. Perhaps related to their late Sept. move to a new host? The only code I can find is on the SourceForge site in the CVS -- untouched since ~2005? Hosting some repositories on vax-linux.org seems natural. Speaking of the SourceForge site, does anyone subscribed have write access to it? Changing it to a redirect to vax-linux.org would be useful, as a search on Google for "vax linux" current returns the SF site and the vax-linux.org site first and second, respectively. The two sites look fairly similar so it's confusing for someone searching those terms to determine which is the right place. (I had sent a couple emails and registration requests to the pergamentum mailing list before I realized this one existed.) As for me, well, I'm a fan of the VAX but I don't currently have any hardware, so my contributions will have to be limited to what can be done under SIMH, as a pair of eyes and hands for poking code, writing docs and as moral support. Regards, Joel

4 6

IRC
by Jan Prunk 06 Dez '12

06 Dez '12

Hello ! I would like to invite you also to Live chat (irc), there is the #vax channel on irc.freenode.net And also my little vax fan page at http://www.vax.si so you are welcome to suggest me additional usefull links/relevant information, which I could add on this page. Welcome ! Kind regards, Jan Prunk

2 1

Linux/VAX boot protocol
by Pekka Enberg 04 Dez '12

04 Dez '12

Hello, Where can I find documentation on Linux/VAX boot protocol? The vmlinux images in vaxroot package: http://linux-vax.sourceforge.net/download/README.vaxroot-20010920 seem to have the following structure: +------------------+ 0x0000 | Padding | +------------------+ 0x0200 | Jump instruction | | Command line | +------------------+ 0x0300 | Kernel code | The jump instruction points to 0x104 so I assume the first 0x200 bytes are simply discarded? Pekka

6 11

Re: Linux/VAX boot protocol
by Jan Prunk 03 Dez '12

03 Dez '12

Hi ! I can sponsor VAX remote access if you dont have machine and you want to hack the code on them. I got microvax 3100 and vaxstation 3100 and 4000/90. Its hard to say when I can find the time to install something to them, because I am busy with work lately, it surely wont happen before new year. Keep up with the good work I am looking forward to that. Kind regards, Jan Prunk On Dec 3, 2012 4:07 PM, "Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro(a)linux-mips.org> wrote: Toby, > > > I too have a working mopd based netboot for a MicroVAX II. I did however > > > have > >... I've had a look and it seems to me that your tree has none of the changes I made over 10 years ago (I can see my last build, rev. 15, is dated 17th Nov 2002). Chances are you've been working on issues that have been long fixed. :( If you have a record of changes readily available (I can't see offhand how to extract any diffs out of github.com) then I can see how I can integrate them into my sources. It may be easier than the other way round as I have collected 16 patches so far, on top of the genuine 2.5.3 tarball (dated 21st Aug 1996) that has since gone from its original distribution site at ftp.stacken.kth.se. If there are any conflicts, it may take less effort to resolve them in your change rather than in the other 16. I've got copies of mopd-2.5.3.tar.gz mentioned above at: ftp://ftp.linux-mips.org/pub/linux/mips/people/macro/mopd/ and in the source RPM packages elsewhere at my site. > Since I have three MicroVAX IIs here, maybe I could find time next year to > play with Linux/VAX.... No idea, perhaps someone else could comment. I can see there is an arch/vax/kernel/cpu_ka630.c module in the tree, but I have no such hardware, so I can't say how functional or complete it is. The devil might lie in the peripherals, at the very least the serial console and the network interface need to work for the kernel to be of any use. Your best bet might be to try out and report your findings here. ;) > Thanks for your hard work, Maciej. My pleasure! :) Maciej _______________________________________________ Vax-linux mailing list Vax-linux@vax-linux...

2 3

RE: Linux/VAX boot protocol
by arcarlini＠iee.org 28 Nov '12

28 Nov '12

Mr. James W. Laferriere wrote: > THe last one shown when attempting to access that file I get ... > > http://www.tmk.com/ftp/TMK-SOFTWARE/MOP-SERVER/MOPV50.PS > > Not Found > >The requested URL /ftp/TMK-SOFTWARE/MOP-SERVER/MOPV50.PS was not found >on this server. > I am trying to contact "Kennedy, Terence terry(a)tmk.com" as he is the >domain contact & see if this is an oversite or the data is just gone . There's a name from the past - it's been a long, long time since I've seen him contribute to comp.os.vms! The PDF I have is less than 280K so I can just email to whoever can get it on the net. (I'm sure it's in the 3 DVDs of stuff I sent to Manx, but I don't see it there right now). Antonio arcarlini(a)iee.org

2 1

Mail Archive Updated
by Jan-Benedict Glaw 23 Sep '12

23 Sep '12

Hi everybody! While things progress with about zero speed, I just updated the current web archive with all former emails that I could get my hands on. http://vax-linux.org/pipermail/vax-linux/ If you find any errors, or happen to have even more emails, please drop me a note! MfG, JBG -- Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw(a)lug-owl.de +49-172-7608481 Signature of: Warum ist Scheiße braun? ...weil braun schon immer scheiße ist! the second :

2 1

Linux Kernel Developer Meeting 2012
by Jan-Benedict Glaw 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

Hi! There was a quite regular kernel hacker's meeting, which initially started AFAICT with m68k people, but got broader. There used to be one meeting per year, but the last one seems to have taken place in 2009, as http://meeting.ffis.de/devel.html tells me. (And from memories, that seems to be correct.) I had an email conversation with Maciej some time ago and I believe that it's time again to start a new meeting. So... Who's interested in coming along? In the last years, we met in the "Linuxhotel" (http://linuxhotel.de/) which is near Essen, Germany, directly next to the river Ruhr. They have comfortable rooms, prices (for some days over a weekend) are quite affordable and the house features, among others, a nice park for a walk and to meet up. I'm Bcc'ing other people (who are known to hack other platforms) and I'd like to get some feedback: When would/could you manage to come over? Do you suggest another place to meet? Once I've got some feedback, I'd probably start a Doodle poll and ask for rooms at the Linuxhotel. Happy hacking! MfG, JBG -- Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw(a)lug-owl.de +49-172-7608481 Signature of: GDB has a 'break' feature; why doesn't it have 'fix' too? the second :

1 0

Building Cross-Compilers
by Jan-Benedict Glaw 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

Hi! I'm regaining all the fun of porting! :-D I've just set-up again some script to (once a day) build a (kernel-only, for now) cross-compiler for the vax-linux target. (To be exact, I'm building for all these targets: alpha-linux arm-eabi avr bfin-elf frv-linux h8300-elf hppa-linux hppa64-linux m32r-linux m68k-linux microblaze-uclinux mips-linux mips64-linux mn10300-linux powerpc-linux powerpc64-linux ppc-linux ppc64-linux s390-linux s390x-linux sh-linux sh64-linux sparc-linux sparc64-linux tic6x-uclinux tilepro-linux vax-linux xtensa-linux ) It's the `master' branch of binutils's, gcc's and gdb's GIT repositories. What made me wonder the most was that things seem to work out of the box. I remember the dark times quite well, when it was quite a drama building a kernel-only cross-compiler, let alone one that could build userland. My next step is to also extract Maciej's SRPMs (you can find them at ftp://ftp.linux-mips.org/pub/linux/mips/people/macro/SRPMS/) and build them as well (for `vax-linux' only.) That should bring me back to business. What's also quite nice is, that after not building a vax-linux gcc for quite some time, it just worked. Some 5 or 6 years ago, that target was broken like two times a month! That was (even longer ago) why I wrote a script to compile a compiler on a regular basis to catch problems early. (It's easier then to find the trouble-causing patch.) MfG, JBG -- Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw(a)lug-owl.de +49-172-7608481 Signature of: The real problem with C++ for kernel modules is: the second : the language just sucks. -- Linus Torvalds

2 2

Simulated VAX Cluster (running VMS) on Raspberry Pi
by Jan-Benedict Glaw 13 Jun '12

13 Jun '12

Hi! On the <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> mailing list, I found this: http://www.designspark.com/content/raspberry-pi-vax-cluster MfG, JBG -- Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw(a)lug-owl.de +49-172-7608481 Signature of: They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety, the second : deserve neither liberty nor safety. (Ben Franklin)

1 0