From: Bruce N Subject: [ql-developers] Email Archive The first email archive is now available at the address below. http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/q40/index.htm -- Bruce N From: Richard Zidlicky Subject: [ql-developers] new kernel Hi, I have just uploaded another kernel, linux226a. The news : - RTC device implemented, adds /proc/rtc and some linux/mc146xxx.h ioctl calls - needed it to make chrony work. - fixed problem with interrupts that caused clock skew, also changed ide interrupt handling. Thus 'hdparm -u1 /dev/hdX' may now be safely used - this will slightly improve serial and floppy performance/reliability. - more robust startup, serial and some other interrupts are disabled to avoid occassional hanging in early setup phases. Also probing for additional IO/IDE cards should be more robust now. The modules for 2.2.6 (modules.zip) should work without any change. I have also uploaded the diffs for 2.2.10 which are essentially the same as for 2.2.6 except for the added drivers/char/q40keyb patch. 2.2.10 works fine for me but because it didn't have the best reputation on other architectures I didn't upload it. The stuff will be at ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/680x0/q40/precompiled/ Bye Richard From: Richard Zidlicky Subject: [ql-developers] updated loader Hi, I have uploaded a new loader. It seems our ftp admin is gone for holida= ys so I have no idea when it becomes available, in the worst case I will u= pload it to my homepage next week. There has been very little change to the loader itself which seems to w= ork fine - buffers are flushed (important for redirected output) and specif= ying=20 an "-f" option now boots linux without any further questions. The documentation has been improved a lot to cover more linux kernel options, sections about redirection (esp. usefull in case of trouble) and SRAM added. I have appended the new doc right here. Except for the "-f" flag nothing of the usage changed. Bye Richard #######################################################################= ############# Q40 Linux Loader =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D will load and bootstrap a linux kernel image. Unless invoked with the '= -f' option, the loader will ask for confirmation before transfering control= to=20 linux. Before that it behaves like any QDOS job, ie can be safely killed or su= spended at any time. Currently there is no sensible QDOS/SMSQ shutdown procedur= e so=20 the user is responsible to exit all applications that might have open f= iles and similar precautions. Start as ex lxx;"loader-args -- kernel-args" optionaly with any form of redirection, recommended especially to captu= re=20 output from '-v' and '-d' options. See below for examples of redirectio= n.=20 loader args: required args: -k kernel_name : linux image file (vmlinux) -m mem : physical ram in MB optional args: -v : verbose -d : turn on SRAM early debugging, writes '%= LX$'=20 signature into SRAM and clears it. Don't do=20 that if you store valuable information there. See also "Getting SRAM contents" and "debug=3Dmem" kernel argument. -r ramdisk_name: initial rd image file, should be gzipped -p : pause for medium insertion before loading anyt= hing, useful if starting from floppy -c CPU : CPU type - 68060 around? -f : do not ask questions or wait for confir= mation, intended for automatic startup scripts As could be expected, the '-p' and '-f' flags can't be specified together. =09 kernel args: required args: root=3D/dev/somedev : see below fo examples, not always needed when initial ramdisk is used. optional args: anything the linux kernel understands, see /usr/src/linux/Documentatio= n and man bootparam for details. The exact details also depend on kernel con= figuration. WARNING: do not use any options that call for IRQ autoprobing!! A few examples: root=3D/dev/hdb2 : use 2nd partition of hdb as root hda=3Dswapdata : required if disk was formated on a PC hda=3Dnoprobe : don't probe (and use) hda hda=3Dcyl,head,sect : don't specify unless absolutely neccessary, shou= ld be used together with hda=3Dnoprobe ideX=3Dbase,ctl,irq=20 specify additional ide-interfaces, use hex=20 numbers as 0xnnn. 2 interfaces have compiled in defaults. init=3D/bin/bash : use that when init-scripts are broken, init=3D/bin/ash.static : when libs are broken as well.. root=3D/dev/ram : root on ramdisk -- may be needed depending on ramdisk (exactly when there is no /linuxrc) debug=3Dmem : print kernel startup messages into SRAM - use if nothing else works See also "Getting SRAM contents" and '-d' option parport=3D0x378,none=20 parport=3D0x278,none : tell kernel about parports. This is default values for 1st and 2nd parport, specifying them this way avoids=20 possible IRQ autoprobing and is therefore recommended. If your parports work with interrupts substitute the irq number for "none" console=3Ddevice,options console=3DttyS1,9600n8 use serial port 1 (=3D2nd!), no parity, 8 bits as system=20 console.. should be suitable to use a QL with a terminal emulator as controlling terminal.=20 See also Documentation/serial-console.txt. more optional args: args of the form 'key=3Dvalue' not evaluated by the kernel will be eva= luated as environment variables and set for pid 1 (init unless specified otherwi= se) even more optional args: rest of the args will be passed as arguments to pid 1 (init). Argument= s valid for init: single : Single user mode boot. In this mode /etc/inittab=20 is examined and the bootup rc scripts are usually run before the single user mode shell is started. 1-5 : runlevel to boot - changes default runlevel emergency : Boot directly into a single user shell without run=AD ning any other startup scripts. Examples of redirection ----------------------- Taken mostly from c68 documentation: ex lxx;"loader-args -- kernel-args >& filename" redirect stdin and stderr to 'filename' - if 'filename' already exists it is overwritten. ex lxx;"loader-args -- kernel-args >>& filename" redirect stdin and stderr to 'filename' - if 'filename' already exists the output gets appended. ex lxx,#1,#4,#4;"loader-args -- kernel-args" lxx expect input from #1 and sends output (stderr,stdout) to #4 which could be a previously opened file, printer or con_ channel. Redirecting stdin should be done only together with '-f' option. Both c68 and TK2 offer more functionality than described here, see QdosC68.doc and TK2 manual for more details. Getting SRAM contents --------------------- The Q40 has 2040 bytes of static RAM which usually survives resets and several years of powerdown. This is excellently suited for startup debu= ging as implemented with '-d' and 'debug=3Dmem'. AFAIK neither QDOS nor SMSQ uses the SRAM for now, however beware that = this could change. 'lxx' displays it (or outputs it to a redirected channel) if invoked wi= th the '-d' option. Often it is simpler or more flexible to do this from Super= Basic=20 as demonstrated in this examples: 1000 Rem display SRAM contents to #1 1010 DEFine PROCedure psr 1020 FOR i=3DHEX("ff020000") TO HEX("ff021fdc") STEP 4 1025 c=3DPEEK(i) 1030 IF c THEN PRINT CHR$(c);: PAUSE 1 1040 END FOR i 1050 END DEFine 1100 Rem output SRAM contents to "file" 1110 DEFine PROCedure psf(file) 1115 LOCal ch 1117 ch=3DFOP_NEW(file) 1120 FOR i=3DHEX("ff020000") TO HEX("ff021fdc") STEP 4 1125 c=3DPEEK(i) 1130 PRINT #ch,CHR$(c); 1140 END FOR i 1145 CLOSE#ch 1150 END DEFine As you can see the bytes are stored from $FF020000 to $FF021FDC (every = 4th byte) so it is pretty easy to write own programs for this. #######################################################################= ########## From: "PWitte" Subject: [ql-developers] Linux Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 12:02:12 +0200 Can someone please give me a general idea of how well Linux performs on the Q40? Is is excellent/usable/emergency only/unusable. What sort of "strength" of PC could you compare it to? ../DX66/P75/ .. -- Per pjwitte@knoware.nl From: Richard Zidlicky Subject: Re: [ql-developers] Linux > > Can someone please give me a general idea of how well Linux performs on the > Q40? Is is excellent/usable/emergency only/unusable. What sort of "strength" > of PC could you compare it to? ../DX66/P75/ .. since nobody wants to reply you have to live with my estimate.. As of stability I had no problems with kernel 2.2.6a and the installed RH 5.2. The provided install script is not nearly so perfect as you could expect from a "real" distribution - you can read the install-howto to get an idea. The software provided by RH 5.2 is fairly broad, newsserver, appache, CD writing software, X with plenty applications, compiler and interpreter for a plenty of languages. There are some useful bits missing like Xemacs or Mozilla. I have compiled Xemacs 20.40 without problems and want to try a precompiled Mozilla for Debian m68k. The speed is quite useable for all X applications I tried, for example loading gimp appears much faster than on many SPARCstations running Solaris. Starting up X often appears faster than on a P100 btw.. The weakness of the 68040 appears to be compiling and such tasks - I get here only 25-30% of the Pentium 100 performance. So it could rate as P35 perhaps.. Only experience with networking is with slattach connecting two Linux boxes and this is quite positive, full 115200 Baud, TCP,NFS,FTP,telnet and X/lbx connections tried. Only NFS gives a few strange warnings at mounttime. Floppy is theoretically a problem because it requires 30K interrupts/s served (yes 1 for every byte read/written !!!!) but that will only slow down or stop the floppy under extreme HD activity. BTW Claus Graf wants to put together the RH 5.2 packages with an improved installation procedure on a CD but no idea when this happens. PLEASE NOTE the RH 5.2 is not the officiale Redhat distribution, nor is it contained in any official Redhat distribution. Hope that helped a little bit.. Bye Richard From: "PWitte" Subject: Re: [ql-developers] Linux Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 11:41:22 +0200 Thanks to Richard Zidlicky for your reply to my >> Can someone please give me a general idea of how well Linux performs on the >> Q40? I interpret what you are saying as: it runs adequately, but that you wouldn't buy a Q40 merely for the pleasure of running Linux on it ;) -- Per pjwitte@knoware.nl From: Richard Zidlicky Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 15:46:57 +0200 (METDST) > > Thanks to Richard Zidlicky for your reply to my > >> Can someone please give me a general idea of how well Linux performs on > the > >> Q40? > I interpret what you are saying as: it runs adequately, but that you > wouldn't buy a Q40 merely for the pleasure of running Linux on it ;) yes, unless you enjoy handoptimising your m68k assembler code you can get much faster Linux systems for the same money. Bye Richard From: Chgraf@aol.com Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 09:37:47 EST Subject: [ql-developers] CD-Writing with Q40 Hello to all! It is now possible to burn CDs on your Q40 (I hope you have one :) )! A reason more not to use a Wintel PC! What you need is a Q40 (16 MB real memory is sufficent), a CD Writer and the most recent Linux. I have just tested burning a CD-RW with double speed and I didn't have a single problem. More on how to do that on www.q40.de! Claus From: Thierry Godefroy Subject: Re: [ql-developers] CD-Writing with Q40 At 09:37 11/5/99 EST, Claus wrote: >Hello to all! > >It is now possible to burn CDs on your Q40 (I hope you have one :) )! A >reason more not to use a Wintel PC! > >What you need is a Q40 (16 MB real memory is sufficent), a CD Writer and the >most recent Linux. I have just tested burning a CD-RW with double speed and I >didn't have a single problem. > >More on how to do that on www.q40.de! Fine, but it would be even better if this could be done from QDOS/SMS ! ;-) Anything new on the Q60 front ? QDOS/SMS forever ! Thierry (godefroy@imaginet.fr). From: Chgraf@aol.com Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 06:15:29 EST Subject: [ql-developers] Q40 Linux CD-ROM available now Hello! I just want to let you know that the Q40 Linux CD-ROM is finished now. The Linux port is done by Richard Zidlicky. He has also written a graphic tool for installation: xinstall. The CD-ROM contains a complete Linux distribution. Main features are: Kernel 2.2.6 XFree86 (TM) 3.3.3 (X Window port) lesstif - OSF/Motif replacement Apache-Webserver Mozilla 5.0 Browser nedit, ddd, and much more Linux Software. Plus: QDOS classic The Q40 Linux CD-ROM can be ordered with or without boot floppy disks. If you don't have the boot disks, then you'll need a computer that can read CD-ROMs, so that you can copy kernel, ramdisk and loader to the Q40. For more information on the Q40 Linux CD visit www.q40.de, please. Claus