[nwst-dev] Can boot 2.4.19, cannot boot 2.4.21, other misc. issues

[J.P. L. <pi...@el...>]

Hello,

I own a Network Station 1000, model 8362-A53, with 64MB of RAM and no
PC Card carrier installed.  There is a module in the cache slot,
however the boot monitor reports L2 cache failure in the "view
hardware configuration" screen.  It's running version 3.1.1.0 of the
boot monitor.

I'm new to the list, and by no means a kernel hacker--just a
disclaimer.  There are a few problems I've had with running Linux on
the NS1000 that I'll describe in detail.  Overall, I'm impressed with
the quality of this machine, even for its low price (about
$20-something on eBay, _after_ shipping), and appreciate the work
you've all done to make Linux work on these systems.

This message is a bit long (sorry!), so I've broken it into sections
roughly reverse-ordered by importance.

2.4.21 will not boot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been able to use both 2.4.19 kernels at
http://networkstation.aytolacoruna.es/.  However, the 2.4.21 kernel
does not work.  The system prints this:

  dev fn  boot  deviceid  cmd_st    bar0      bar1      bar2
  0x0a 0  0x00  00371014  02000006  00000000  00000000 00000000  ibm 27-826=
60
  0x0b 0  0x08  000a1014  04000147  00100021  00000000 00000000  ibm 27-823=
76
  0x0c 0  0x10  20001022  02800005  00100001  04000000 00000000  amd pcnet
  0x0e 0  0x20  89015333  02000003  00000000  00000000 00000000  s3 trio64v=
2/dx
 =20
  reconfiguring frame buffer to 0xcc000000
 =20
  IBM NetworkStation 1000
 =20
  total dram:    00000000 04000000
  loaded at:     00800000 008BE86C
  board data at: 008AE078 008B4A84
  relocated to:  008B4B84 008BB590
  zimage at:     0080A230 008ADC2E
  avail ram:     00400000 00800000
 =20
  Linux/PPC load: console=3DttyS0,9600 console=3Dtty0 root=3D/dev/nfs nfsro=
ot=3D/NetworkStationV2/prodbase/linuxppc ip=3Ddhcp
  Uncompressing Linux...done.
  Now booting the kernel

And it does not proceed any further.  (Not even on the serial console,
which is how I copied those messages.)

I've managed to install Debian using one of the 2.4.19 kernels, and
I've compiled my own 2.4.19 kernel with the 2003/06/25 patch on
networkstation.sf.net.  It seems the binary 2.4.19 kernels at
aytolacoruna.es are older than the patch: booting my own kernel
resulted in being able to change framebuffer modes and use XFree86
(version 4.1.0.1; the stock version that comes with Debian woody).

I compiled a 2.4.21 kernel with the 2003/07/15 NS1000 patch, and it
failed the same way the 2.4.21 kernel at aytolacoruna.es fails.  Since
I changed the configuration a bit from my 2.4.19 kernel, and also had
preemptible kernel and NFS-swap patches added (the corresponding older
versions of those patches did work with my 2.4.19 kernel), I
re-applied the NS1000 patch to a clean 2.4.21 tree, and used the exact
same .config from my 2.4.19 kernel (after running 'make oldconfig');
booting this new 2.4.21 kernel failed, too.

It printed some slightly different information on boot.  If it matters
any, here's a diff (- is from the aytolacoruna.es kernel, and + is
from mine):

   total dram:    00000000 04000000
  -loaded at:     00800000 008BE86C
  +loaded at:     00800000 008E486C
  -board data at: 008AE078 008B4A84
  +board data at: 008D4078 008DAA84
  -relocated to:  008B4B84 008BB590
  +relocated to:  008DAB84 008E1590
  -zimage at:     0080A230 008ADC2E
  +zimage at:     0080A200 008D31C8
   avail ram:     00400000 00800000

Any known problems booting 2.4.21 on the NS1000?  Anyone else had this
issue?

Shifted Video
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I noticed that in my custom-compiled 2.4.19 kernel, the video is
shifted to the right by about 15-30 pixels (a wild guess) compared to
the aytolacoruna.es 2.4.19 kernel and compared to using the monitor
with a completely different system, in the same video mode (which is
1024x768/60Hz).  I'd like to know if that's correctable without using
the monitor controls.  I seem to recall some talk on the lists about
imprecise video timing problems; is that relevant?

Bad Video (?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've also noticed that running XFree86, the image quality seems odd.
I can't put my finger on it; perhaps it's slightly fuzzy, perhaps
there's ghosting.  I tried creating some contrasting vertical patterns
in The Gimp to create ghosting, but the result wasn't very bad.  The
same monitor in the same mode seems to produce a better image on a
different system.  Is this a problem others have noticed?  Could it be
because of the NS1000's display hardware, and/or caused by the same
problem that causes the image to shift to the right?  I'm running with
16-bit color, if that makes a difference.

Can't Reboot
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linux can't seem to reboot the machine, both when going into runlevel
6, and when there's a kernel panic followed by a message to the effect
of "Reboot in 180 seconds".  Just a minor annoyance, of course.  (I
certainly don't feel bad about power-cycling a system with no moving
parts.)

With an aytolacoruna.es 2.4.19 kernel, it just hangs.  With my own
2.4.19 kernel with preemptible kernel and NFS-swap patches, the kernel
will print a message like:

  <4>Oops: kernel access of bad area, sig: 11
  NIP: FFF019AC XER: 00000000 LR: FFF00178 SP: C100FE10 REGS: c100fd60 TRAP=
: 0400    Not tainted
  MSR: 20000030 EE: 0 PR: 0 FP: 0 ME: 0 IR/DR: 11
  TASK =3D c100e000[458] 'reboot' Last syscall: 88
  last math c100e000 last altivec 00000000
  [omitting 32-bit hex numbers are probably not useful to others]
  Call backtrace:
  C100FE38
  note: reboot[458] exited with preempt_count 1

And print this repeatedly:

  RPC: sendmsg returned error 101
  nfs: RPC call returned error 101

The exact result varies.  (Before I run this into ksymoops and make a
proper bug report, I should at least see which patch is causing the
oops.)

Problems with i386 X Clients
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several programs compiled for i386 don't work correctly over the
network: Eterm and aterm with tinted transparency enabled display
bogus colors in the background; and xscreensaver with the fade option
enabled crashes on activation.

After some testing I realized these problems also occur with programs
on i386 systems remotely using XFree86 on my Power Mac also running
Debian.  For now I've reported the xscreensaver bug to the Debian BTS,
and will hopefully do so with aterm and Eterm (or a library they might
share that causes the problem (?)).

Just a heads-up for anyone else that's had this problem and couldn't
figure out what was wrong.

Documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting started with the NS1000 was a bit of a pain.  There weren't
very many sources of information about these machines in general, let
alone the port of Linux to them.  I hope to find the time/motivation
to write some FAQ or HOWTO material, based on my experiences so far,
for either the WikiWiki at http://howto.ipng.be/NetstationWiki/,
and/or the Netstation HOWTO, and/or my (as of yet non-existent) own
personal web site.

I'm soliciting suggestions on content to write about and where I
should send it to.

Offtopic/Misc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone know where I can buy those PC Card carriers?  Is it possible to
boot Linux from them and otherwise use them?  That'd be great for
securely booting the NCs (eg, not relying on a crackable NFS server)
and using X11 with IPsec transport-mode.  It's been a goal of mine to
set up something like this for quite some time.

Are there any other discussion lists relating to NS1000s?

Does anyone have archives of this list?  I Googled for a phrase from
one message, and apparently SourceForge's own mail archive is the only
public archive.  About a week ago, when I was browsing the archive,
links would often lead to pages that say "forum not found".  Sometimes
reloading the page a few hours later worked, sometimes it didn't.  The
problem seems to be cleared up at this point, though.

--=20
- J.P. Larocque, <pi...@el...>, <pi...@th...>
- The attachment is a PGP sig, not a "virus"; you don't have to open it.
- Encrypted e-mail preferred; 0x0c14cdda; http://ely.ath.cx/~piranha/pgp
- Join the Army, meet interesting people, kill them.