Subject: Indigo2 R4600 woes
To: None <port-sgimips@netbsd.org>
From: pascal dameme <netinet@freesurf.fr>
List: port-sgimips
Date: 04/13/2002 11:45:11
Hi Experts.
Last week, I rescued an R4600 Indigo2 "TEAL" from the trash, an tried to
install NetBSD on it.
With a current kernel (config taken from conf/TEAL), the L2 cache is
detected but the system hangs right after the message : "copying /sbin/init"
...
Can't get the debugger, I have to walk and reset the system ...
When I disable the L2 cache (setting the cache line to zero in
sgimips/sgimips/cpu.c), the system boots OK.
So I began to explore the code, added some printfs and noticed a few strange
things :
- the mips generic code (in arch/mips/mips) does not detect the L2
cache,
although it looks like the 4600 is handled ...
I suspect the indigo2 L2 cache architecture is 'special' , is it the
reason ?
- the ip22_cache.S functions seems not to be called at all ?
- I took the plunge and hooked in the ip22_cache.S ip22_sdcache_do_wbinv
(which look like sisters of the linux mips port) into the mips cache
handling vector
(moc_sdcache_xxx), using home made wrappers ,
and called ip22_sdcache_enable, from the ip22_cache_init function, with
not much success ...
(various exceptions , which make me think I missed something).
One thing that puzzle me is that the mips generic code wants an
invalidate function,
which does not seem to exist in ip22 specific code (there is a writeback
and invalidate,
but this is quite different ... ).
So,
- Does anybody has link / can explain how to handle the L2 cache on the
indigo2 ?
- Is there anybody working on the subject ? If someone has uncommitted
experimental code,
I can test/debug it.
I have some experience in kernel programming (doing that for a living, on
more or less friendly
commercial operating systems that I will not dare to disclose here.
Quizz : one is blue, unix-like;
the other you can open it when you need fresh air, vms-like,
monopolistic),
so I am used to crash/restart the machine :-), but I am new to mips;
I can't promise much of my time, though ...
Regards,
Pascal.