Blogospheric Refraction

Well… it has been a while… No, I haven’t gone AWOL, just been busy with other things for the past few months.

I’m now in the process of updating my MIPS boxes so that I can resume testing packages. I now have a stable kernel on my O2 (I nicked Debian’s kernel image… to install you just run ar x on the .deb, then unpack the data.tar.gz created into your /) and can seriously look at the userland.

First priority will be developer-related tools that I know well and can test quickly… Subversion is one that I’ll probably tackle, since the version we currently have keyworded is masked. Ditto for git. I’m sure I’ll find other things to get started on, but those two will make doing everyhing else easier.

I’ve also started on some new profiles. People can have a look at http://git.longlandclan.yi.org/?p=gentoo-mips-profiles.git or clone the repository at git://git.longlandclan.yi.org/gentoo-mips-profiles.git to give them a try. When I’ve given them a good thrashing and am satisfied, I’ll look at merging them into the tree, but for now, this is my staging area.

Hopefully with a stable base system upcoming, and new profiles, then I’ll look at new stages, and get this show back on the road.

Well… I’ve been busy getting the boxes into shape ready for new stagebuilds and a heap of other activities.

I have Firefox 3.5 going on mipsel… albeit a little shakey. I’ve got 99% of KDE 4.3 going also, again, a few glitches. I have turned my attention for the time being to the SGI machines here, since the kernels on all of them are out of date… and the userland is in a bit of a mess. Particularly on the Indy… which hasn’t been touched in a couple of years (e2fsck complained the disk wasn’t checked in over 1000 days).

The Indy (R4600SC) needs a new kernel, as its current one is too unstable to do anything useful. I remember kernel 2.6 being a royal bitch on this machine, hopefully things have improved. The IP28 is up and running… old kernel and userland, but it’s not quite as bad as the Indy… at least it’s stable. The O2 is similarly suffering an old kernel, but at least parts of its userland are in reasonable shape.

The two Fulongs are also getting an overhaul which is badly needed. The Yeeloong too, is undergoing further work to get things running.

Tonight, I managed to figure out battery monitoring within KDE 4.3… the trick was to unmask the apm USE-flag and re-merge hal with this feature enabled. Now the system displays the battery status as it should… if only I could get NetworkManager working properly, then everything would be sweet there.

I have a couple of tracker bugs relating to this work… bug 282264 is a tracking bug for KDE 4.x related tasks, and bug 282265 pertains to the changes needed for in-tree Lemote system support.

I intend to do a bit of work on both as I run between Brisbane and Laidley using the Yeeloong as a test platform, so hopefully we will have something for public release soon. In addition, I’ll be doing stagebuilds for the Gentoo/MIPS port generally, once my systems are back online.

Well… after much building by one of the older Lemote systems, I finally have a Gentoo desktop with KDE 4.3.0 on the Lemote Yeeloong.

I’m still working on the rest of the KDE suite… and will have to track down the necessary bits and pieces for battery monitoring and other goodies… but it seems everything is working. It also is slightly more responsive on Gentoo than Debian (which I still have in a chroot).

This post is being written in Konqueror 4.3.0 on the said installation… it passes the Acid 2 test, but has a few stability glitches here and there… so far both the Acid 3 test, and Google Groups crashes it. I’ll sort this out later.

In short, this does mean I’ll be coaxing my O2 into making the same journey and making the necessary tree modifications in order to allow KDE 4.3 on Gentoo/MIPS.

Well… three bits of news to share… I can’t be stuffed doing three separate posts however, so I’ll stuff all three into the one, it puts less load on the servers involved.

X.org working on Yeeloong

I managed to get X going on the Yeeloong within Gentoo… I’m currently battling problems with Python 2.6 not building, but at least X runs.  I hope to get the necessary patches into my overlay shortly.

• latest xorg-server ebuild works… you just need to add the loongson patch for version 1.6.0.  This is already in my overlay, just needs updating.
• xf86-video-siliconmotion needs a patch to detect the video RAM.  This is due to the driver relying on some magic BIOS trickery which naturally doesn’t work on a BIOS-less RISC machine like the Yeeloong.
• xorg.conf needs the LCD panel resolution specified … that is: Options “PanelSize” “1024×600″ in the options for the siliconmotion driver.

VK4MSL contactable via IRLP

I recently put my homebrew 2m vertical back up … this time, using the mounting brackets from my old 2.4GHz vertical, and mounting the thing up as high on the antenna mast as I can push it. The choke balun on the antenna is level with the TV antenna yagi, so most of the radiated power is well above the TV antenna.

With this, I am now not only kinda able to work previously impossible repeaters such as VK4RBS (Bayside/Alex Hills), but also VK4RSS at Ocean View. What’s so good about VK4RSS? Well, I’m tripping it with 500mW of power (therefore good access when using 5W)… and it happens to be accessible via IRLP as node 6215.

I can also be sporadically reached on EchoLink node 37 37 40.

Graduated at last

I did say there were three items in this bulletin. I finally received my academic transcript, confirming that I have formally completed my studies at QUT, graduating with the following qualifications…

• Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics)
• Bachelor of Information Technology (Software Engineering)

This is timely, right at the bottom of the employment market… but I can’t help that.  Now begins the task of finding work in the Brisbane area.  I’m still running to/from Laidley doing some work out there… which may turn into paid employment (I hope so anyway… costs me almost $8 a day with a student discount in transport… That’ll double to about $15 when that card expires).

If anyone’s looking for someone to assist, particularly in the telecommunications field (I have a soft spot for radio and embedded systems)… feel free to get in touch directly.

Well… I’ve been quiet, but slowly, I’m preparing what will become a port of Gentoo/MIPS to the Lemote Yeeloong.

I have it booting off a USB HDD for now, sans X11, but I’m working on that.  The kernel at present needs some patches not yet present in the Linux/MIPS kernel tree.  To build a kernel, you also need GCC 4.4.0 (which supports -march=loongson2f) and binutils (2.19.51.0.2 or later) with this patch.  I’m looking into what is necessary in order to get these patches into our tree.  Patched ebuilds for both are in my overlay.

Once that is done… next attention will be to Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and Mozilla Thunderbird, both of which have been lagging on MIPS since I took my hiatus.  I’m still running to/from Laidley, but with the travel time… this would seem an excellent moment for package testing once I get Gentoo installed on this machine.

Here’s hoping I can return with some goodies for everyone shortly.

It has been a while, but I can safely say I have returned.  Not sure what the next step is… looking for paid employment I guess, but I have passed all subjects this semester, which should mean that I am now qualified in IT and Electrical Engineering as a graduate.

After the last exam, I could not run out of the building fast enough.  6.5 years of studies has certainly taken its toll on my mental state.  Anyway… I wound up traveling northern and central NSW with my father and his girlfriend for the last fortnight — got back home yesterday.  I am currently putting together some photos, and I’ll have a slide show ready for the next BOSQ meeting.  I’ll put a link up to the photos when they’re done processing (the aging PIII 550MHz webserver here takes a while to resize over 500 photos, most 10Mpixel in size).

Where did we go?  We camped at:

• Dalmorton (abandoned settlement on the old Grafton-Glen Innes road) — overnight
• Glen Innes — overnight
• Bingara — overnight
• Waa Gorge (pronounced “war”, part of Mt. Kaputar National Park… you’re not supposed to camp here, but it was late in the day, and the road in/out passes through private property with many gates) — overnight
• Mt. Kaputar National Park — 3 nights
• Coonabarabran — 2 nights
• Port Macquarie — 3 nights
• Dorrigo — overnight
• Grafton — overnight
• Brooms Head — overnight

In that time:

• We explored a number of walking tracks at Mt. Kaputar, Dorrigo and Brooms Head.
• Did some sight seeing at Port Macquarie and Coonabarabran.
• Checked out the sandstone caves in the Pilliga State Reserve
• Got bogged on a forestry road in state forest just north of Coffs Harbour (thanks go to the Clarence Valley State Emergency Service for pulling us out of that muddy mess)
• HanoiCalc got a bit of work done — it works now.
• I checked into three nets:
  • Ipswich & District 80m Net (3.585MHz LSB) from Waa Gorge
  • AWNOI Net (3.595MHz LSB) from Mt. Kaputar
  • Coffs Harbour & District 2m Net (146.650MHz FM) whilst waiting for the SES to arrive

We learned:

• Setting up the annex and awning on a hard-floor camper trailer for an overnight stay is a pain in the bum.
• My camp stretcher doesn’t fit in the camper itself, and only barely fits in the annex.
• Holden (or Zupps) decided to put a really low tow hitch on the back of my father’s car… meaning we had to either find rocks/blocks of wood/bricks to back the car’s back wheels on to, or dig a hole just near the jockey wheel in order to unhitch from the trailer
• Just because a road is marked on a GPS or paper based map, does not mean that it is in drivable condition, nor does it necessarily mean the road’s actual route bares any resemblence to the marked route.
• The NRMA do not assist people who are bogged, they refer you to the SES instead.  (I hope some of the fees we’re paying are helping fund the SES for their troubles!)
• My HF radio, which is normally very touchy on 10m… works fine on that band up in the higher altitudes — I suspect a temperature-related issue.

What now?  Well… as I say, I’ve got to find some employment somewhere.  I now officially become “unemployed” according to the damn lies^W^Wstatistics.  Potential employers in the Brisbane area, should contact me directly.

This also means I should have some time to dedicate towards Gentoo.  My last attempt at stage builds got sidetracked by a need to study and also hit technical issues (something in glibc’s build kept hard-locking boxes).

Also on the agenda here is a proper port of Gentoo to the Lemote Yeeloong.  The little netbook has been running well under Debian, with Gentoo sitting in a chroot environment… now that I’m no longer using the machine for daily studies, I think the time is ripe to start looking into reloading the machine.  Zhang Le did a great job incorporating Lemote’s patches into a mirror of the Linux/MIPS git tree, which I’ve been using to build my kernels… 2.6.30-rc4 has been quite stable.

I’ve also been looking at the ARRL handbook, with the view of upgrading my license to the Advanced level.  Then I’ll be paying for a 5-year license before the ACMA/WIA decide to up the fees again.

So, much to do, and a mountain of bugs in Bugzilla with my name on them… Ohh joy.

Well… it’ll be a while before I get around to porting Gentoo to the Yeeloong in earnest, however this is the first step.  The following are some notes for those who may wish to go ahead and set up Gentoo.

Toolchain

For both the Yeeloong, and the Loongson 2F-based Fulong, you’ll need the latest gcc (4.4.0) and binutils.  I normally don’t recommend H. J. Lu’s binutils distribution, but in this instance, you need something pretty bleeding edge, this gets you bleeding edge without needing live ebuilds.

I keep patched ebuilds of binutils and kgcc64 in my overlay.  To obtain these, install git, then run git clone git://git.longlandclan.yi.org/overlay.git and add it to your overlays.  The overlay is also browsable here.

Once added, simply merge sys-devel/binutils-2.19.51.0.5 and sys-devel/kgcc64-4.4.0_alpha20090407. These work for me anyway.

Patched Kernel

Zhang Le has done an excellent job in merging the Lemote patches into the Linux/MIPS tree… clone a copy by typing git clone git://www.gentoo-cn.org/var/git/linux-loongson.git. Use make yeeloong_defconfig to make a suitable config, then compile as per the Gentoo/MIPS handbook, using the vmlinux.32 target.

Power Management

There’s one final piece missing… and that’s the ec_module power management drivers. You get those from here. If you’re compiling against a kernel later than 2.6.29, double check that the version you fetch has the patch to correct for the new struct proc_dir_entry, sans owner field. You can get this patch from here if need be… or alternatively,

git clone git://dev.lemote.com/ec_module.git
git pull git://git.longlandclan.yi.org/ec_module.git


This will pull in the aforementioned patch if it isn’t already there.

To build the module, simply change to your kernel source directory, then run make modules modules_install CROSS_COMPILE=mips64el-unknown-linux-gnu- M=/path/to/ec_module.

Once I’m through exams, I’ll probably start looking into merging this into a patchset to place in mips-sources… but for now, there’s a starting point for those who are wondering where to begin.

Hi All,

Well, I’ve just dusted off the second Lemote Fulong here, and I’m booting it up for another round of stagebuilds. (Yes… I haven’t gotten around to locating and implementing the auto stagebuild scripts that everyone else seems to be using.)

I’m also getting a newer piece of MIPS kit… a Lemote Yeeloong is currently sitting at Brisbane Airport in a box with my name on it… hopefully it’ll be in my hands by Wednesday evening. This will enable support of Gentoo/MIPS on this platform, and will also allow me to do some MIPS testing of packages while on my many hours of travelling between Brisbane and Laidley and hours spent at university. It’s based on the Loongson 2F CPU, which implements the MIPS64 ISA (the Loongson 2Es in the Fulongs implements MIPS3), and is little-endian.

Hopefully this will mean the bug count will start to decline once more for the MIPS team.

Hi all…

Well, after a long hiatus, I’m working on new stages for the Gentoo/MIPS port.  These new ones will be based on uClibc, and are a compliment to the existing glibc-based stages.  At the moment, the initial seed environment is still being cross-compiled from my i686 host, and for now I’m focussing on mipsel but will soon turn my attention to MIPS.

These stages initially will not operate with a page size of 16KB or more, so unfortunately aren’t much good for Lemote users (I’m working with the uClibc people on this) but Cobalt and SGI users will soon once again be able to use uClibc as their system libc.  The new stages will be based on uClibc 0.9.30… which is yet to be keyworded.

Hi all… figured I better update everyone on what’s happening on the MIPS front.

Kumba has been working on newer kernel ebuilds to support various platforms, specifically IP30, which has been troublesome of late. At present, the best kernel revision to use is still 2.6.23 on Cobalt, Loongson 2E and O2.

Another alternative, is to download your own kernels from the Linux/MIPS website (not kernel.org), and research the patches needed to get things running yourself… in fact… Lemote Loongson 2E, Cobalt Qube2 and SGI Indy/O2 users should find minimal to no patching is necessary as the vast majority of changes have already been accepted into the mainline kernel.

Stages… there have been no further stages built at the moment from the 2008.0 ones. Partly because some of us have been just too busy. I’ve started to make inroads into a uClibc-based set of stages however, having got a uClibc-0.9.30 toolchain built the other day targetted at mipsel-unknown-linux-uclibc. It is hoped a workable environment can be constructed in the coming months that may turn into a new set of stages available for this platform.

Desktop Applications… have been lagging quite a bit. I have some patches for Thunderbird 2.0 that gets things rolling again… and may just work for big-endian MIPS (which was broken at last check) but due to lack of time, I haven’t been able to investigate further. A similar set of patches got Firefox 3.0 partially working… more work needs to be done.

My own status… I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon… just been extremely busy. As it is now, I’m passed my 8:00PM bed time (need to be up at 4:00AM tomorrow, currently it is 8:35PM AEST), so I’ll leave it at that.