Subject: Linux/68k FAQ v0.5
From: [email-masked] (Joerg Mayer)
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 1994 15:40:00 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.unix.amiga,comp.os.linux.announce,comp.os.linux.development,maus.os.linux68k

Last-modified: 94-10-19
Maintained-By: Joerg Mayer ([email-masked])

                Frequently Asked Questions on Linux/68k
              A Linux port to Motorola's 680x0 processors

Version of this FAQ : 0.5
Version of Linux/68k: 09pl3
Version of Linux    : 1.1pl54

i) Introduction
===============

This is the second public release of the Linux/68k FAQ. As it will probably
still contain errors (typographical and logical), outdated and missing infos,
I ask you to send feedback and corrections.  This document is not intended to
describe what Unix is or how to to administrate it. To find out more on that
read the standard Linux manuals.
Parts of this document were snarfed from Helmut Neukirchen's Linux/68k WWW page
(see below). Thanks.

ii) Newsflash
=============

New root.tar.gz and usr.tar.gz by Hamish Macdonald on ftp.
Virtual consoles: Atari (Andreas Schwab), Amiga (Arno Griffioen) on
  mailinglist.

iii) Contents
=============

i Introduction
ii Newsflash
iii Contents
1. About Linux and Linux/68k
2. Requirements to run Linux/68k
  2.1 Processor
  2.2 RAM
  2.3 Harddisk
3. Similarities and differences between Amiga and Atari Linux/68k
  3.1 Similarities
  3.2 Differences
4. The current status of Linux/68k
  4.1 General
  4.2 Amiga
  4.3 Atari
  4.4 Mac
5. Hints on installing Linux/68k
6. Sources for information/sources/binaries
  6.1 Newsgroups
  6.2 Mailinglists
  6.3 WWW-sites
  6.4 Ftp-sites
  6.4.1 Distributions
7. Activities
  7.1 Coordinator 
  7.2 Bug reports/Known bugs
  7.3 Under construction/To do
8. Famous last words

1. About Linux and Linux/68k
============================

Linux is a freely available operating system for PCs - to be more precise,
it is one of many flavours of Unix. It is being developed on the net by
several thousand people and tested/used by many many more.
The fun and success of Linux inspired some people to port it to another
platform - the Amiga. The first version released to the general public was
005. While 008 was current, a few enthusiasts ported that version to the Atari
and the two versions have been successfully (?) merged with 09pl3 (this
reads version 09 patchlevel 3). Linux/68k can be regarded as beta. This means
that code that wasn't ported/written recently works well most of the time.

2. Requirements to run Linux/68k
================================

2.1 Processor
-------------
You need a Motorola 680x0 processor *with PMMU*. There is *no way* to run
it without one. This reduces the list of possible processors to
68020+68851, 68030, 68040, 68LC040, 68060. Currently only the 68030 and 68040
are supported (rumor has it that someone is it running on 68020+68851). At
this stage you will also need a 68881 or 68882 FPU if you don't have a 68040.
A FPU is not strictly neccessary as it can be emulated with the normal
processor, however nobody has written the code to do so.
The list of processors leaves the 68000, 68010, 68EC020, 68EC030, 68EC040.
Linux/68k will *never* run on these processors as they lack a PMMU and an
interface for an external one.
The following machines have the "right" processor built-in: A3000, A3000T,
A4000/40 (not! A4000/30), Atari Falcon. [I don't know which other Ataris have
a 68030.]

2.2 RAM
-------
Note: On the Amiga the size of fastram is relevant.
It is possible to boot Linux/68k with as little as 2 MB. If you want to work
with it you should have 4 MB (8 MB with a X-server).

2.3 Harddisk
------------
If you want to do more than just boot Linux/68k you will need 30 - oo (infinity)
MB of space on your hard disk and a supported hard disk controller.

3. Similarities and differences between Amiga and Atari Linux/68k
=================================================================

3.1 Similarities
----------------
All code that is dependent on the processor only (e.g. paging, systemcalls,
parts of the interrupt handling and of c(o)urse those parts of Linux that
were handoptimized by writing the code in assembler) has to be ported to
Linux/68k only once. This means that Amiga and Atari may use the same kernel-
image (in fact the vmlinux from tsx-11 runs on both machines).
Another big bonus is that all userprograms (= binaries) should run on
any machine running Linux/68k no matter whether the machine is an Amiga
or Atari - as long as no machine specific devices are used (see below).

3.2 Differences
---------------
All code that depends on the hardware is machine dependent and with very
few exceptions which are in the kernel (timer, small part of interrupt
handling, startup code) put into modules called device drivers. The writing
of device drivers makes up most of the porting work.

4. The current status of Linux/68k
==================================

4.1 General
-----------
What has been done? The kernel (this means all the processor/mmu/fpu specific
stuff) has been ported. Version 09 is based on the Linux 1.0 patchlevel 9
sources. Several hardware-independent devices have been ported:
Ramdisk, mem, pty, tty, vt, slip, net/inet, general SCSI stuff. Also the fol-
lowing filesystems have been done: minix, ext2, msdos, proc, isofs, affs
( = Amiga Fast File System, read only).

4.2 Amiga
---------
Supported built-in hardware:
A3000-SCSI, A4000-IDE, serial port, parallel port, mouse, keyboard, graphics
emulates an ASCII-terminal (resolution varies with your chipset/setup), timer,
floppy disk drive (DD and HD, Amiga-formatted disks only).

Supported cards:
Several SCSI cards are supported. These are the A2091, A590 and GVP Series II.
To find out whether additional hardware is supported, look at the Linux/68k
source (config.in provides a list of supported hardware).

4.3 Atari
---------
Atari-SCSI interface (ACSI), Falcon IDE interface, mouse, serial port,
keyboard, timer [there are some TOS-specific problems with the date],
floppy disk drive, graphics emulates an ASCII-terminal (resolution varies
with your chipset/setup)

4.4 Mac
-------
>From time to time someone posts on the net that he is working on a port. There
is no confirmed sighting of such a thing (i.e. nothing ftp-able). One reason
for this may be that there are no hardware docs available.

5. Hints on installing Linux/68k
================================

[If someone is willing to write something more complete/comprehensible I will
happily replace this section.]
 1. Get a working kernel, *all* announce files and the boostrap program for
   your machine (different kernel versions may require different bootstrap
   versions), the root and usr-filesystems and the newfilesys (this is a
   ramdisk that contains everything you will need to setup a working harddisk
   environment). Sources for these programs: See below.
 2. Bootstrap the kernel and newfilesys as described in the ANNOUNCE file for
   that kernel. Many of the bootstrap flags available are documented in older
   announce files only.
 3. Create a partition on your harddisk and install an ext2fs filesystem on it.
 4. Create another partition as swapspace.
 5. Unpack the root and usr filesystem onto the disk.
 6. Copy the contents of your ramdisk to your harddisk. This replaces several
    old programs in root and usr with newer (working) versions.
    This is not needed if you downloaded the new usr.tar.gz.
 7. If /etc/termcap does not exist, get (see below) and install it.
 8. Reboot
 9. Bootstrap your kernel, this time from the harddisk instead of ramdisk.
 10. Get and read the Installation-HOWTO for Linux. Start reading from section
    4 "Installing the Software". Warning: This is for the pc so you may have
    to do things differently at some points.
These are the filenames relative to 680x0/
  ANNOUNCE-0.XXXXXX
  filesys/new-filesys.gz
  filesys/root.tar.gz
  filesys/usr.tar.gz
  bin/gcc-2.5.8.tar.gz (needed if you downloaded the new usr.tar.gz)
  kernel/vmlinux-0.9pl3.gz
  kernel/amiboot-1.9.gz
  kernel/ataboot-0.2.gz
  ../docs/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO
  The new root.tar.gz file contains /etc/termcap but no gcc. If you are a
  tcsh or emacs addict you will want to get these packages from bin/ too.
  You can get the termcap via Helmut Neukirchen's WWW pages, if you don't
  want to download the new usr.tar.gz.
   
6. Sources for information/sources/binaries
===========================================

6.1 Newsgroups
--------------
comp.os.linux.development: This group is on Linux *kernel* development only.
  From time to time it contains messages dealing with the Linux/68k kernel.
comp.os.linux.announce: This group announces new Linux related products as
  well as new kernel releases. Announcements for new versions of Linux/68k
  can be found there.
maus.os.linux68k: [This newsgroup may not be available outside Germany.]
  This group deals with Linux/68k only. The language currently used is German
  but don't hesitate to post in English.
  It should be available at least at the following sites:
        news.uni-stuttgart.de
        rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
        xlink.net
        howland.reston.ans.net
        news.uni-oldenburg.de
        rz.uni-hildesheim.de
  [Has anyone checked whether these sites allow external access?]
comp.unix.amiga: This group is for diskussions on AMIX, NetBSD and Linux/68k
  on the Amiga. As most articles on Linux/68k are not Amiga specific, the
  name is somewhat of a misnomer.

6.2 Mailinglists
----------------
I am aware of one mailinglist for Linux/68k. This is the 680X0 channel of
linux-activists. To find out how to subscribe send an empty mail to
[email-masked]. The channel you want to join is
680X0. Keep the help file! In order to unsubscribe you will want to read the
help file again. The articles on this list are currently mirrored on
maus.os.linux68k.

6.3 WWW-sites
-------------
Helmut Neukirchen's Linux/68k WWW page:
  http://www-users.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~hn/linux68k.html
Mirror of tsx-11 via WWW:
  http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Linux/tsx-11-mirror/680x0/

6.4 Ftp-sites
-------------
THE Linux/68k server:
  ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/680x0/
Mirrors of it (please use the one nearest to you, most of these mirrors
are updated daily):
  ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/systems/Linux/680x0/
  ftp://ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/pub/comp/os/linux/680x0/
  ftp://ftp.twi.tudelft.nl/pub/Linux/680x0/
  ftp://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/BETA/680x0/
THE two Linux servers (sources for you to port to/compile on Linux/68k):
  ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/sources/
  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/
[Please tell me, if your favourite mirror is not on this list.]
The kernel source for Linux/68k can be found in 680x0/src/, a lot of
binaries in 680x0/bin/. A few more tools reside in 680x0/tools/.

6.4.1 Distributions
-------------------
None (yet).

7. Activities
=============

7.1 Coordinator
---------------
Linux/68k releases are built and released by Hamish Macdonald (his e-mail is
[email-masked]). Built means that you write a patch against the
current version/patchlevel and he will integrate it into the next release.
Atari specific patches should be sent to Roman Hodek (his e-mail is
[email-masked]) as Hamish has no way to test them.
If you want your patches to be generally available rather than waiting for
Hamish to integrate them: Post them to the 680x0 channel of linux-activists
at least. Hamish has his own pace at doing releases. So read my lips:-)
*Don't push him!*

7.2 Bug reports/Known bugs
--------------------------
Send bugreports to the author of the code or to Hamish (general and Amiga)
or to Roman (Atari). Another approach is to post it to the 680X0 channel or
to the appropriate newsgroup.
If there are bugs that will probably stay for some time let me know so I can
publish them here.

7.3 Under construction/To do
----------------------------
I would like to have a list of projects planned/started, similar to the
Linux Project-FAQ. If you send me infos I will put them into this section.

- X-server for Amiga: Contact Martin Apel ([email-masked]) if and only
  if you really want to help (there is *no* use in asking/pushing him).
  He is currently searching for someone who can explain the workings of the
  console/tty/vt stuff to him to get the keyboard-input running. The rest is
  already working.
- X-server for Atari: Will probably be out somtime in november.
- Affs: Write code, other DOS types and special root block handling missing.
- Documentation: A Linux/68k update of the khg (Kernel hackers guide) needs to
  be written (especially the mmu specific stuff).

8. Famous last words
====================

Amiga, Atari, Unix and perhaps some more words I used in this text are
trademarks. So what!

-----------
J"org Mayer  Student an der Universit"at Kaiserslautern
e-mail    :  [email-masked]   //   PGPid: 0xFB2461E1
phone     :  Kaiserslautern:  205-3348 (Uni) //  3100480 (privat)
snail-mail:  Beethovenstr. 44 // 67655 Kaiserslautern  // Germany

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