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Subject: Current problem reports assigned to you
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Current FreeBSD problem reports
Critical problems
Serious problems
S Tracker Resp. Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
o power/93203 ppc FreeBSD PPC Can't Write to Partitions.
1 problem total.
Non-critical problems
S Tracker Resp. Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
o power/111296 ppc [kernel] [patch] Support IMISS, DLMISS an DSMISS inter
o power/112435 ppc [nexus] [patch] Update nexus children to use ofw_bus f
2 problems total.
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From owner-freebsd-ppc@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 21 02:52:31 2007
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Cc: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Cell port
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Peter Grehan wrote:
> Hi Décio,
>
>> If you have the spare time to produce a detailed checklist of what
>> needs to be done and provide some guidance as required, I'm willing to
>> put the effort to see this port through.
>
> Here's my thoughts:
>
> - the Cell CPU is 64-bit whilst FreeBSD/ppc is 32-bit. I don't think
> the Cell has the 'bridge mode' features that the G5 (aka 970) has, so
> the MMU would have to use a segment table. Doing it this way is probably
> a good thing since it would allow ports to other 64-bit PPC's (e.g. the
> PA-Semi).
> A full 64-bit port of FreeBSD is a large undertaking, and not really
> necessary for the PS3 which doesn't have a lot of RAM.
>
> - the IBM Cell simulator would be the best place to start. It's
> OpenFirmware-based so the existing OFW code may be usable. This would
> allow the generic PPC code, such as vector and MMU processing, to get
> sorted out in an environment that allows easy debug.
>
> - For the PS3, the first step would be to get the FreeBSD loader
> ported, either directly booted from the hypervisor (similar to how kboot
> works), or to get kboot to load it using kexec. For the latter, kboot
> itself could be modified, or the loader could be built to look like a
> linux/ppc kernel.
>
> - the existing FreeBSD/ppc code is heavily dependent on OpenFirmware.
> For running on the PS3, this dependency would have to be removed.
>
> - the PS3 hypervisor interface would need to be extracted from Linux
> source code. I've seen some preliminary attempts at documenting the
> hypervisor on a gaming site, but I think you would have to dig through
> source. This also brings up the issue of GPL contamination: you DO NOT
> want to use Linux source code, but only use it as a reference.
>
> Probably lots of other things I've forgotten or more likely don't know
> about, but that should get you started.
>
Small comment about the OpenFirmware dependency. Recent Linux kernels
started to required that all powerpc platforms provide what they call a
"flattened device tree" which is very similar to an OpenFirmware device
tree. It enables them to share the same code for standard Apple
computers providing an OpenFirmware and small embedded processors (like
the 8349e from FSL) that do not usually have OpenFirmware.
It might be worthwhile for anybody attempting to port to a new
architecture to look into adding support for something similar instead
of removing the OF dependency.
Just $0.02 ;) Ignore if it doesn't make any sense...
Steph
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From: Rafal Jaworowski <raj@semihalf.com>
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Cc: grehan@freebsd.org, freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Cell port
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Stephane E. Potvin wrote:
>
> Small comment about the OpenFirmware dependency. Recent Linux kernels
> started to required that all powerpc platforms provide what they call a
> "flattened device tree" which is very similar to an OpenFirmware device
> tree. It enables them to share the same code for standard Apple
> computers providing an OpenFirmware and small embedded processors (like
> the 8349e from FSL) that do not usually have OpenFirmware.
>
> It might be worthwhile for anybody attempting to port to a new
> architecture to look into adding support for something similar instead
> of removing the OF dependency.
>
Having the flat device tree is not cheap, as one has to provide the
whole infrastructure, which is currently non-existent:
- the dtc 'compiler' to produce binary out of textual description of the
device tree (the existing GPL-licensed could be used for quick start)
- in-kernel library of routines processing the device tree blob (node,
properties etc.)
- loader(8) would need to be involved too (at least to pass the blob as
part of metadata or so).
Introducing this is quite a big project for its own, and requires
dealing with OpenFirmware internals, binding definitions etc. as FDT
essentially mimics some part of it.
Rafal
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Cc: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org, grehan@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Cell port
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Rafal Jaworowski wrote:
> Stephane E. Potvin wrote:
>>
>> It might be worthwhile for anybody attempting to port to a new
>> architecture to look into adding support for something similar instead
>> of removing the OF dependency.
>
> Having the flat device tree is not cheap, as one has to provide the
> whole infrastructure, which is currently non-existent:
>
> - the dtc 'compiler' to produce binary out of textual description of the
> device tree (the existing GPL-licensed could be used for quick start)
Well, it's not exactly non-existent then is it? :)
There would be a worry about introducing a GPL dependency in BSD code (after
the Atheros stuff last month, even moreso) but in the end, the flattened
device tree and the tool that generates it are not required for operation
of the Operating System - the FDT should be presented by the firmware, and
not ingrained into the OS tools. Consider the FDT/DTC a U-Boot problem and
not a FreeBSD problem.
> - in-kernel library of routines processing the device tree blob (node,
> properties etc.)
Since parsing a device tree is the same thing, regardless, and the specs
for the Linux FDT are purposefully derived from the Open Firmware ones,
there isn't much change here other than to be able to parse a FDT blob
rather than using the Open Firmware Client Interface.
> - loader(8) would need to be involved too (at least to pass the blob as
> part of metadata or so).
A curious question, how is this metadata structured? Can a binary blob
be easily passed with few changes? Is anything even passed on OF platforms
considering all the metadata (apart from the loader flags which would be
required) is in fact in the device tree?
> Introducing this is quite a big project for its own, and requires
> dealing with OpenFirmware internals, binding definitions etc. as FDT
> essentially mimics some part of it.
Like I said above, leeching off the Linux device tree project is not a
bad idea if you consider it more of a firmware issue than a Linux issue.
Just what IS the licensing on a binary blob passed by firmware? If you create a
device tree from GPLv2 code in the Linux tree and put it into your GPL
U-Boot, does passing that code to FreeBSD cause a problem? By implementing
a "new device tree standard" you completely throw away the advantages of
a firmware device tree. Linux already made that stupid mistake by reimplementing
a device tree and making it dependant on the Linux kernel and tools..
--
Matt Sealey <matt@genesi-usa.com>
Genesi, Manager, Developer Relations
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Cc: grehan@freebsd.org, freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Cell port
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Rafal Jaworowski wrote:
> Stephane E. Potvin wrote:
>>
>> Small comment about the OpenFirmware dependency. Recent Linux kernels
>> started to required that all powerpc platforms provide what they call
>> a "flattened device tree" which is very similar to an OpenFirmware
>> device tree. It enables them to share the same code for standard Apple
>> computers providing an OpenFirmware and small embedded processors
>> (like the 8349e from FSL) that do not usually have OpenFirmware.
>>
>> It might be worthwhile for anybody attempting to port to a new
>> architecture to look into adding support for something similar instead
>> of removing the OF dependency.
>>
>
> Having the flat device tree is not cheap, as one has to provide the
> whole infrastructure, which is currently non-existent:
>
> - the dtc 'compiler' to produce binary out of textual description of the
> device tree (the existing GPL-licensed could be used for quick start)
>
> - in-kernel library of routines processing the device tree blob (node,
> properties etc.)
>
> - loader(8) would need to be involved too (at least to pass the blob as
> part of metadata or so).
>
> Introducing this is quite a big project for its own, and requires
> dealing with OpenFirmware internals, binding definitions etc. as FDT
> essentially mimics some part of it.
>
I admit that I might be confused but I thought that the ppc port already
had the infrastructure to deal with OF. As the FDT is a simplified OF
tree (flattened), once you have the blob parser it should be pretty
straightforward. At least not much more complicated than to rip out the
OF dependency and have to maintain two different ways of probing the HW.
This being said, even if I have a very strong interest in this area I
don't have enough resources at this time to work on this, so I'll leave
those who work on this decide which way is better.
Regards,
Steph