From owner-freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Tue Oct 22 20:59:57 2019 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ppc@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 647ED165550 for ; Tue, 22 Oct 2019 20:59:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from linimon@lonesome.com) Received: from mail.soaustin.net (mail.soaustin.net [18.222.6.11]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "mail.soaustin.net", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 46yQqv6zqWz4H69 for ; Tue, 22 Oct 2019 20:59:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from linimon@lonesome.com) Received: from lonesome.com (unknown [18.188.142.31]) by mail.soaustin.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 4C7022EA94; Tue, 22 Oct 2019 20:59:54 +0000 (UTC) Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 20:59:52 +0000 From: Mark Linimon To: Phil Scarr Cc: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 11.3 or 12.x on IBM 9115-505 Message-ID: <20191022205951.GA8910@lonesome.com> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 46yQqv6zqWz4H69 X-Spamd-Bar: - Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=none; dmarc=none; spf=none (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of linimon@lonesome.com has no SPF policy when checking 18.222.6.11) smtp.mailfrom=linimon@lonesome.com X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-1.56 / 15.00]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; RCVD_VIA_SMTP_AUTH(0.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-0.995,0]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; TO_DN_SOME(0.00)[]; IP_SCORE(-0.27)[ip: (0.02), ipnet: 18.220.0.0/14(0.13), asn: 16509(-1.43), country: US(-0.05)]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[lonesome.com]; AUTH_NA(1.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-0.999,0]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_SOME(0.00)[]; RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED(-0.20)[11.6.222.18.list.dnswl.org : 127.0.5.2]; RCPT_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; R_SPF_NA(0.00)[]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:16509, ipnet:18.220.0.0/14, country:US]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; RCVD_TLS_ALL(0.00)[]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2] X-BeenThere: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the PowerPC List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 20:59:57 -0000 On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 04:04:53PM +0000, Phil Scarr via freebsd-ppc wrote: > Should either 11.3 or 12.1-RC2 be expected to work on an IBM POWER5+ > system? 11.3 yes, 12.x I am skeptical. I say this as someone who has run the similar 9133s for several years. (OTOH now that I have a Talos Blackbird they have been powered down for > 6 months.) The problem with 12.x is that there are two regressions: - one having to do with emX interrupts crashing the machine post-iflib-ization; - the other having to do with some kind of regression in reading values out of the firmware. I spent a little time trying to fix the former but got nowhere; I did not try to fix the latter. I simply stayed on 11.x. I have extensive notes around here ... somewhere ... if you are determined to try to get this machine to work. IMHO the Power5 machines are finicky beasts and it took a lot of experimenting to get mine to boot. (I never did get from-disk booting correct; FreeBSD does not have a driver for the on-board SCSI driver, and attempts to use 3rd-party SCSI or SATA cards were pretty miserable.) As for the CD/DVD, I don't think I ever got them to work. I don't remember exactly. Even at the end I was running everything over NFS. At one time, I was building packages for 11.x with one or the other of these machines; but, those haven't been updated for over a year now (and, my webserver is down). So, you would have to build your own packages (or contribute to funding my electricity bill :-) ) But at the time I don't recall too many 11-specific problems. The developer focus has shifted to P8/P9 machines, on 12.x but especially on -CURRENT. mcl