![[LWN Logo]](/images/lwn.banner.gif)
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 03:50:21 +0200
From: ralf@uni-koblenz.de
To: linux@engr.sgi.com, linux-mips@fnet.fr, linux-mips@vger.rutgers.edu
Subject: Re: MIPS HOWTO / FAQ
--OXfL5xGRrasGEqWY
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
On Wed, Sep 16, 1998 at 12:16:25AM +0200, ralf@uni-koblenz.de wrote:
> since nobody else does (hint, hint ...) I started to rework the MIPS FAQ.
> Attached the first very incomplete version. As of this version the
> FAQ is now written using the Linux SGML tools. I append a text version
> generated with sgml2txt. Comments, additional text etc. apreciated.
> I'm especially thinking of the DECstation people but not only.
>
> Special feature: the topic ``How to brew a cross compiler'' now has it's
> own uptodate and about 5 printed pages long section describing how to
> roll a crosscompiler based on the newest stuff. The topic has actually
> also been interesting for other people as many postings in the past
> have shown. Maybe the crosscompiler part is actually worth it's own,
> separate HOWTO document?
Sorry, forgot to add the attachment ...
Ralf
--OXfL5xGRrasGEqWY
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="mips-howto.txt"
Linux/MIPS HOWTO
Ralf Baechle, ralf@gnu.org
September 11, 1998
XXX General blurb for the first page.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. What is Linux/MIPS?
2. What hardware does Linux/MIPS support?
2.1 Hardware platforms
2.1.1 Silicon Graphics Indy
2.1.2 Silicon Graphics Challenge S
2.1.3 Silicon Graphics Indigo
2.1.4 Motorola 68k based machines like the Iris 3000
2.1.5 Other Silicon Graphics machines
2.1.6 SNI RM200C
2.1.7 SNI RM200
2.1.8 Algorithmics P4032
2.1.9 DECstation series
2.1.10 Mips Magnum 4000 / Olivetti M700-10
2.1.11 MIPS Magnum 4000SC
2.2 Processor types
2.2.1 R2000, R3000 family
2.2.2 R6000
2.2.3 R4000 and R5000 family
2.2.4 R8000
2.2.5 R10000
2.3 Drivers
3. Is there a Linux distribution?
3.1 RedHat
3.2 What about other distributions?
4. Where can I get Linux/MIPS from?
5. Installation of Linux/MIPS.
6. How do I setup a crosscompiler?
6.1 Diskspace requirements
6.2 Byte order
6.3 Configuration names
6.4 Installation of GNU Binutils.
6.5 Assert.h
6.6 First installation of egcs
6.7 float.h
6.8 Installing the kernel sources
6.9 Installing GNU libc
6.10 Building egcs again
6.11 Should I build the C++, Objective C or F77 compilers?
______________________________________________________________________
1. What is Linux/MIPS?
XXX Add some general blurb, maybe move into abstract.
2. What hardware does Linux/MIPS support?
2.1. Hardware platforms
Many machines are available with a number of different CPU options of
which not all are currently are supported. Please check section
``Processor Type'' to make shure your CPU type is supported.
2.1.1. Silicon Graphics Indy
The Indy is currently the only (mostly) supported Silicon Graphics
machine.
2.1.2. Silicon Graphics Challenge S
This machine is very similar to the Indy; it would therefore be a
worthwile target for a hacker. What's missing is modifying the
graphics card probing code such that it works in absence of a graphics
card as this is the case on a headless machine like the Challenge S.
2.1.3. Silicon Graphics Indigo
This machine is only being mentioned here because occasionally people
have confused it with Indys. The Indigo series is a different
architecture however and therefore yet unsupported.
2.1.4. Motorola 68k based machines like the Iris 3000
These are very old machines, probably more than ten years old by now.
As these machines are not based on MIPS processors this document is
the wrong place to search for information. However, in order to make
things easy, these machines are currently not supported.
2.1.5. Other Silicon Graphics machines
At this time no other Silicon Graphics machine is supported. This
also applies to the very old Motorola 68k based systems.
2.1.6. SNI RM200C
In contrast to the RM200 (see below) this machine has EISA and PCI
slots. The RM200 is supported with the exception of the availability
of the onboard NCR53c810A SCSI controller.
2.1.7.
SNI RM200
If your machine has both EISA and PCI slots, then this is a RM200C,
please see above. Due to the slight architectural differences of the
RM200 and the RM200C this machine isn't currently supported in the
official sources. Michael Engel engel@numerik.math.uni-siegen.de has
managed to get his RM200 working partially but the patches haven't yet
be included into the official Linux/MIPS sources.
2.1.8. Algorithmics P4032
(XXX Bash Ralf and Michael to finish this ... XXX)
2.1.9. DECstation series
XXX Could some DECy write something for this? XXX
2.1.10.
Mips Magnum 4000 / Olivetti M700-10
These two machines are both almost completely identical. Back during
the ACE initiative Olivetti licensed the Jazz design and marketed the
machine with Windows NT as OS. MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. itself
bought the Jazz design and marketed it as the MIPS Magnum 4000 series
of machines. Magnum 4000 systems were marketed with Windows NT and
RISC/os as operating systems.
Depending from the operating system which was installed on the machine
a different firmware was installed on the box. Linux/MIPS supports
only the little endian firmware on these two types of machines. Since
the M700-10 was only marketed as NT machine all M700-10 machines have
this firmware installed. The MIPS Magnum case is somewhat more
complex. If your machine has been configured big endian for RISC/os
then you need to reload the little endian firmware. This firmware was
originally included with the delivery of every Magnum on a floppy. If
you don't have the floppy anymore you can download it via anonymous
ftp from <ftp://ftp.fnet.fr>.
Note that the little endian firmware does not support headless
operation. So if your machine does not include the standard G364
graphics card, your machine cannot boot.
2.1.11. MIPS Magnum 4000SC
The Mips Magnum 4000SC is just the same as an Magnum 4000 (see above)
with the exception that it's using a R4000SC CPU which currently is
not supported by Linux.
2.2.
Processor types
2.2.1. R2000, R3000 family
The R2000 is the original MIPS processor. It's a 32 bit processor
which was clocked at 8MHz back in '85 when the first MIPS processors
came to the market. Later versions were clocked faster. The R3000 is
a redesign of the R2000 which is 100% compatible, it was just again
clocked faster. Because of the high compatibility this document
usually only mentions the R3000 even though the same facts in most
cases also apply for the R2000.
Same also applies for the R3000 which basically a R3000 plus a R3010
FPU and 64k cache running at upto 40Mhz and integrated into same chip.
Support for the R3000 processor is currently in the works by various
people. Harald Koerfgen harald.koerfgen@netcologne.de and Gleb O.
Raiko raiko@niisi.msk.ru have both indepentently worked on patches
which however haven't yet been integrated into the official Linux/MIPS
sources.
2.2.2. R6000
Sometimes people confuse the R6000, a MIPS processor, with RS6000, a
series of workstations made by IBM. So if you're reading this in hope
to find out more about Linux on IBM machines you're reading the wrong
document.
The R6000 is currently not supported. It is a 32 bit MIPS ISA 2
processor and a pretty interesting and wiered piece of silicon. It
was developed and produced by a company named BIT Technology. Later
NEC took over the semiconductor production. It was built in ECL
technology, the same technology that was and still is being used to
build extremly fast chips like those used in some Cray computers. The
processor had it's TLB implemented as part of the last couple of lines
of the external primary cache, a technology called TLB slice. That
means it's MMU is substancially different from those of the R3000 or
R4000 series which also is one of the reasons why the processor isn't
supported.
2.2.3. R4000 and R5000 family
Linux supports many of the members of the R4000 family, currently
these are R4000PC, R4400PC, R4300, R4600, R4700, R5000, R5230, R5260.
Many others are probably working as well.
Not supported are R4000SC, R4000MC, R4400SC and R4400MC CPUs as well
as R5000 systems with a CPU controlled second level cache. This means
where the cache is controlled by the R5000 itself in contrast to some
external external cache controller. The difference is important
because unlike to other systems, especially PCs, on MIPS the cache is
archtecturally visible and needs to be controlled by software. Ulf
Carlsson grim@zigzegv.ml.org and Ralf Baechle ralf@gnu.org are
currently working on support for R4000SC and R4400SC.
2.2.4. R8000
The R8000 is currently unsupported partly because the machines used by
the Linux/MIPS developers don't have such a machine, partly because
this processor is relativly rare and has only been used in a few SGI
machines.
The R8000 is a pretty interesting piece of silicon. Unlike the other
members of the MIPS family it is a set of seven chips. It's cache and
TLB architecture is pretty different from the other members of the
MIPS family. It was born as a hack in order to get the floating point
crown back to Silicon Graphics in time before the R10000 is finished.
2.2.5. R10000
The R10000 is currently unsupported because the machines used by the
Linux/MIPS developers don't have such a machine.
2.3. Drivers
3. Is there a Linux distribution?
3.1. RedHat
XXX Add some gossip about HardHat aka Rough Cuts XXX.
3.2. What about other distributions?
4. Where can I get Linux/MIPS from?
5. Installation of Linux/MIPS.
6. How do I setup a crosscompiler?
First of all go and download the following source packages: XXX
Incomplete, maybe tell'em to get the files from the srpm packages? XXX
o binutils-2.8.1.tar.gz
o egcs-1.0.2.tar.gz
o glibc-2.0.6.tar.gz
o glibc-crypt-2.0.6.tar.gz
o glibc-localedata-2.0.6.tar.gz
o glibc-linuxthreads-2.0.6.tar.gz
These are the currently recommended versions. Older versions may
or may not be working. If you're trying to use older versions
please don't send bug reports, we don't care. When installing
please install things in the order binutils, egcs, then glibc.
Unless you already have older versions already installed changing
the order will fail.
6.1. Diskspace requirements
For the installation you'll have to choose a directory for
installation. I'll refer to that directory below with <prefix>. To
avoid a certain problem best just the same value for <prefix> as your
native gcc. For example if your gcc is installed in /usr/bin/gcc then
choose /usr for <prefix>. You must use the same <prefix> value for
all the packages that you're going to install.
During compilation you'll need about 31mb diskspace for binutils. For
installation you'll need 7mb diskspace for binutils on <prefix>'s
partition. Building egcs requires 71mb and installation 14mb. GNU
libc requires 149mb diskspace during installation and 33mb for
installation. Note these number are just a guideline and may differ
significantly for different processor and operating system
architectures.
6.2. Byte order
On of the special features of the MIPS architecture is that all
processors except the R8000 can be configured to run either in big or
in little endian mode. Byte order means the way the processor stores
multibyte numbers in memory. Big endian machines store the the byte
with the highest value digits at the lowest address while little
endian machines store it at the highest address. Think of it like
writing multi digit numbers from the left to the right or visa versa.
In order to setup your crosscompiler correctly you have to know the
byte order of the crosscompiler target. If you don't know already
know, check the section ``Hardware Platforms'' for your machine's
byteorder.
6.3. Configuration names
Many of the packages based on autoconf are supporting many different
architectures and operating systems. In order to differenciate
between these many configurations names madeup like
<cpu>-<company>-<os> or even <cpu>-<company>-<kernel>-<os>. Expressed
that way the configuration names of Linux/MIPS are mips-unknown-linux-
gnu for big endian targets or mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu for little
endian targets. Those names are a bit long and so it's allowed to
abreviate them to mips-linux or mipsel-linux. You must use the same
configuration name for all the packages that your crosscompilation
environment consists of. Also, while other names like mips-sni-linux
or mipsel-sni-linux are both legal configuration names, don't use them
but only mips-linux or mipsel-linux. The reason is that other
packages like the Linux kernel sources know about these configuration
names and you'd have to change them for crosscompilation. I'll refer
to the target configuration name below with <target>.
6.4. Installation of GNU Binutils.
This is the first and most simple part - at least as long as you're
trying to install on any halfway sane UNIX flavour. Just cd into a
directory with enough free space and do the following:
gzip -cd binutils-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf -
cd binutils-<version>
patch -p1 < ../binutils-<version>-mips.patch
./configure --prefix=<prefix> --target=<target>
make CFLAGS=-O2
make install
This usually works very easily. On certain machines using GCC 2.7.x
as compiler is known to dump core. This is a known bug in GCC and can
be fixed by upgrading to GCC 2.8.1 or egcs.
6.5. Assert.h
Some people have an old assert.h headerfile installed, probably a
leftover from an old crosscompiler installation. This file may cause
autoconf scripts to fail silently. It was never necessary and only
got installed due to a bug in older GCC versions. Check if
<prefix>/<target>/include/assert.h exists in your installation. If
so, just delete it.
6.6. First installation of egcs
Now the not so funny part begins. There is a so called bootstrap
problem. In our case that means the installation process of egcs
needs an already installed glibc. But we cannot yet compile glibc
because we don't have a working crosscompiler yet. Luckily you'll
only have to go through this once when you install a crosscompiler for
the first time. Later when you already have glibc installed things
will be much smoother. So now do:
gzip -cd egcs-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf -
cd egcs-<version>
for i in egcs-1.0.2-libio.patch egcs-1.0.2-hjl.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-rth1.patch egcs-1.0.2-rth2.patch egcs-1.0.2-rth3.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-rth4.patch egcs-1.0.2-hjl2.patch egcs-1.0.2-jim.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-haifa.patch egcs-1.0.1-objcbackend.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-mips.patch; do patch -p1 -d < ../$i; done
./configure --prefix=<prefix> --with-newlib --target=<target>
cd gcc
make LANGUAGES="c"
Note that we deliberately don't build gcov, protoize, unprotoize and
the libraries. Gcov doesn't make sense in a crosscompiler environe-
ment and protoize and unprotoize might even overwrite your native pro-
grams - this is a bug in the gcc makefiles. Finally we cannot yet
build the libraries because we don't have glibc installed yet. If
everything went successful install with:
make LANGUAGES="c" install
6.7. float.h
Another, bootstrap problem is that building GCC requires running
programs on the machine that GCC will generate code for. But since a
crosscompiler is running on a different type of machine this cannot
work. When buiding GCC this happens for the header file float.h.
Luckily there is a simple solution. Download the header file from one
of the Linux/MIPS ftp servers or rip it from one of the native
Linux/MIPS binary packages. Later when recompiling or upgrading egcs
usually the already installed float.h file will do because float.h
changes rarely. Install it with:
cp float.h <prefix>/<target/<version>/include/float.h
where <version> is the internal version number of the egcs version
you're using. For egcs 1.0.2 for example you would put egcs-2.90.27
for <version>. If not shure - ls is your friend.
6.8. Installing the kernel sources
XXX Write some simple shit for nobrainers. If you only want the
crosscompiler for building kernel you're done.
6.9. Installing GNU libc
Do:
gzip -cd glibc-2.0.6.tar.gz | tar xf -
cd glibc-2.0.6
gzip -cd glibc-crypt-2.0.6.tar.gz | tar xf -
gzip -cd glibc-localedata-2.0.6.tar.gz | tar xf -
gzip -cd glibc-linuxthreads-2.0.6.tar.gz | tar xf -
patch -p1 < ../glibc-2.0.6-mips.patch
mkdir build
cd build
CC=<target>-gcc BUILD_CC=gcc AR=<target>-ar RANLIB=<target>-ranlib \
../configure --prefix=/usr --host=<target> \
--enable-add-ons=crypt,linuxthreads,localedata --enable-profile
make
You now have a compiled GNU libc which still needs to be installed.
Do not just type make install. That would overwrite your host sys-
tem's files with Linux/MIPS specific files with desasterous effects.
Instead install GNU libc into some arbitrary other directory <somedir>
from which we'll move the part's we need for crosscompilation into the
actual target directory:
make install_root=<somedir> install
Now cd into <somedir> and install finally install GNU libc manually:
cd usr/include
find . -print | cpio -pumd <prefix>/<target>/include
cd ../../lib
find . -print | cpio -pumd <prefix>/<target>/lib
cd ../usr/lib
find lib -print | cpio -pumd <prefix>/<target>/lib
GNU libc also contains extensive online documentation. Your systems
might already have a version of this documentation installed. So if
you don't want to install the info pages which will save you a less
than a megabyte or already have them installed skip the next step:
step:
cd ../info
gzip -9 *.info*
find . -name \*.info\* -print | cpio -pumd <prefix>/info
If you're not bootstrapping you're installation is now finished.
6.10. Building egcs again
The first attempt of building egcs was stopped by a not yet existent
GNU libc. Since we now have libc installed we can rebuild egcs but
this time as complete as a crosscompiler installation can be:
gzip -cd egcs-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf -
cd egcs-<version>
for i in egcs-1.0.2-libio.patch egcs-1.0.2-hjl.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-rth1.patch egcs-1.0.2-rth2.patch egcs-1.0.2-rth3.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-rth4.patch egcs-1.0.2-hjl2.patch egcs-1.0.2-jim.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-haifa.patch egcs-1.0.1-objcbackend.patch \
egcs-1.0.2-mips.patch; do patch -p1 < ../$i; done
./configure --prefix=<prefix> --target=<target>
make LANGUAGES="c c++ objective-c f77"
As you can see the procedure is the same as the first time with the
exception that we dropped the --with-newlib option. This option was
necessary to avoid the libgcc build breaking due to the not yet
installed libc. Now install with:
make LANGUAGES="c c++ objective-c f77" install
You're almost finished. All you'll now still have to do is to rein-
stall float.h which has been overwritten by the last make install com-
mand. You'll have to do that every time you reinstall egcs as a
crosscompiler. If you think you don't need the Objective C or F77
compilers you can omit them from above commands. Each will save you
about 3mb. However don't build gcov, protoize and unprotoize.
6.11. Should I build the C++, Objective C or F77 compilers?
The answer to this question largely depends on your use of your
crosscompiler environment. If you only intend to rebuild the Linux
kernel then you have no need for the full blown setup and can safely
omit the Objective C and F77 compilers. You however must build the
C++ compiler because building the libraries included with the egcs
distribution are written in C++.
--OXfL5xGRrasGEqWY--