RE: Kernel 2.6

I don't think the list is dead -- just in limbo. I have been subscribed for
several months, but I can go months without receiving any emails from it.
In fact, this is my first post.

I am not a developer. Just a lowly network admin. It took me months to
figure out how to run a system restore on the TC1000 without buying the $350
multibay (two USB CD-ROM drives). I still have not figured out how to get
linux on the box.

I saw in the BIOS that there is a way to boot from CompactFlash, but I have
not been able to boot from anything other than the HDD.

I am looking forward to the HOWTO. In the meantime, anyone know how I would
go about beginning an install on this thing? It is my last Micro$oft
holdout.

-----Original Message-----
From: tc1000-linux-bounces@handhelds.org
[mailto:tc1000-linux-bounces@handhelds.org] On Behalf Of David Kuehling
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 4:46 PM
To: tomek@xiaoka.com
Cc: tc1000-linux@handhelds.org
Subject: Re: [Tc1000-linux] Kernel 2.6

>>>>> "Xiaoka" == Xiaoka <tomek@xiaoka.com> writes:

> This is my first post, so Hello to the whole list. :-)

Hi. Maybe the list is dead? You're the first person writing, since I
subscribed 2 weeks or so ago.

> After hours of work I can finally report, that I had set up Gentoo
> GNU/Linux on my TC1000 and _everything_ is working. :-D And by
> everything I do mean everything. :-)

Only "hours"? ;) My Debian Sarge installation and configuration took
days and is still somewhat incomplete (screen rotation menu from the
login screen etc missing).

> And the fresh meat at the end: You can find fpi2002 module ported to
> kernel 2.5/2.6 here:
> http://staff.xiaoka.com/smoku/stuff/TC1000/fpi2002-0.2.tar.gz Tha main
> issue with it I had is that it has to be loaded before any additional
> serial module. If I loaded it after serial_cs it didn't work. (This
> is the first module I load now ;-)

fpi2002 had bugs. I already wrote about that here. Tried to contact
the authors, but without success. VIA was so kind to supply me with the
chip's data sheet, so I was able to fix that issue. Here's my
description of the problem, as I tried to mail it to the authors:

  On my TC1000 insmod fpi2002.o completely freezed the system. After
  some trial-and-error modifications to the source I created a version
  which didn't freeze, while still enabling the serial port. After VIA
  supplied me with the specs for the 82c686 I think I know what's wrong:

      pci_read_config_byte(pcidev,0x52,&confval);
      local0 = (confval & 0xf0) | 0x04;
      pci_write_config_byte (pcidev, 0x52,local0);
      outb(cr2,confindex);
      outb(local0,confdata);
      local0 = local0 | 0x04;

  The value of `local0' which is generated by reading from the PCI
  configuration space of the 82c686 is later reused for writing to the
  Super-I/O chip's configuration `outb (local0, confdata)'. This must
  be a bug, as there is no real connection between the
  `pci_write_config_byte' which sets IRQ-routing and the `outb' which
  sets the super-I/O function select (which also controls the floppy
  controller and parallel port). Only by coincidence the IRQ-Value of
  of 0x04 is the same bit-mask that's used to enable the serial port 1.

  Probably this didn't crash on most machines, as they had a different
  default-configuration that was read with `pci_read_config_byte'.
  Maybe my bios version differs, or it's due to the newer Linux kernel
  (2.4.26 with recent ACPI patches) or Linux' VIA drivers, who knows....
  I noticed, that on my machine, the interrupts seemed to be readily
  configured. Uncommenting that pci_write to 0x52, the driver still
  worked.

Maybe someone finds that helpful? My fixed (rewritten) version is
attached.

BTW, for your howto: I might be able to contribute a diskless
installation guide. Managed to install everything via ethernet using
only PXE and remote boot from my Woody box (didn't want to spend money
on USB drives, and couldn't find my USB stick).

regards,

David

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