Re: V-Class server.

On Mon, Dec 18, 2006 at 09:48:14AM -0600, Chuck Hall wrote:
> After reading the the parisc-linux website I noticed that the V-class 
> machines could be supported if someone had access to one.  I have access 
> to one, with just one problem no teststation software to get it booted.

Hi Chuck,

I don't know what needs to be done to get a V-class to boot, but I know
there are several people on the list with prior experience of V-class,
and I hope they'll be able to help you.

> If I had the software I would be willing to have the machine accessable 
> for development work for the purpose of getting Linux on it and anything 
> else you could think of.  I might even be able to get a few cs grad 
> students to work on it, they don't seem to be doing anything useful 
> right now.

That would be marvellous.

> I do have a question about the V-class and Linux.  What still needs to 
> be done?  The parisc-linux website states the main problem as being the 
> PCI bus adapter.  Knowing what else needs to be done would help in 
> judging the difficulty in completing the project.

I believe that is the only thing.  We can verify that (without doing the
work ;-) by booting a ramdisk-based userspace on it.  The first steps of
the Debian installer should work well for this purpose.  If it works,
then `all' we need is the PCI bus adapter.  I suspect there's also an
IOMMU (or similar) driver that needs to be written too.