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Linux On A RISC Box?

Posted by Cliff on from the is-this-another-x-file? dept.

Noctrnl asks: "I've recently begun a search for a Linux distro to run on my old IBM RS/600 model 250 machines. A lot of PPC projects support the CPU architecture, but I have yet to find one that supports MCA on them. At every turn I can find a distro that supports the PowerPC chip on a PCI-based system, but have been unable to find a distribution that will run on my machines. Are there any projects underway that will allow me to boot a real operating system besides AIX on these babies? Just in case you were wondering, *BSD doesn't support them either."

2 of 8 comments (clear)

  1. Re:MCA is the problem by Tower · · Score: 2

    There has been some bits of MCA support for x86 Linux - I know of a few that have gotten linux running on an old PS/2.

    I come up with the following on a quick search...

    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/include/linux/mca.h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/include/asm-i386/mca_dma.h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/include/config/mca.h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/net/core/dev_mcast.c
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/net/ipv6/mcast.c
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/net/smc-mca.c
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/net/smc-mca.h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/net/sk_mca.c
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/net/sk_mca.h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/scsi/ibmmca.c
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/scsi/ibmmca.h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/scsi/mca_53c9x.c
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/scsi/mca_53c9x.h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/scsi/README.ibmmca
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/drivers/isdn/avmb1/avmcard .h
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/arch/i386/kernel/mca.c
    /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/Documentation/mca.txt
    /usr/i386-glibc20-linux/include/linux/mca.h

    This one is pretty lengthy:
    >>> /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/Documentation/mca.txt
    and also:
    MCA Linux Home Page: http://glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu/mca/

    This may be mostly x86 stuff, but hopefully you can find some info to help you along.

    The MCA bus was a great thing at the time, but unfortunately is was kept closed and heavily taxed... better than standard ISA though, no doubt about that.

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  2. IBM PPC+MCA by technos · · Score: 2

    Nope. Not that bus arch. It wouldn't be terribly difficult, but there aren't too many of the early MCA models out there. Demand for such a 'port' would be exceedingly low. On the upside, MCA on Intel and the RISC arch themselves are supported, so I suppose all it would really take is one moderatly good kernel hacker, two lackeys and a working example.

    I wonder how much the company would charge me for a 2xx series? Probably nothing.. Perhaps I've got a project..

    --
    .sig: Now legally binding!