Free Unixen On RS/600 37t? 14
solice asks: "Does anybody out there know if there is a BSD or Linux port that will run on an IBM RS/600 37t? It has an MCA bus and a POWER chip(not power pc)? I got this great unix box and no OS. Help!" Is this just an AIX-only box?
AIX itself is pretty cheap on eBay... (Score:2)
- A.P.
--
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Re:NetBSD might be workable (Score:1)
From the Documentation/mca.txt file:
MCA support is enabled using the CONFIG_MCA define. A machine with a MCA bus will have the kernel variable MCA_bus set, assuming the BIOS feature bits are set properly (see arch/i386/boot/setup.S for information on how this detection is done)
I.e., MCA support is there, but so far for x86. I guess that's one of the things that should be moved out of the arch/ directory.
aix and linux info (Score:1)
A linux port is beginning at http://www.sjdjweis.com/linux/rs6k/ [sjdjweis.com], but there's very little there so far.
Re:aix and linux info (Score:1)
I also read in the aix newsgroup that they have changed their policy to allow unlimited use, so you can use smitty to increase the maxusers legally.
Re:AIX itself is pretty cheap on eBay... (Score:1)
Re:For the most part... (Score:1)
I think the biggest problem with making a working non-AIX flavor of *nix on these older RS/6000s is the lack of documentation on the firmware.
For the most part... (Score:2)
I scoured the net looking for something besides AIX to run on this beast, but to no avail. The problem with the POWER chips is that they are not chips as much as they are chipsets. There are about 4 or 5 chips that are on a "processor card" in this machine. REAL UGLY. Plus they don't implement either a sub- or super- set of the PowerPC instruction set, but something completely different that was kind of merged into what was to become the PowerPC.
Ichhh!
A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."
IBM and Open Source (Score:1)
Chris
Re:NetBSD might be workable (Score:1)
This has (or at least a preposed RT port) been in the NetBSD "tree" since at least 95. I know because I've had an RT sitting around doing nothing for about that time waiting for this to finish. I know I should get in there and do it myself but there's just never enough hours in the day.
Chris
Lazy? (Score:1)
NetBSD might be workable (Score:2)
IBM RS/6000 (MCA based)
The pre-PowerPC RS/6000 machines were based on the POWER and POWER2 architecture, with Microchannel (MCA) bus. There is i386 MCA bus code in NetBSD tree now, which would help with the MCA aspect.
However, this is in the "Suggested Ports" category. So if you've got some time on your hands and like to hack stuff, you've got a great project. Otherwise you'll have to run AIX until someone gets around to doing it.
First post?
Re:aix and linux info (Score:1)
Re:aix and linux info (Score:1)
Linux / MCA (Score:1)