Re: Microblaze uClinux 2.6.11

John Williams wrote:
> Hi David,
>
> Thanks for your reply.  The Pico boards are very cute - it's a shame
> to hang DB9 or RJ45 connectors off them :)
>
> In terms of mb-linux 2.6, thanks for the offer.  The path forward
> isn't entirely clear - there are several aspects to consider
>
> 1. Completeness - the current patch set is missing some fundamentals
> such as cache support, and a few other bits and pieces.  These need to
> be added.
>
> 2. Auto-configuration - the methodology used is like MontaVista's
> approach on the PPC, cascading #ifdef structures and XPAR_ definitions
> for different boards.  At the very least we need to go through and
> replace all the XPAR_ guff with CONFIG_XILINX auto-config as with the
> 2.4 port.
    The Xilinx/MV stuff seems to have a snowballs chance of getting into
distribution kernels. The route in is through the linuxembedded-ppc
group and the consensus from critical developers was the Xilinx EDK
multiple OS approach is sufficiently divergent from Linux coding
standards that it isn't getting in.

    I currently have my own BSP code based on Grant Likelies ML403 port.
I have my own drivers for UartLite and some other Pico hardware. I am
using the Xilinx TEMAC driver but I have my own that complies with Linux
standards that is 99.5% complete. I wrote it as a test bed for writing
the same driver for GreenHills. In fact the driver is already inuse and
working in GreenHills (I created a set of macros and routines to map a
subset of Linux nextwork support code to GreenHills, so that I am using
nearly the same code)

>
> 3. Kernel version - 2.6.13 is pretty old.  I'm excited about what more
> recent 2.6 kernels offer, regarding the platform driver stuff in
> particular and what it might mean for auto-config.  There's some very
> interesting things happening in PPC with the unified architecture,
> device trees and all of that, which I would love to see brought over
> to microblaze.
    My PPC code is still pre-device trees. Pointers to a good exposition
on them would be appreciated. I would love to migrate from the ppc tree
to the powerpc tree, but can't until I support device trees. I am
currently running 2.6.20 I have had little trouble moving up through new
Kernels. I think I started with 2.6.9

>
> 4. Driver support - apparently there's another code drop in a month or
> two, but it's not clear which devices these will support.  Obviously
> for the Xilinx devices we can pick up a lot of what has already been
> done in 2.6 for the Xilinx PPC stuff.
>
> I lurk on the ppc-embedded list and am rather underwhelmed by what I
> see - lots of confused Xilinx/PPC users, and a large collection of
> patches/ drivers floating around with no hope of mainline kernel
> integration.
>
> Ultimately we want to unify the MicroBlaze and PPC kernel sources, or
> at least have them build out of the same kernel tree, with shared
> driver code and so on.  Unfortunately it looks like we'll have to go
> it alone on that, what I've seen so far indicates that it isn't a
> priority for anyone else.
>
> If Pico are going dual architecture then this would no doubt make a
> lot of sense for you.
    I use Grant Likely's ML403 as a reference. I practically live on
linuxembedded-ppc. Peter K's UartLite code has been accepted into the
mainstream kernel. Grant's ML403 port has been there for a long time.

    Part of the state of confusion is because the Xilinx/MV stuff is not
going to get accepted and a full compliment of acceptable replacements
does not appear to be forthcoming.
    I do not use Peter's UartLite code - I developed my own long before
he did his, but he did the work needed to get his accepted.
Unfortunately his does nto work on my hardware. I put several days into
fixing that and failed and I will not have alot of free days to try
again for a long time. In the meantime my own driver works, while it has
some problems his does not it also has numerous features his does not.
The ML 403 code provides Xilinx PIC support (I have no idea yet what is
used in the MB I guess it should be the same) I have a Pico specific MTD
mapping driver as well as a Pico Specific console driver for hosted
operations and debugging. I currently use the Xilinx/MV TEMAC but I am
getting a great deal of preasure from Pico to finish my own. No one at
Pico likes the Xilinx/MV driver.

    Regardless a fairly complete set of peices does actually exist even
if in a somewhat muddled form.

    My hope is that the uClinux MB code provides the basic MicroBlaze
CPU support and the rest of the existing Pico BSP's migrates to the
MicroBlaze with minimal massaging.
    I really badly want to support a single source tree. That is why I
have been waiting for 2.6 to start. trying to support 2.4 on the MB with
2.6 on the PPC's sounds like my idea of hell.

>
> Cheers,
>
> John
>
>
>
> David H. Lynch Jr wrote:
>
>> John Williams wrote:
>>
>>> LynuxWorks/Xilinx have dropped a preliminary release of patches against
>>> 2.6.13 at
>>>
>>> sourceforge.net/microblaze
>>>
>>> It's not complete, apparently there's more coming in March/April
>>> timeframe.
>>>
>>> We (PetaLogix) are looking at the patches and evaluating our
>>> approach to
>>> completing it, revving forward to a recent kernel, and getting it
>>> auto-configured etc.
>
>>     I will be starting with this shortly myself. I work for Pico
>> Computing http://www.picocomputing.com
>>     They have a V5 board due out in March that will not have a PPC in it
>> that I am expected to put Linux onto.
>>     I did the Linux port for the previous Pico boards and aside from the
>> missing PPC the new board will be very similar with very similar
>> firmware.
>>
>>     I just DL'd the files and hope to look at them this weekend.
>>
>>     I would be happy to collaborate to whatever extent you may wish.
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> ___________________________
>>> microblaze-uclinux mailing list
>>> microblaze-uclinux@...
>>> Project Home Page : http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~jwilliams/mblaze-uclinux
>>> Mailing List Archive :
>>> http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~listarch/microblaze-uclinux/
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>
>>
>>
>
> ___________________________
> microblaze-uclinux mailing list
> microblaze-uclinux@...
> Project Home Page : http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~jwilliams/mblaze-uclinux
> Mailing List Archive :
> http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~listarch/microblaze-uclinux/
>
>

--

-- 
Dave Lynch 					  	    DLA Systems
Software Development:  				         Embedded Linux
717.627.3770 	       dhlii@... 	  http://www.dlasys.net
fax: 1.253.369.9244 			           Cell: 1.717.587.7774
Over 25 years' experience in platforms, languages, and technologies too numerous to list.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of
courage to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein