NetBSD for Amiga - recent improvements

strim

New member
AmiBayer
Joined
May 13, 2010
Posts
323
Country
Poland
Region
Mazowieckie
Hello AmiBayers.

I just wanted to let you know about recent improvements in NetBSD project.
- Driver for a BlizzardPPC 603e+ SCSI controller is finished, and will be included in upcoming 6.0 release.
- Port for classic Amigas with Phase5 PPC cards is working (natively) and fully utilizing PowerPC processing power. There are still bugs related to DMA, but the system is usable.
- Fixes related to A600 are progressing now (thanks to ACA630, which makes NetBSD on A600 possible). NetBSD already works on A600, but now this model is misdetected as A1200.
- More drivers (FastATA 4000, SUBWAY) are in the works, and hopefully will be finished soon.

For those who never heard of NetBSD: it is a modern, extremely portable UNIX-like operating system. It supports Amiga since 1993.

In case you're interested in trying NetBSD, requirements are: any classic Amiga, CPU with MMU, 32MB RAM, about 500MB of free (unpartitioned) space on HDD.

Please check out NetBSD web site! http://netbsd.org/
 
Hi @strim,

Really nice work you've done here!
What is also very important for BPPC 603e+ users that SCSI IS USABLE when OS is running on PPC CPU only.
It means that there is a big chance to get SCSI working under AOS4.X. :cool:

Question is why Hyperion did not implemented SCSI support on BPPC 603e+ in AOS4.0....
 
Question is why Hyperion did not implemented SCSI support on BPPC 603e+ in AOS4.0....

Good question! Err, lack of funds maybe? :LOL::LOL::LOL:
No, seriously though, it's a very good example of what can be done if there's good will and persistence. Great news indeed!
 
Thanks for the update mate!
Will gief it a try @ some point. Installation seems TONZ easier than the Debian PPC that I successfully managed to complete.
 
@stachu100

Question is why Hyperion did not implemented SCSI support on BPPC 603e+ in AOS4.0....

This is very interesting too.... very VERY interesting - I was under the impression that the reason they couldn't get the SCSI enabled under OS4.x is because the SCSI NCR controller is tasked by the 040/60 - as opposed the the Cyberstorm PPC, where the SCSI NCR controller is on a bus.

from this I theorize that when in PPC mode, the SCSI chip on the Blizzard adapter is not physically available..

It would seem that I am wrong in that theory and or the folk at NetBSD have found a work around.

Fantastic! I cannot wait to tell FitzSteve about this one =)
 
...I was under the impression that the reason they couldn't get the SCSI enabled under OS4.x is because the SCSI NCR controller is tasked by the 040/60 - as opposed the the Cyberstorm PPC, where the SCSI NCR controller is on a bus.
I recall that I heard that in the past as well... but if this stands, why the hell MorphOS for PuP works just fine in BPPC's SCSI? lol
I don't have the technical knowledge but since Operating Systems like MorphOS for PuP, Debian PPC and now NetBSD that uses BPPC's SCSI work out of the box... how on earth that can be done from Hyperion's team as well?

Oh well...
 
@stachu100

Question is why Hyperion did not implemented SCSI support on BPPC 603e+ in AOS4.0....

SCSI NCR controller is tasked by the 040/60 - as opposed the the Cyberstorm PPC, where the SCSI NCR controller is on a bus.

from this I theorize that when in PPC mode, the SCSI chip on the Blizzard adapter is not physically available..

BlizzardPPC 53C710 is sitting on a bus, just like in 53C770 in CyberStorm PPC. Both are very similar in this matter (they even have the same base address). So, nothing prevents BPPC SCSI from working in PowerPC operating system. No idea where this rumors about tasking by m68k CPU came from (and what does it mean anyway?).

Although, I have to admit that this new driver is not tested extensively in PowerPC native mode, because of mentioned bugs in NetBSD/amigappc DMA handling code.
 
@Strim

As far as I understood the problem (which turns out I didn't)

The 68k CPU would control the SCSI NCR CHIP as it was not on a local shared bus with the PPC. In a 68k OS, this would be considered normal operation to task the SCSI chip and then SCSI controller would DMA its data to where-ever according to the task set before.

However under PPC only operation it would't have access to the SCSI controller (as I was lead to believe) as its not on a shared bus.

Now, as you say this is not the case then I don't see any particular reason as to why they couldn't use the SCSI chip - arguably if the OS worked on CSPPC's SCSI - and the SCSI is exactly the same implementation on the BPPC then it would work irrespective... however it doesn't.... so there is something there holding it up, and has been for some time.

I suspect there is a DMA issue with the PPC and NCR SCSI controller on the BPPC, quite likely a hardware limitation.

I would suggest that this would involve an extensive work-around for the above problem for the PPC only operation to use the BPPC SCSI feature - clearly there has to be some difference on a hardware access level of the BPPC adapter compared to the CSPPC - or OS4.x would support both out of the box.
 
If I may, I would like to ask what some will probably think a rather silly question;

Once I have NetBSD installed on my Amiga, what other apps/software can I run? is there a resource available of lots of things I can run on there?

The reason I ask is that with my shiny new ACA630/30 I would like to have duel booting into NetBSD.

Cheers

Graham
 
@grahamit

NetBSD uses pkgsrc framework to build, install and manage additional software. There's a nice frontend at: http://pkgsrc.se/ . On a low-end configuration like 68030 you may want to use prebuilt packages which are available on NetBSD ftp server: http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/amiga/5.0/All/ . Installation of software is very easy once you get the net working in NetBSD. You only need to set PKG_PATH environment variable to URL of prebuilt packages, and then use pkg_add tool, which will download and install desired package. The NetBSD Guide (available at NetBSD web site) explains this process very well.

Keep in mind that while some applications are available in pkgsrc, binary packages for them are not available for Amiga. For example: while firefox or gimp2 may build, they will certainly not even start on classic Amiga within reasonable time ;). Well, on a 68030 even simple GUI apps work slowly in NetBSD.

@Zetr0

Current DMA problems in NetBSD are occurring on CyberStorm PPC as well, and these probably are purely software problems. Until these are fixed I can't be sure if BPPC SCSI driven by PPC chip is working 100% reliable or not. One clarification: while bus attachment part of these two is very similar, the chip is different enought to need a new driver. We couldn't just use CSPPC SCSI driver for BPPC (in fact, I adapted Warp Engine SCSI driver for this purpose).
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info Strim!

This is fascinating stuff indeed!

I would love to see this up and running on a Statchu100 enabled 330Mhz PPC 256MB miggy!=)
 
@grahamit

NetBSD uses pkgsrc framework to build, install and manage additional software. There's a nice frontend at: http://pkgsrc.se/ . On a low-end configuration like 68030 you may want to use prebuilt packages which are available on NetBSD ftp server: http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/amiga/5.0/All/ . Installation of software is very easy once you get the net working in NetBSD. You only need to set PKG_PATH environment variable to URL of prebuilt packages, and then use pkg_add tool, which will download and install desired package. The NetBSD Guide (available at NetBSD web site) explains this process very well.

Keep in mind that while some applications are available in pkgsrc, binary packages for them are not available for Amiga. For example: while firefox or gimp2 may build, they will certainly not even start on classic Amiga within reasonable time ;). Well, on a 68030 even simple GUI apps work slowly in NetBSD.

Ahh ok thank you. A little exploring may well be in my future. Many thanks

Graham(y)
 
Looks like a totally incredible project, well done! I will certainly have a go at installing this on my A600 ACA630@25 when I get some spare time.

Some incredibly talented people there :)

Well done(y)
 
Minor update:
- A600 patches and BPPC SCSI support were committed to source repository, these will be available in next daily binary snapshot of development version (CVS HEAD). Grab it at http://releng.netbsd.org/, but keep in mind that it may have "serious bugs, regressions, broken features or other problems".
- Indivision ECS chunky modes will be supported in future :nod: .
 
Awesome mate! Keep us updated if you don't mind :)
It's a really interesting thread. \o/
 
is there any video showing it running on any Amiga System? I made a quick search on youtube founding nothing.
 
is there any video showing it running on any Amiga System? I made a quick search on youtube founding nothing.

Don't think so, though there's a lot of videos of NetBSD running on different architectures. Right now I can give you only one photo of NetBSD-current booting on Amiga 3000 PPC.

Maybe at the end of the week I'll have some more time, I'll think about recording "promo" video :cool:.

Btw. try "netbsd amiga" in google images search, you'll be able to find a few screenshots of older NetBSD version running on Amigas.
 

Attachments

  • 3038_zdjecie001a.jpg
    3038_zdjecie001a.jpg
    128.1 KB · Views: 0
NetBSD - Bluetooth support

NetBSD - Bluetooth support

Bluetooth is now supported on NetBSD/amiga :). Only PCMCIA adapters work now, it's slow and sometimes breaks. But works most of the time. More info on NetBSD/amiga mailing list .
 
@Strim

that is awesome, I have a theory that my A2000 will be having some NetBSD love soon!
 
Back
Top Bottom