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m00dawg
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Joined: 27 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 1:22 am Post subject: Finding a MIPS box? |
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Just curious, though sort of off topic, if there is a place one can find a MIPS box somewhere to play with? My comptuer architecture class is using MIPS but we have to use an emmulator and while I'm sure an emmulator would be more than enough for the class, I am curious to see what I can do with a real MIPS box.
Is there an add-on PCI card (doubtful) or something? Didn't the old Corel Netwinder's use MIPS? (those things were cool, too bad they went away :/). It would be great to have a solution I could put Gentoo on  But that would probably break the bank just to piddle around with. Of course I don't know I would otherwise use the CPU without an OS, ehahe.
In any case, since MIPS is embedded I have found it hard to find a system I can work on normally and was curious kinds of options are out there for MIPS and Gentoo Linux on MIPS alike.
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stonent
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:25 am Post subject: |
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Netwinders use ARM processors, old Cobalt systems used Mips as well as all SGI systems. Maybe just pick up a cheap SGI O2 workstation or Indy.
http://www.nekochan.net 's forums are a good resource for SGI stuff and MIPS as well.
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mattmatteh
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| Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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i think there are many versions of the mips ?
but if yo have a sony playstation 2 you cn get linux for it. it somes with 2.4 kernel. when i did installed it, i was still a newbie. it was easy, you can use a sinc on green monitor or tv. hard to see though because of crappy resolution, s video helps alot. or you can do ssh into it and have no monitor or tv. you can compile your mips there.
http://playstation2-linux.com/
http://playstation2-linux.com/forum/?group_id=1 |
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stonent
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| Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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Sadly, Sony has permanently ceased production of PS2 linux kits in the US.
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mattmatteh
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| Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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i dont use the ps2 linux as much as i would like too.
when did that happen?
still availiable in other countries?
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stonent
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 9:14 am Post subject: |
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Oh forgot mips64emul is a mips emulator in portage it emulates a few sgi machines as well as older mips hardware and can boot linux, netbsd, Ultrix, Sprite and OSF/1 unixes.
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Kumba
Developer
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Location: Sigma 957
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| Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 1:23 am Post subject: Re: Finding a MIPS box? |
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| m00dawg wrote: | Just curious, though sort of off topic, if there is a place one can find a MIPS box somewhere to play with? My comptuer architecture class is using MIPS but we have to use an emmulator and while I'm sure an emmulator would be more than enough for the class, I am curious to see what I can do with a real MIPS box.
Is there an add-on PCI card (doubtful) or something? Didn't the old Corel Netwinder's use MIPS? (those things were cool, too bad they went away :/). It would be great to have a solution I could put Gentoo on :) But that would probably break the bank just to piddle around with. Of course I don't know I would otherwise use the CPU without an OS, ehahe.
In any case, since MIPS is embedded I have found it hard to find a system I can work on normally and was curious kinds of options are out there for MIPS and Gentoo Linux on MIPS alike. |
Your best bet it to browse eBay for SGI IP22 Indy/Indigo2 (NOT R10000 Indigo2, those are different), or snag an R5000 O2 (again, not R10000/R12000 O2). Those are the machines that have a good degree of support in Gentoo. You can also look for a RaQ2 or Qube2 (RaQ1 works as well, Qube1 has issues).
As for mips64emul, it's a really awesome package, but it can only boot kernels (to some degree), but the ability to run an emulated userland in it is very experimental, and I don't think works yet for linux kernels.
PS2 Linux Kit does not come with a 2.4 kernel, it comes with a jurassic 2.2.1 kernel. Sony also made another device called the Broadband Navigator (BBN), and apparently released 2.4 sources for this device. These 2.4.17 sources are the 2.4 kernels routinely used on PS2 Linux hardware, and probably the 2.4 kernels referred to. Technically, they're not supposed to be used for the PS2, but this hasn't really stopped people from trying them anyways.
--Kumba
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stonent
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| Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:51 am Post subject: Re: Finding a MIPS box? |
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| Kumba wrote: | | As for mips64emul, it's a really awesome package, but it can only boot kernels (to some degree), but the ability to run an emulated userland in it is very experimental, and I don't think works yet for linux kernels. |
I've booted it in DECstation 5000/200 mode and was going through the debian installer.
| Code: | | ./mips64emul-20040905/mips64emul -D2 -M128 -o 'console=ttyS03' boot.img |
Boot.img is the debian image he linked to on the emulator site. You have to use console=ttyS03 to emulate a serial terminal because the DECstation keyboard isn't supported by the kernel. It was slow but still really cool.
I booted an IP24 SGI Indy with a RM5200 cpu (which is not possible in real life) into Netbsd which was interesting.
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kalisphoenix
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Joined: 28 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:05 am Post subject: |
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Your best bet is eBay. There's always stuff on. I just got rid of my Indy and Octane on eBay so that I could afford an iBook :'(
Just don't get in the position of buying a machine and then wanting to buy upgrades, as the components will cost more separately than a pumped-up machine. |
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CrazyApe
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Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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Location: Australia
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Gentoo on Alternative Architectures
