Subject: Re: Sonnet G3 upgrades and YDL on a 6500
From: Ed Jaeger (ed.jaeger@bgcorp.com)
Date: Fri Jul 14 2000 - 16:28:01 MDT
I have a PowerLogix G3 upgrade in my PowerBase 200, and the published
procedure with BootX doesn't set L2CR correctly. However, it's easy to
fix from the command line as root:
cat /proc/sys/kernel/l2cr
will print out the L2CR value in hex, along with an English translation
of what it means. If you write down what the G3 cache profiler tells
you in MacOS and OR it with 0x02000000, then stick it back in, your
cache will be enabled. Under MacOS I get 0xA9000016, so I do
echo '0xa9200016' > /proc/sys/kernel/l2cr
and the cache is enabled and working. This can also be put into the
startup scripts.
For those who are curious the L2CR encodes cache size, type, ratio, etc.
The '0x02000000' clears the cache before it is activated to prevent
strange things from happening
"L.B. Noire" wrote:
>
> > From: Mainh2o <h2o@hawaii.rr.com>
> > But you actually got the g3/l2 to work? It just would not boot the IDE
> > drive? Please let me know what you did to make that happen. Thanks
>
> I just bought a Sonnet Crescendo G3/L2 400/1MB for my PowerMac 6400/200
> and now have it working with YDL 1.2. The 6400 is virtually identical to the
> 6500 but has a 40MHz bus instead of a 50MHz bus so my experience might be of
> some use to you. It might not be the most elegant solution but it works and
> gives me the option of booting Linux on startup.
>
> The problem with the G3/L2 upgrades on Alchemy motherboards is that the
> L2CR information isn't getting passed properly to BootX. This can be resolved
> by using the G3/G4 Cache Profiler 1.3 from PowerLogix. It can be downloaded
> from <http://www.powerlogix.com/support/software.html>. This extension will
> pass the necessary information onto BootX and allow you to boot Linux with the
> G3/L2 card enabled.
>
> The tricky part is that you have to have the extensions load in the
> correct order: (1) the G3 enabler, (2) the G3/G4 Profiler INIT, and then (3)
> the BootX extension. I accomplished this by first changing the Sonnet
> Processor Upgrade extension's filetype from "INIT" to "scri". Then I added
> two nonstandard characters to the beginning of the name. (I don't know which
> character it is since I just copied it from the beginning of the Conflict
> Catcher extension.) I did this so the G3 enabler would boot before Conflict
> Catcher and be the first thing the computer loaded. So the resulting filename
> was "**Sonnet Processor Upgrade" where the "*"s are the mystery character.
> :-) I'm using v1.4.4 of the Crescendo software.
>
> Then I installed the G3/G4 Profiler INIT from the PowerLogix software
> package. It will boot second because of its filetype and name. Then in the
> G3/G4 Cache Profiler application under the "Other" tab I checked the box
> marked "Configure BootX L2CR on Restart".
>
> Finally I installed the BootX extension from BootX 1.2.2 package and left
> it as it was originally named.
>
> The result of all this is that the G3 card gets enabled first by the
> "Sonnet Processor Upgrade" extension, then the G3/G4 Profiler INIT loads and
> will pass the L2CR info to BootX if necessary, and then the BootX extension
> comes up and will ask if you want to boot into Mac OS or Linux. Choose Mac OS
> and the rest of the extensions will march across your screen. Choose Linux
> and - well, you know the rest.
>
> I'm booting from the kernel on a Mac OS partition on a SCSI drive but the
> Linux partition resides on an IDE drive. I haven't played with other
> configurations.
>
> I'm using 2.2.15-2.9.0 kernel that comes with YDL 1.2 by default. I have
> also tested this with the 2.2.12 kernel found at
> <ftp://ftp.yellowdoglinux.com/pub/yellowdog/kernel/2.2.12/>.
>
> The nice thing is that now I can use Mac-On-Linux right out of the box
> without having to patch my kernel as 603-based machines require. My BogoMIPs
> have gone from approximately 160 with the 603ev to 799 with the G3 card. I
> can actually use RealPlayer without it dropping frames like crazy.
>
> I hope this helps someone out there. If you have any questions feel free
> to e-mail me.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -lbn
-- Ed Jaeger, CFO, Bohlender Graebener Corporation ed.jaeger@bgcorp.com http://www.bgcorp.com --- I was going to buy a copy of "The Power of Positive Thinking", and then I thought: What the hell good would that do?---Ronnie Shakes
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