Sun FFB EDID; Panasonic BL-C111; Cobalt RaQ 2; Music

Sun FFB EDID

The FFB EDID code is checked in. Martin Husemann tested with a 501-2633 Creator 3D Series 1 card in a Ultra 2 and uncovered a bug in my new logic in ffb_ras_init(). So, the code now only uses the new logic for high resolution. I could do with an Ultra 2 and some Series 1 or 2 cards to test with. There might still be problem with older cards and single-buffered (higher than 1280 x 1024) resolutions.

Panasonic BL-C111

Recent purchase: a Panasonic BL-C111 networked camera. This has remotely controlled pan and tilt and a fairly comprehenisive web interface. It also runs both IPv4 and IPv6. I have it pointing down the road at the moment and saving images to memory. Next is to upload an image per day to orthanc.

down-the-road picture

10 April 2011 11:40 UTC

It's a pity that it's not available in matt black though, as the silver colour reflects in the glass. However, a nice little camera, and best of all, it runs NetBSD!

Cobalt RaQ 2

I bought a new disk (80GB Seagate ST3802110A) recently, so that I could get my Cobalt RaQ 2 running. After two hours work, it now has NetBSD/cobalt 5.1 installed. Network boot was a bit fiddly to set up, but simple once it is working. It's connected to my Cyclades console server and my Cisco 3500 switch, so using the serial console and network booting seemed sensible.

I set up the boot server (Sun V120) with the netbsd-INSTALL.gz kernel renamed to netbsd.gz in the exported root directory (/export/blue/root) and unpacked the base.tgz archive to get a minimal system to work with. The RaQ 2 boots using DHCP, and the entry that I used was: 

host blue {
        hardware ethernet 00:10:e0:00:54:13;
        fixed-address blue.int.coris.org.uk;
        next-server anor.int.coris.org.uk;
        filename "/netbsd.gz";
        option root-path "/export/blue/root";
        server-name "anor.int.coris.org.uk";
}

In order to use the serial console:

Then, to install NetBSD:

Using the NetBSD bootloader means that larger kernels can be booted. Otherwise, the GENERIC kernel is too large for the firmware. I could have used sysinst to install, but partitioning, unpacking the sets, creating /dev, and installing the bootloader is simple to do manually. Remaining to be done is final set up and then package build/installation. Hardware-wise, it could do with a new case fan, and more memory.

dmesg is: 

Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
    2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
    The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

NetBSD 5.1 (GENERIC) #0: Sat Nov  6 14:46:10 UTC 2010
        builds@b8.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-RELEASE/cobalt/201011061943Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/cobalt/compile/GENERIC
Cobalt RaQ 2
total memory = 65536 KB
avail memory = 59480 KB
timecounter: Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
mainbus0 (root)
com0 at mainbus0 addr 0x1c800000 level 3: st16650a, working fifo
com0: console
cpu0 at mainbus0: QED RM5200 CPU (0x28a0) Rev. 10.0 with built-in FPU Rev. 10.0
cpu0: 32KB/32B 2-way set-associative L1 Instruction cache, 48 TLB entries
cpu0: 32KB/32B 2-way set-associative write-back L1 Data cache
mcclock0 at mainbus0 addr 0x10000070: mc146818 compatible time-of-day clock
panel0 at mainbus0 addr 0x1f000000
gt0 at mainbus0 addr 0x14000000
pci0 at gt0
pci0: i/o space, memory space enabled, rd/line, wr/inv ok
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0: Galileo GT-64111 System Controller, rev 1
tlp0 at pci0 dev 7 function 0: DECchip 21143 Ethernet, pass 4.1
tlp0: interrupting at level 1
tlp0: Ethernet address 00:10:e0:00:54:13
lxtphy0 at tlp0 phy 1: LXT970 10/100 media interface, rev. 3
lxtphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
pcib0 at pci0 dev 9 function 0
pcib0: VIA Technologies VT82C586 PCI-ISA Bridge, rev 39
viaide0 at pci0 dev 9 function 1
viaide0: VIA Technologies VT82C586 (Apollo VP) ATA33 controller
viaide0: bus-master DMA support present
viaide0: primary channel configured to compatibility mode
viaide0: primary channel interrupting at irq 14
atabus0 at viaide0 channel 0
viaide0: secondary channel configured to compatibility mode
viaide0: secondary channel interrupting at irq 15
atabus1 at viaide0 channel 1
VIA Technologies VT83C572 USB Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x02) at pci0 dev 9 function 2 not configured
timecounter: Timecounter "clockinterrupt" frequency 100 Hz quality 0
timecounter: Timecounter "mips3_cp0_counter" frequency 125000000 Hz quality 100
wd0 at atabus0 drive 0: <ST3802110A>
wd0: drive supports 16-sector PIO transfers, LBA48 addressing
wd0: 76319 MB, 155061 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 156301488 sectors
wd0: 32-bit data port
wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 5 (Ultra/100)
wd0(viaide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33) (using DMA)
Kernelized RAIDframe activated
boot device: wd0
root on wd0a dumps on wd0b
root file system type: ffs

Music

Recent music purchases:

A work colleague kindly put my Emmylou Harris - Thirteen LP onto CD. As a big Emmylou Harris fan, it's great to be able to listen to it (along with Gliding Bird and Evangeline). Even though some of the tracks are available on compilations, it's nice to have the album.

Monuments is quite a good album, although I think that I prefer Visions Of Plenty. Having said that, I've been playing Petrified House a lot recently. I'm not as keen on Catherine Britt. I preferred Dusty Smiles And Heartbreak Cures and Too Far Gone.

-^- More notes -^-