What is "Linux/MIPS"?
Linux/MIPS is a port of the
LINUX Operating System to computers
equipped with
MIPS processors. Linux/MIPS is
based on the latest sources distributed by Linus Torvalds, the author
of the original Linux/i386
kernel.
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On what hardware will it run?
Linux/MIPS will run on most ARC (ARC = Advanced Risc Computing)
compliant systems equipped with
Mips R4x00
processors. Future plans also include systems with
other
kinds of MIPS processors.
Ports to the following systems are in progress:
In the meantime many other platforms turned out to be good candidates for Linux/MIPS. Although we don't have code for Mips platforms other than the systems listed above, chances are quite good that some of the following systems will be supported in future:
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Last update: 950922 (andy@waldorf-gmbh.de)
Is Linux/MIPS little or big endian?
At least all of the ports to ARC systems will be little endian.
However, it might be necessary to run older Mips systems, such
as the Sony News and Mips RC3xxx, in big endian mode. If and
how we can provide user code compatibility thru the whole Mips
line hasn't been decided yet. We try to avoid endian-dependianess
whereever possible.
Is Linux/MIPS a 64 bit OS?
No, and for a simple reason: Linux/MIPS is based on the
latest Linux/i386 sources.
As long Linux/i386 is a 32bit system Linux/MIPS will it be, too.
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Will it run on Multiprocessor machines?
No, and for a simple reason: Linux/MIPS is based on the
latest Linux/i386 sources.
As long Linux/i386 is a single processor system Linux/MIPS will it be, too.
What is the state of the project?
We have a bootstrap loader which should run on most ARC systems.
A network bootloader for DECstations using the MOP protocol is
under work.
The current kernels based on Linux 1.2.x include drivers for console,
keyboard and ramdisks. Network support is under work, and drivers for
floppy and SCSI will be written soon. On the Acer, Olivetti and Mips
boxes, the kernel boots from a floppy, mounts a ramdisk as root filesystem
and executes /bin/sh (currently ash). Launching other programs from
the shell also works already, and a basic set of Unix tools will soon
be available. Together with the upcoming network support and floppy
and SCSI drivers, Linux/MIPS will soon be selfhosting!
Any support/development tools available?
Yes. We have cross compilers, assemblers and linkers ready to use for
Linux/i386, SunOs 4.1.3 and Solaris2.3 (Is anybody able to test for 2.4?).
A Mips R2000/R3000 simulator (SPIM) for Linux/i386 is also ready to
download. Binaries and documentation are available from following ftpOB
sites:
The current version is gcc 2.6.3 and binutils 2.5.2. There are patches
required to both of these packages in the "src" subdirectory in the above
locations. The target platform should be mips-unknown-linux.Is there a mailing list?
Yes, it is linux-mips@vger.rutgers.edu. To subscribe to this list,
send a message to
Majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu with the command
"subscribe linux-mips _your_email_address_"
in the message body.
For people actively working on the port, there is a private list.
Please contact linux-mips@fnet.fr
for further information.
Can I help?
Sure! If you have a Mips box, please let us know. Eventually
we find a way to include your box in the target list. And
we would of course appreciate it, if you can spend some time
into hacking kernel and/or user code. Please feel free to
contact us at linux-mips@fnet.fr!
What does it cost?
Nothing, since Linux/MIPS is freely available. But the development costs --
as any development. We would appreciate any donations such as: