Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

chrisb · 2010-04-25 03:46:55

Just extract and chroot?

interphase · 2010-04-25 10:09:45

ups, that was my old tar...
dont worry, just grab the new build tools tar from http://www.multiupload.com/N414EVE8QS
extract it to / (thats the build tools for the host system, abs and pacman and makepkg)
then read http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS
then do as the wiki says, execute abs, copy from /var/abs/... to some build dir.
and you should be ready to go...

interphase · 2010-04-25 17:58:07

gcc bugs are:
if I build with target=sparc64-linux-gnu, it doesn't want to link against libmpfr on the debian host which is 32bits.
if I build with target=sparc-linux-gnu, configure says something that it can't compile/execute the test program in the 2nd stage.

any ideas?

ah yeah, btw, trying to build gcc with first option takes about 8-10h on my ultra 2 (until the error comes) and the 2nd option fails at about 30 mins

chris_debian · 2010-04-26 08:12:14

Unfortunately the installation method for SPArch is a little challenging for me at the moment and I don't think I'll be able to try it just yet.
Would it be a good idea to make a new post called "SPArch- Arch Linux for Sparc"? This could contain a brief description of the project and any URL's.

Just an idea.

Chris.

Last edited by chris_debian (2010-04-26 08:12:39)

chrisb · 2010-04-26 10:35:02

interphase wrote:

ups, that was my old tar...
dont worry, just grab the new build tools tar from http://www.multiupload.com/N414EVE8QS
extract it to / (thats the build tools for the host system, abs and pacman and makepkg)
then read http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS
then do as the wiki says, execute abs, copy from /var/abs/... to some build dir.
and you should be ready to go...

First I get this error

==> ERROR: Running makepkg as root is a BAD idea and can cause
    permanent, catastrophic damage to your system. If you
    wish to run as root, please use the --asroot option.

The this running as a user

==> ERROR: Fakeroot must be installed if using the 'fakeroot' option
    in the BUILDENV array in /etc/makepkg.conf.

Seraphic · 2010-05-01 01:04:27

I've got a Sun Fire v480 here that I'm colocating soon. It's got 4x 900MHz UltraSPARC IIIcu cores and 16GB ram. Think it'd make a good build host?

edit: stuck trying to build a cross compiler. getting this error building gcc (binutils built fine). time to go bug #gcc !
configure: error: Link tests are not allowed after GCC_NO_EXECUTABLES.

Last edited by Seraphic (2010-05-01 03:09:19)

Seraphic · 2010-05-02 07:15:38

Alright, I've got a working toolchain, now I need to figure out how to rebuild everything from core. Any pointers?

EDIT:
Screw it, I'll just boot a Gentoo LiveCD on the box. Fedora SPARC beta doesn't work. And I don't want to build a cross compiler in FreeBSD, screw that.

EDIT 2:
Fedora SPARC64 install CD kernel panics
Gentoo weekly snapshot for SPARC64 stalls on boot
Debian netinst SPARC64 stalls on kernel load (before starting services)

Haven't tried Aurora Linux yet, but it's kind of old. I'd have to build a newer toolchain for making Arch packages. Will update post once I download and try.

Also still haven't figured out a good way to mass build ABS ?

Last edited by Seraphic (2010-05-04 14:55:20)

chris_debian · 2010-05-24 15:40:20

Seraphic wrote:

Haven't tried Aurora Linux yet, but it's kind of old. I'd have to build a newer toolchain for making Arch packages. Will update post once I download and try.
Also still haven't figured out a good way to mass build ABS ?

Aurora has now officially become part of Fedora (again). Builds exist for Sparc on the Fedora site.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/SPARC

Chris.

chris_debian · 2010-05-24 15:41:12

Guys,

Should SPArch be listed here?

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … tributions

Chris.

Seraphic · 2010-05-24 15:42:47

Fedora crashes and burns the hardest of them all. As far as my research goes, nobody has gotten an up to date Linux distro working on a Sun Fire v480. If anybody wants to give me a hand it'd be greatly obliged!

chris_debian wrote:

Guys,
Should SPArch be listed here?
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … tributions
Chris.

I wouldn't think it'd be applicable until a fully working SPARCh system exists.

on a related note, SPARCh or SPArch?

Last edited by Seraphic (2010-05-24 15:44:20)

chris_debian · 2010-06-23 08:50:11

Hi, Seraphic!

I was just wondering how things were going with SpArch; any news?

Cheers,

Chris.

Seraphic · 2010-06-23 08:51:56

More research shows no recent kernel working on my v480, sorry. I had a Netra X1 here, but the PSU died. If I can get another PSU for it I might be able to get it working again, but honestly, a new PSU would cost more than a replacement unit and I don't have the extra cash.

If we could get somebody to work on figuring out what's up with the kernel support on the v480, that'd be cool.

Pictures of the beast:
http://s11.info/d/v480/index.htm

tommyturbine · 2010-08-08 19:31:43

Hi guys,

I've installed gentoo on my ultra 60 and gotten abs up and running in a chroot. I'm starting to compile packages and I was wondering if anyone had set up a repository to upload them to?

Seraphic · 2010-08-08 22:47:21

I'll setup a repo, if you wish. I plan to rack my SPARC up soon if I can fit it on my new rack (I've got some VPS nodes to put up, and the DC has a limit of ~15A/rack). The damn thing sucks a little over 4A though, so it's going to be a tight fit.

If not I can setup a public access http/ftp server.

tommyturbine · 2010-08-10 15:25:19

I've compiled most of the packages from the core repository in the abs using makepkg and the gentoo build tools and environment, but I'm having problems with gcc. I've tried several different recent versions (4.5_snapshot, 4.5.0, 4.5.1) and failed every time, and now I'm trying 4.3.4 (cos that's what works with gentoo). Has anyone managed to successfully build a gcc package yet?

I think my next shot might be to manually install gentoo's gcc in the sparch chroot I've been constructing, pop into it and then try again from there. I've been trying to build a multilib version, is this a bad idea?

Seraphic · 2010-08-11 01:50:43

What kernel version are you running? I can't get Gentoo to boot on this machine.

tommyturbine · 2010-08-11 07:15:03

I used genkernel to build the stable branch of gentoo-sources (2.6.34). I configured it myself first time around and it didn't boot, I'm not sure what genkernel included that I didn't but it did the trick. I'm going away for a couple of weeks so I'm not going to do any more on this for a while.

chris_debian · 2010-09-19 07:16:43

Hi, all!

Just doing a really frustrating install of Gentoo on my Ultra 2 and wondered how the SPArch work was going. Any further forward?

Cheers,

Chris.

xchristopherx · 2010-10-27 19:05:07

Hi, any of you still doing this?

DaveKong · 2010-11-03 20:37:22

I have installed Debian on some Sun Blade 1000 and T2000, but would like to use Arch instead. I noticed that Debian uses SILO to boot and not GRUB. I created a wiki page so we can write down the steps needed to get SPArch running on one's system etc.. Please fill in content. If we have the need for it, I would be willing to host a website. Maybe we can get sparc support incorporated into supported Arch if things go well?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SPArch

Last edited by DaveKong (2010-11-04 04:53:25)

DaveKong · 2010-11-04 04:37:15

I posted the most recent version of the toolchain I could find at http://dcampbell.info/archtools-sparc.tar.xz. I have some spare space and bandwidth (it's a linode), so if someone has compiled say all of base-devel (or some other useful core applications), I would gladly post it here as well.

EDIT: Apparently Debian Lenny does not support xz so I added a gz file as well http://dcampbell.info/archtools-sparc.tar.gz

Last edited by DaveKong (2010-11-05 23:02:50)

Angel_LB · 2010-11-08 04:45:56

Well Hello!

I did not have the possibility to dig into this project for a long time, and I am really glad more people are getting into it.

I've read the thread and I see alot of work, from wiki to some tar available. That's really nice. I will have to dust off those v100 and get on with it myself again.

The major problem I got seems to have survived the time, gcc won't compile eh? My problem was of cross-compiling, but I think I read people are building natively from a SPARC and no better luck. We'll need a developper and/or someone experienced with building on a SPARC environment I guess,, Or see notes from other distros' gcc compiling switches for SPARC? Is it possible?

DaveKong · 2010-11-13 10:19:23

I figured out that without the -m64 flag compiling on a v9 system will create v8+ binaries. It looks like all the previous packages that were built including mine were 32 bit v8+. Since glibc is strange and uses --host rather than CFLAGS to figure out how to compile things, the way things were being done previously, 64 bit glibc was trying link with 32 bit code and failing (or --host=sparcv9-unknown-linux-gnu was set to create 32 bit glibc). While I was trying to figure out what was going wrong, I was informed by someone in the #debian-sparc channel on oftc that, unlike x86_64, sparc 64 bit binaries tend to both consume more memory and be slower than their 32 bit counterparts. This is why most of the Debian packages are 32 bit for sparc64. However, this is the total opposite of the way things are done for Arch x86_64, so I am wondering whether we want to take the same approach.

(Even knowing this, I still am having trouble getting a 64 bit glibc to compile.)

EDIT: Pass CC='gcc -m64 -Wa,-Av9a' to configure and it works!

Last edited by DaveKong (2010-11-14 04:50:50)

Arch Linux

#51 2010-04-25 03:46:55

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#52 2010-04-25 10:09:45

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#53 2010-04-25 17:58:07

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#54 2010-04-26 08:12:14

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#55 2010-04-26 10:35:02

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#56 2010-05-01 01:04:27

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#57 2010-05-02 07:15:38

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#58 2010-05-24 15:40:20

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#59 2010-05-24 15:41:12

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#60 2010-05-24 15:42:47

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#61 2010-06-23 08:50:11

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#62 2010-06-23 08:51:56

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#63 2010-08-08 19:31:43

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#64 2010-08-08 22:47:21

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#65 2010-08-10 15:25:19

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#66 2010-08-11 01:50:43

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#67 2010-08-11 07:15:03

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#68 2010-09-19 07:16:43

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#69 2010-10-27 19:05:07

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#70 2010-11-03 20:37:22

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#71 2010-11-04 04:37:15

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#72 2010-11-08 04:45:56

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

#73 2010-11-13 10:19:23

Re: Arch linux for Sparc Ultra2

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