ubuntu-loongson team mailing list archive

[Siggy Brentrup <bsb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 17:28 +0800, LIU Qi wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 09:02:46PM +1200, Kai-Cheung Leung wrote:
>  > you said that modified instruction codes (assembly) cannot be
>  > generated by the gcc compiler for both Loongson 2 and Loongson 3.
>  > However are these special code already in the *official* kernel source
>  > at kernel.org?  If so, from which version onward has Loongson 2 and
>  > Loongson 3-specfic code was merged to the official Linux kernel?
>  > 
>  > If this hasn't been done yet, I am afraid we have to put the Ubuntu
>  > port on hold until Loongson 3 is officially supported by the kernel
>  > (and your team should aim at getting Loongson 3 specific code merged
>  > with the kernel as soon as possible)
> Maybe I didn't explain that problem very clearly. I mean that "modified
> instruction codes" are the enhancement of loongson processors. The
> Linux kernel codes are not affected by these instructions. Most of
> the instructions of loongson conform to the mips specification.

Please bear with me writing this out of lack of information:  provided
user space can take advantage of these loongson enhancements, why not
add them to gcc's repertoire: cf. info '(gccint-4.3.info)Machine Desc' ?

>                                                                  The
> official linux kernel supports loongson processors. Please don't worry
> about that. The modification to the linux kernel is mainly subject to
> the board supporting part. Those will be finished once the product with
> Loongson3 is ready.
>  > 
>  > Michael has told me that the other challenge of the Ubuntu port is to
>  > tweak the Ubuntu kernel build script to build mipsel target (for
>  > loongson) and Ubuntu and Debian kernel build system is different.  Is
>  > your team familiar with the Ubuntu kernel build system?
> Yes, someone in my team will take care of that.
>  > 
>  > Finally could you please advise us on the status of the Loongson 2 and
>  > Loongson 3 support in the kernel.
> The linux kernel supports the Loongson2E machines. The patch for
> Loongson2F machines is under review by the linux kernel community. I
> believe that it will be accepted very soon. The patch for Loongson3
> machines will be ready once the product is ready.

From the Wikipedia article on Loongson I learned that Loongson 3 will
have support for emulating x86 code.  Should we target in the long run
at installing i386 versions of packages not available for mipsel?

Btw, in said article I just ran over gcc-4.4 options -march=loongson2f
and -mtune=loongson2f, probably answering my question above.

still curious
  Siggy
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