Re: [PATCH] docs/system: Document running Linux on amigaone machine

[Bernhard Beschow]

Am 16. Dezember 2023 12:53:55 UTC schrieb BALATON Zoltan <balaton@eik.bme.hu>:
>On Sat, 16 Dec 2023, Bernhard Beschow wrote:
>> Documentation on how to run Linux on the amigaone machine is currently 
>> burried
>> in the depths of the qemu-devel mailing list [1] and in the source code. 
>> Let's
>> collect the information in the QEMU handbook for a one stop solution.
>
>Thanks for collecting this info and adding it as documentation.

You're welcome!

> A few small comments bellow.
>
>> [1] 
>> https://lore.kernel.org/qemu-devel/dafc407d-3749-e6f4-3a66-750fde8965f9@eik.bme.hu/
>
>Do we want to keep an URL in the commit log? kernel.org is quite stable but 
>not sure it would need to be in the commit message.

Let's drop it.

>
>> Co-authored-by: BALATON Zoltan <balaton@eik.bme.hu>
>> Signed-off-by: Bernhard Beschow <shentey@gmail.com>
>> ---
>> MAINTAINERS                  |  1 +
>> docs/system/ppc/amigaone.rst | 53 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>> docs/system/target-ppc.rst   |  1 +
>> hw/ppc/amigaone.c            |  9 ------
>> 4 files changed, 55 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
>> create mode 100644 docs/system/ppc/amigaone.rst
>> 
>> diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
>> index 695e0bd34f..a2dd1407e2 100644
>> --- a/MAINTAINERS
>> +++ b/MAINTAINERS
>> @@ -1560,6 +1560,7 @@ amigaone
>> M: BALATON Zoltan <balaton@eik.bme.hu>
>> L: qemu-ppc@nongnu.org
>> S: Maintained
>> +F: docs/system/ppc/amigaone.rst
>> F: hw/ppc/amigaone.c
>> F: hw/pci-host/articia.c
>> F: include/hw/pci-host/articia.h
>> diff --git a/docs/system/ppc/amigaone.rst b/docs/system/ppc/amigaone.rst
>> new file mode 100644
>> index 0000000000..c3f11a7bb2
>> --- /dev/null
>> +++ b/docs/system/ppc/amigaone.rst
>
>Maybe call it amigang.rst so it can be a place for docs on other PPC AmigaNG 
>machines such as pegasos2 and sam460ex in the future to collect them in one 
>place.

Having everything in one place seems like creating a lot of complexity if one 
were to elaborate on the various pros and cons for each machine: AmigaOne needs 
a custom vgabios, the others do not. MorpOS can be run on the other machines 
but not on AmigaOne. Sometimes a bootloader is needed and sometimes not, the 
circumstances may vary.

I suggest to have a separate doc on each machine.

>
>> @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
>> +Eyetech AmigaOne/Mai Logic Teron (``amigaone``)
>> +===============================================
>> +
>> +The ``amigaone`` model emulates an AmigaOne XE mainboard developed by 
>> Eyetech. Use
>> +the executable ``qemu-system-ppc`` to simulate a complete system.
>
>QEMU is not a simulator so even if that's repeating this should say emulate. 
>(Should this doc be formatted with 80 chars line too like sources?)

I took heavy inspiration from the cupieboard machine. Feel free to change.

>
>> +
>> +Emulated devices
>> +----------------
>> +
>> + *  PowerPC 7457 v1.2 CPU
>> + *  Articia S north bridge
>> + *  VT82C686B south bridge
>> + *  PCI VGA compatible card
>> +
>> +
>> +Preparation
>> +-----------
>> +
>> +A firmware binary is necessary for the boot process and is available at
>> +https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/downloads?view=files&parent=28.
>> +It needs to be extracted with the following command:
>> +
>> +.. code-block:: bash
>> +
>> +  $ tail -c 524288 updater.image > u-boot-amigaone.bin
>> +
>> +The firmware binary is unable to run QEMU‘s standard vgabios and
>> +``VGABIOS-lgpl-latest.bin`` is needed instead. It can be downloaded from
>> +http://www.nongnu.org/vgabios.
>> +
>> +
>> +Running Linux
>> +-------------
>> +
>> +There are some Linux images under the following link that work on the
>> +``amigaone`` machine:
>> +https://sourceforge.net/projects/amigaone-linux/files/debian-installer/. To 
>> boot
>> +the system run:
>> +
>> +.. code-block:: bash
>> +
>> +  $ qemu-system-ppc -M amigaone -bios u-boot-amigaone.bin \
>> +                    -cdrom "A1 Linux Net Installer.iso" \
>> +                    -device 
>> ati-vga,model=rv100,romfile=VGABIOS-lgpl-latest.bin
>> +
>> +From the firmware menu that appears select ``Boot sequence`` →
>> +``Amiga Multiboot Options`` and set ``Boot device 1`` to
>> +``Onboard VIA IDE CDROM``. Then hit escape until the main screen appears 
>> again,
>> +hit escape once more and from the exit menu that appears select either
>> +``Save settings and exit`` or ``Use settings for this session only``. It may
>> +take a long time loading the kernel into memory but eventually it boots and 
>> the
>> +installer becomes visible.
>> diff --git a/docs/system/target-ppc.rst b/docs/system/target-ppc.rst
>> index 4f6eb93b17..c1daa463cf 100644
>> --- a/docs/system/target-ppc.rst
>> +++ b/docs/system/target-ppc.rst
>> @@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ help``.
>>    :maxdepth: 1
>> 
>>    ppc/embedded
>> +   ppc/amigaone
>>    ppc/powermac
>>    ppc/powernv
>>    ppc/ppce500
>> diff --git a/hw/ppc/amigaone.c b/hw/ppc/amigaone.c
>> index ddfa09457a..4f680a5bdd 100644
>> --- a/hw/ppc/amigaone.c
>> +++ b/hw/ppc/amigaone.c
>> @@ -27,15 +27,6 @@
>> 
>> #define BUS_FREQ_HZ 100000000
>> 
>> -/*
>> - * Firmware binary available at
>> - * 
>> https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/downloads?view=files&parent=28
>> - * then "tail -c 524288 updater.image >u-boot-amigaone.bin"
>> - *
>> - * BIOS emulator in firmware cannot run QEMU vgabios and hangs on it, use
>> - * -device VGA,romfile=VGABIOS-lgpl-latest.bin
>> - * from http://www.nongnu.org/vgabios/ instead.
>> - */
>
>Maybe it's worth keeping the comment here in case somebody reads the source 
>but not documentation.

Maybe change the comment to point at the doc to avoid duplication?

> Do you want to send a v2 or want me to take over and do it myself?

Sure, feel free to take over!

Best regards,
Bernhard

>
>Regards,
>BALATON Zoltan