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  • Linux on Iyonix PC

    From D Gunawardena@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 13 09:41:02 2020
    Hi,

    re: looking for Iyonix Linux device driver kernel modules

    I appreciate I may be a little late to ask this question but I recently got an Iyonix PC and have been playing with RISC OS again for the first time in 20 years!

    Independently, I thought it might be interesting to try running ARM Linux on the Iyonix PC. Unfortunately, a lot of the resources for this are not easy to find or have been lost.

    I've managed to boot into Linux and even started X albeit restricted to 8bpp 640x480 and with a non-working mouse.

    The key issue is lack of the Iyonix specific kernel modules. This was stored at the castle website but it is long gone and web.archive.org does not have a copy. Can anyone help me out with the modules.tgz for the Iyonix? I'm using the 2.4 (Debian 3 Woody)
    kernel bits. Specifically 2.4.27-iyonix kernel (which was the latest I could find).

    I was hoping to patch PeterN's kernel sources to build a new kernel but the patch will not apply and the kernel config script does not recognise iyonix as a target.

    Any hints or tips most welcome. After I get the driver modules working, the next challenge is getting X to work at a resolution above 640x480 with more than 8bpp... it starts but I get a corrupt screen (a bit like the modeline is wrong, I've tried
    vidtune based on the specs of the monitor to no avail). I'm using the nv driver and modified XFree86 binaries for the Iyonix.

    Cheers,
    --
    --Dinang

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  • From Ronald@21:1/5 to D Gunawardena on Mon Dec 14 11:14:04 2020
    In message <[email protected]>
    D Gunawardena <[email protected]> wrote:

    Hi,

    re: looking for Iyonix Linux device driver kernel modules

    I appreciate I may be a little late to ask this question but I recently got an Iyonix PC and have been playing with RISC OS again for the first time in 20 years!

    Independently, I thought it might be interesting to try running ARM Linux on the Iyonix PC. Unfortunately, a lot of the resources for this are not easy to find or have been lost.

    I've managed to boot into Linux and even started X albeit restricted to 8bpp 640x480 and with a non-working mouse.

    The key issue is lack of the Iyonix specific kernel modules. This was stored at the castle website but it is long gone and web.archive.org does not have a copy. Can anyone help me out with the modules.tgz for the Iyonix? I'm using the 2.4 (Debian 3
    Woody) kernel bits. Specifically 2.4.27-iyonix kernel (which was the latest I could find).

    I have my original HD which still has the Linux install on it.
    Mine mentions 1.22 in most places I've looked.
    Not sure where to look for any later stuff 'possibly installed' yet
    I think you will want the drivers/00 archive as it includes modconf/tgz
    The included drivers/tgz is only an empty dir structure in that archive.

    Ronald May

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to D Gunawardena on Mon Dec 14 11:54:33 2020
    D Gunawardena <[email protected]> wrote:
    I've managed to boot into Linux and even started X albeit restricted to 8bpp 640x480 and with a non-working mouse.

    The key issue is lack of the Iyonix specific kernel modules. This was
    stored at the castle website but it is long gone and web.archive.org does
    not have a copy. Can anyone help me out with the modules.tgz for the
    Iyonix? I'm using the 2.4 (Debian 3 Woody) kernel bits. Specifically 2.4.27-iyonix kernel (which was the latest I could find).

    What do you need modules for? It sounds like the fact that it's booting is
    90% of the battle.

    There are kernel sources here, BTW: http://mirror.slackbuilds.org/slackwarearm/armedslack-11.0/source/k/sources/
    - since it boots, you might be able to compile them up?

    Also, it appears NetBSD still supports the Iyonix (although whether it
    actually works is anyone's guess).

    I would guess most of the Linux support is now mainlined (i80321 is in-tree,
    I suspect the ALi M1543 southbridge is, and PCI cards are regular PCI).
    With use of the TRM it might be possible to craft a DTS file to port regular Linux 5.x to it. It seems like the only thing Iyonix-specific in the
    patches is the RGB->BGR colour switch for the graphics card, which I don't think is needed for newer cards.

    Theo

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