Re: Open Source hardware (Re: can't get vesa @ 1280x800 or nv)
On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 2:30 PM, Matthieu Herrb mhe...@gmail.com wrote: On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 9:02 PM, rhubbell rhubb...@ihubbell.com wrote: Yes, I'd like to see some pointers also. I recall that there was discussion (might've been on linux kernel) a while ago about a partially-open video card. Why doesn't the community support that? You mean http://www.opengraphics.org ? What makes you say that? How did *you* contribute? I recall that price was a factor in lack of uptake. Seems to me that opensource is farsical if it runs on closesource hardware. So where's the opensource hardware? Seems like the new world order isn't going to allow that. The trend in hardware looks like a race to keep control. Seems like we are going to be paying for the hardware but not owning; instead leasing. Or am I behind the times and there's salvation from some beneficent hardware maker in Taiwan? Making hardware is a lot more difficult than writing software. So it takes more resources and more skills. This is probably why there aren't so many of them. A graphics card is about both, and I don't think hardware is that 'hard' (if I can do it it must be easy :-). The real barriers to entry are economic. A mask set for a current generation ASIC (say 45nm) is somewhere upwards of one million US $. (http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198900081) so unless you have terrific volumes to amortize over, custom chips are pretty much out of play. You could see if you can swing a deal with someone to roll the mask costs into the piece price, but you'll have to convince them that you'll run enough pieces to make it worth their while. In general the specialized design software needed to make a design that will work costs a similar amount (digital and analog simulators, logic synthesis, Design rule checkers, place and route, design for test, etc). That pretty much leaves you in the FPGA world like the opengraphics people are. You can use the FPGA vendor's volumes to get access to leading edge process technology, but are stuck with their architecture. Usually the premium FPGAs start at around $100 ea. and go up into the $1000 range, so you end up looking at the 'value' parts (spartan and cyclone for brand X and brand A) to keep costs down which limits what you can do even more. The one nice thing about FPGA is that the vendors usually make the parts for a long time, so availability and control is good.
Re: [OT] beefy steel cases
Well, perhaps I could make/find/whatever a steel tub with a lid (or an old safe) :) in which to put said computer case, but I'd like to start with a decent case. Who makes a solid, steel case that doesn't cover up large holes with plastic stuff? It seems that server cases now use hot-swap drives so the only thing between the drive and the world is the plastic handle on the hot-swap carrier (unless there's metal in there which I can't see on pictures). (well OT for openbsd-misc...) The slots and holes in a case and the cables coming out are going to be your problem. If you are radiating out the solid metal parts of your case you have other problems. Google 'slot antenna' for more info. Also the book Noise Reduction Techniques for Electronic Systems by Henry Ott is very thorough. Perhaps you should try shielding your wife instead of the computer equipment. Put her in one of these: http://www.djmelectronics.com/quietbox.html :-) -- Hardware, n.: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.
Re: OpenBSD on decTOP?
Maurice Janssen wrote: Sorry, it was a bit short. What I meant to say: 5V,GND,RX,TX sounds a bit like USB, instead of a good old RS-232 serial port that can be used as a serial console. typically the USB lines are called VBUS, D+, D-, and GND. I would guess that is a serial port. Send me one and I'll put a 'scope on it and see :-)
Re: 3.8 beta requests
The real problem is people who encounter a problem and fail to report it. They just think this is crap and go on to something else. I think the developers need to address the problems that get brought up, too. I took the time to post a complete bug report (good and failing dmesg) about a bug that made an(4) crash the kernel and not boot 3.7 to misc@ and bugs@, then later sent it to the maintainer (mickey) , and got nothing each time, not even a yeah, okay we got it or take a look in this part of the code or try this message. It was very frustrating to try and make things better and get ignored. -- Hardware, n.: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.
Aironet pcmcia / 3.7 GENERIC kernel crash
Hi, I recently installed 3.7 release on a Toshiba portege 610CT laptop and the kernel panics while initializing my aironet wireless card. If I do a 'boot -c' and 'disable an' from the UKC prompt all works as expected. I tried booting with the card in both slots, and also without the other pcmcia card (a xircom card) with the same results. I was previously running linux (2.4.27 kernel) on the machine and the card worked correctly there. dmesg and trace output from serial console on a failed run are below: boot boot booting hd0a:/bsd: 4686240+945680 [52+241328+223324]=0x5d0864 entry point at 0x100120 [ using 465076 bytes of bsd ELF symbol table ] Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 1995-2005 OpenBSD. All rights reserved. http://www.OpenBSD.org OpenBSD 3.7 (GENERIC) #50: Sun Mar 20 00:01:57 MST 2005 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC cpu0: Intel Pentium (P54C) (GenuineIntel 586-class) 90 MHz cpu0: FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8 cpu0: F00F bug workaround installed real mem = 24944640 (24360K) avail mem = 14766080 (14420K) using 330 buffers containing 1351680 bytes (1320K) of memory mainbus0 (root) bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+(06) BIOS, date 07/03/95 apm0 at bios0: Power Management spec V1.1 apm0: battery life expectancy 100% apm0: AC on, battery charge high, charging, estimated 2:36 hours pcibios at bios0 function 0x1a not configured bios0: ROM list: 0xe/0x1 cpu0 at mainbus0 isa0 at mainbus0 isadma0 at isa0 pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5 pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot) pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot wskbd0 at pckbd0 (mux 1 ignored for console): console keyboard pms0 at pckbc0 (aux slot) pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0 vga0 at isa0 port 0x3b0/48 iomem 0xa/131072 wsdisplay0 at vga0: console (80x25, vt100 emulation), using wskbd0 wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation) wdc0 at isa0 port 0x1f0/8 irq 14 wd0 at wdc0 channel 0 drive 0: TOSHIBA MK2105MAV wd0: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 2067MB, 4233600 sectors wd0(wdc0:0:0): using BIOS timings sb0 at isa0 port 0x220/24 irq 5 drq 1: dsp v3.01 midi0 at sb0: SB MIDI UART audio0 at sb0 opl0 at sb0: model OPL3 midi1 at opl0: SB Yamaha OPL3 audio0 at sb0 opl0 at sb0: model OPL3 midi1 at opl0: SB Yamaha OPL3 pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61 midi2 at pcppi0: PC speaker sysbeep0 at pcppi0 lpt0 at isa0 port 0x378/4 irq 7 npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: using exception 16 pccom0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo pccom0: console fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0/6 irq 6 drq 2 fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec pcic0 at isa0 port 0x3e0/2 iomem 0xd/65536 pcic0 controller 0: Intel 82365SL rev 1 has sockets A and B pcmcia0 at pcic0 controller 0 socket 0 an0 at pcmcia0 function 0 Cisco Systems, 340 Series Wireless LAN Adapter, irq 3kernel: protection fault trap, code=0 Stopped at Xprot: pushl $0x4 ddb trace Xprot(d015ebe0,8,10246,d0563264,d07b8014) at Xprot curpcb(d07b8000,d07b8000,d06d36f0,0,0) at 0x703 config_attach(d07ac200,d055dc20,d06d36f0,d0472148) at config_attach+0xef pcmcia_card_attach(d07ac200,d07ac200,0,d07b2480,0) at pcmcia_card_attach+0xf4 pcic_attach_card(d07b2480,1,0,d07b2480) at pcic_attach_card+0x1c pcic_init_socket(d07b2480,d055ef40,d06d3770,d046b8a8) at pcic_init_socket+0x85 pcic_attach_socket(d07b2480,d07b2400,d06d37f8,d046c7c8) at pcic_attach_socket+0 x7d pcic_attach_sockets(d07b2400,d07b2400,d06d37d8,d0214e71,d06d3850) at pcic_attac h_sockets+0x3b pcic_isa_attach(d078db00,d07b2400,d06d3850,0,100) at pcic_isa_attach+0xf1 config_attach(d078db00,d07b2400,d06d3850,d040af60,0) at config_attach+0xef isascan(d078db00,d07b2400,4,1) at isascan+0x14e config_scan(d040b068,d078db00,d06d3eb0,0,d056c4f8) at config_scan+0xaf config_attach(d0794fc0,d055e034,d06d3eb0,d03537f4) at config_attach+0xef mainbus_attach(0,d0794fc0,0,0,d06d3f10) at mainbus_attach+0xf5 config_attach(0,d055cf78,0,0,d05b2260) at config_attach+0xef config_rootfound(d04fb4f4,0,d06d3f58,d032c068) at config_rootfound+0x27 cpu_configure(0,1,3,0,183) at cpu_configure+0x1f main(0,0,0,0,0) at main+0x339 ddb ps PID PPID PGRPUID S FLAGS WAIT COMMAND *0 -1 0 0 7 0x80204 swapper ddb show registers ds 0x10 es 0x10 fs 0x58 gs 0 edi 0xd07b8000end+0x158f30 esi 0xd07b8000end+0x158f30 ebp 0xd06d3688end+0x745b8 ebx0x400 edx0x434 ecx0 eax 0xAPTD+0xfff eip 0xd0100da0Xprot cs 0x8 eflags 0x10246 esp 0xd06d3660end+0x74590 ss0xd06d0010end+0x70f40 Xprot: pushl $0x4 ddb boot dump rebooting... the dmesg from a sucessful boot is here: boot boot -c booting hd0a:/bsd: 4686240+945680
