Re: Removal of POWER4 support

2018-04-09 Thread Michael Ellerman 
John Paul Adrian Glaubitz  writes:
> Hi Benjamin!
>
> On 04/09/2018 01:06 AM, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
>> We aren't dropping support for any Freescale CPUs (BookE). Are you
>> really aware of anybody using a POWER4 though ? Those were huge
>> machines using a lot of electricity for little processing power by
>> today standards...
>> 
>> Note: We aren't removing 970 (aka G5) support, only server POWER4.
>
> I see, thanks for the heads-up. I was under the impression that the
> support for Freescale or PPC970 CPUs depended on POWER4 support in
> general as I thought this is shared code.
>
> If this affects heavy iron from IBM only, I'm fine with the code
> being removed. The Freescale and PPC970 stuff is still very actively
> used in any case.

OK great. Glad we haven't broken anything you're using!

Feel free to subscribe to linuxppc-dev of course ;)

cheers

Re: Removal of POWER4 support

2018-04-09 Thread Al Dunsmuir 
On Monday, April 9, 2018, 7:12:40 PM, I wrote:
> I've  not tried to install Debian lately.  I saw a post from Sept 2015
> titled  "Re: Jessie 8.2 installer boot on POWER4+ failed" which raised
> an issue on a 2028-6E4 2-way.

Typo: should be 7028-6E4

Al

Re: Removal of POWER4 support

2018-04-09 Thread Al Dunsmuir 
On Sunday, April 8, 2018, 9:03:23 PM, you Michel Ellerman wrote:
> I asked 1 year ago if anyone was using Power4, and got no responses:
> https://lists.ozlabs.org/pipermail/linuxppc-dev/2017-April/156213.html

> I realise you probably don't follow the mailing list, perhaps I should
> have Cc'ed debian-powerpc or some other lists.

> Anyway if you are actually using mainline on a Power4 then we can re-add
> support for it, if you are willing to test it, because I have no Power4
> machines to test on.

Michael,

I  joined  the linuxppc-dev list shortly after those posts, so was not
aware of the query or discussion.

I  have a IBM 7028-6C4 4-way box (POWER4+) that I use fairly regularly
to  do  open  source  software  under  AIX. It has current firmware. I
another 9113-550 (POWER5) 4-way box - had to run 220V power for that.

I've  not tried to install Debian lately.  I saw a post from Sept 2015
titled  "Re: Jessie 8.2 installer boot on POWER4+ failed" which raised
an issue on a 2028-6E4 2-way.

It was unclear from the brief patch description if POWER4+ would still
be  supported.  If  so,  I can certainly slip in a free HDD and try an
install.  I'm  new  to Debian, so might need some assistance from this
list.

Al

Re: Removal of POWER4 support, (was: [GIT PULL] Please pull powerpc/linux.git powerpc-4.17-1 tag)

2018-04-09 Thread Lennart Sorensen 
On Sun, Apr 08, 2018 at 09:50:46AM +0200, Mathieu Malaterre wrote:
> Hi G5 users,
> 
> Could someone shed some lights on POWER4 removal. I thought G5 were POWER4 ?
> 
> (see below)
> ...
>  - Removal of POWER4 support, which was accidentally broken in 2016 and no one
>noticed, and blocked use of some modern instructions.
> ...
> 
> See commit 471d7ff8b51b63521c8ea35c51966ab4caa434ee in powerpc/next.

It seems that it is only generic IBM server POWER4 that is removed.
The special ones from freescale and the 970 in the G5 remain.

The PA6T has its own CPU type in the kernel, as does the 970.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: Removal of POWER4 support

2018-04-09 Thread John Paul Adrian Glaubitz 

Hi Benjamin!

On 04/09/2018 01:06 AM, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:

We aren't dropping support for any Freescale CPUs (BookE). Are you
really aware of anybody using a POWER4 though ? Those were huge
machines using a lot of electricity for little processing power by
today standards...

Note: We aren't removing 970 (aka G5) support, only server POWER4.


I see, thanks for the heads-up. I was under the impression that the
support for Freescale or PPC970 CPUs depended on POWER4 support in
general as I thought this is shared code.

If this affects heavy iron from IBM only, I'm fine with the code
being removed. The Freescale and PPC970 stuff is still very actively
used in any case.

Thanks for your work!

Adrian

--
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaub...@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaub...@physik.fu-berlin.de
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