> This place has been infested by IBM.
>
> I'm trying to install Linux on a PS/2 (Model 56 486SLC2). Actually
> I've been able to get my hands on two of them, both apparently
> identical except for the amount of RAM (one has 12MB, the other just
> under 16MB).
>
> I've compiled[0] kernel 2.2.0-pre8[1], with MCA support, with and without
> ESDI hard drive support, with and without "use old disk-only driver",
> and a few other changes. I've grafted this kernel onto a Debian rescue
> (installation) disk. I can boot the machine with this kernel, and it
> doesn't even complain.
This is a SCSI-machine. The ibmmca.c SCSI-driver is at the moment
non-working with the v2.1 kernels newer than v2.1.31 (!). Install the
driver from v2.1.30, and everything should work. You might have to tweak
it to detect the adapter, though. It should use 0x3540 as base-address.
> > Each of these PS/2 systems has a 200MB hard drive. IBM DOS 5.00 can
> see it just fine, and so can MS-DOS 6.22 on a floppy. I was even able
> to split one of them with FIPS.
>
> I've been doing lots of web searching. It seems that there's a Linux
> MCA home page, or two or three, but none of them are working for me
> today. I get name lookup errors, or nonresponsive servers, or invalid
> URLs. Thus, I can't try any of the 2.0.x patches which are alleged to
> exist, or even find any real documentation (other than
> Documentation/mca.txt).
>
> I found something called QBMCA and ran that on one of the machines. It
> reports 8 MCA slots (which doesn't sound right -- this is an awfully
> small case), with a token ring card in slot 2. The Linux kernel sees
> this token ring card just fine. (But these PS/2s are way too small to
> be usable diskless Xstations. I'm not even sure X will work on these
> boxes yet....)
It doesn't report 8 slots. It always checks all 8-slot registers even if
there are only 3 (as in the case of the 56slc2).
> I found a site somewhere in ibm.com which has "reference disks". But
> not one for the PS/2 Model 56. I'm not even sure what a reference disk
> is, so I'm rather reluctant to try to use the wrong one.
Oh, there is one. It's called rf955657.exe and expands to a disk from dos.
You can get it at ftp.pc.ibm.com in the directory pub/pccbbs/refdisks.
There's also a rd955657.exe file which is the advanced diagnostics for
that model.
[snip]
> I'm probably ignorant of something which is terribly obvious to those
> who actually understand these PS/2 boxes. Are there any MCA gurus here
> who recognize this type of problem?
I consider myself being one... :)
/David Weinehall
_ _
// David Weinehall <tao@acc.umu.se> /> Northern lights wander \\
// Project MCA Linux hacker // Dance across the winter sky //
\> http://www.acc.umu.se/~tao/ </ Full colour fire </
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