Nekonomicon - MIPS-3 Nekoware Updates

snowolf
Journeyman
Who joined Sept. 25, 2009, 10:15 p.m.
and authored 32 notes

Wrote the following at May 11, 2010, 10:46 p.m...

I don't have a lot of time, equipment (I only have an Indigo and a really low-end, early Octane) or experience porting software to IRIX. However, the MIPS-3 Nekoware repository seems a little neglected, so I am going to do what I can to contribute and help bring it up to date.

Packages:
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_expat-2.0.1.tardist
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_libiconv-1.13.1.tardist
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_ncurses-5.7.tardist (Missing .idb file)
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_pkgconfig-0.23.tardist
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_sdl-1.2.14.tardist (I was able to compile NeHe's Lesson 5 successfully -- very cool!)
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_aterm-1.0.1.tardist
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_autoconf-2.65.tardist
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_glib-2.22.5.tardist
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_irssi-0.8.15.tardist
http://forked.subprogr.am/snowolf/irix/neko-mips3/neko_m4-1.4.14.tardist
Please let me know if there's any sloppiness and I'll rebuild the package.

These packages are in progress:
screen-4.0.3
bash-4.1
dosbox-0.74 (Having a lot of problems with this one)

I'm certain this question has been asked before, so forgive me but is it possible to have my Octane cross-compile for the MIPS-3 architecture? My guess is: "Yes, but it's painful."

Thanks!

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cris_adder
Member
Who joined Jan. 13, 2010, 1:10 a.m.
and authored 63 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 2:27 a.m...

Thanks for your efforts in doing this ..!

vishnu
Enthusiast
Who joined March 18, 2007, 3:25 p.m.
and authored 220 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 9:25 a.m...

IIRC to cross-compile you can use the -TARG: argument but for mips3 I think it's as simple as cc -mips3 (???)

snowolf
Journeyman
Who joined Sept. 25, 2009, 10:15 p.m.
and authored 32 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 11:09 a.m...

vishnu wrote:

IIRC to cross-compile you can use the -TARG: argument but for mips3 I think it's as simple as cc -mips3 (???)

Right; there are compiler options that will need to be set but my concern was more the MIPS-3 flavor libraries I imagine most software will need to compile against and setting that up on the build machine. I would also like to know people's general experience cross compiling between MIPS-3 and MIPS-4.

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nekonoko
Site Admin
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 2:31 a.m.
and authored 7590 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 11:21 a.m...

If you'd like these added to the MIPS3 collection, drop them in /incoming on FTP and I'll move them over to the beta directory. They'll get soaked up on the mirrors that way.

Thanks much!

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私のホバークラフトは鰻が一杯です。
IRIX Release 4.0.5 IP12 Version 06151813 System V
Copyright 1987-1992 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

snowolf
Journeyman
Who joined Sept. 25, 2009, 10:15 p.m.
and authored 32 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 11:57 a.m...

nekonoko wrote:

If you'd like these added to the MIPS3 collection, drop them in /incoming on FTP and I'll move them over to the beta directory. They'll get soaked up on the mirrors that way.

Well, I feel these are at a pre-beta stage. I would prefer at least one other person besides me to test and verify them before they go into the beta directory to make sure there isn't anything obvious I missed. I'm fairly new to Irix and even newer to MIPSPro and packaging software.

How much interest is there in getting the MIPS-3 repository up to date anyway? Have the MIPS-3 equipped SGI machines moved into obsolescence and novelty even for Nekochan?

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nekonoko
Site Admin
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 2:31 a.m.
and authored 7590 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 12:09 p.m...

snowolf wrote:

How much interest is there in getting the MIPS-3 repository up to date anyway?

Probably quite a bit

As time marches on and all levels of SGI systems fade into retrocomputing, it becomes more about which machines are most fun to tinker with than which are purely faster. At least it's become that way for me; I think some of the oldest SGIs are the most interesting/fun these days.

Right now I'm working on restoring a third Personal IRIS 4D/35; it won't benefit from MIPS3 Nekoware, but it sure is fun!

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私のホバークラフトは鰻が一杯です。
IRIX Release 4.0.5 IP12 Version 06151813 System V
Copyright 1987-1992 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

bri3d
Addict
Who joined June 28, 2008, 11:08 a.m.
and authored 565 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 12:27 p.m...

nekonoko wrote:

snowolf wrote:

How much interest is there in getting the MIPS-3 repository up to date anyway?

Probably quite a bit

As time marches on and all levels of SGI systems fade into retrocomputing, it becomes more about which machines are most fun to tinker with than which are purely faster. At least it's become that way for me; I think some of the oldest SGIs are the most interesting/fun these days.

Right now I'm working on restoring a third Personal IRIS 4D/35; it won't benefit from MIPS3 Nekoware, but it sure is fun!

Tons of people end up with free Indys, since they were the first "cheap" ("cheap" here being very, very relative) SGI and they're also still the smallest, quietest, and least power-hungry SGI system, as far as I know (although the O2 comes close).

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ChristTrekker
Enthusiast
Who joined June 7, 2006, 4:37 p.m.
and authored 297 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 1:13 p.m...

bri3d wrote:

Tons of people end up with free Indys, since they were the first "cheap" ("cheap" here being very, very relative) SGI and they're also still the smallest, quietest, and least power-hungry SGI system, as far as I know (although the O2 comes close).

Aren't the R10ks pretty power-hungry, though? My O2 is an R10k, and my decision to shut it down when not actively using it stemmed from learning that.

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nekonoko
Site Admin
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 2:31 a.m.
and authored 7590 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 1:35 p.m...

bri3d wrote:

Tons of people end up with free Indys

Technically there are MIPS4 capable Indys (R5K option) but yes, the R4K versions are still interesting

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私のホバークラフトは鰻が一杯です。
IRIX Release 4.0.5 IP12 Version 06151813 System V
Copyright 1987-1992 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

metallizer
Stranger
Who joined Feb. 1, 2009, 3:51 p.m.
and authored 25 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 6:14 p.m...

over the weekend I shall test run your packages.

kudos for your initiative.

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Extreme R4400 200MHz (1MB L2) 160MB

vishnu
Enthusiast
Who joined March 18, 2007, 3:25 p.m.
and authored 220 notes

Wrote the following at May 12, 2010, 11:19 p.m...

Quote:

Right; there are compiler options that will need to be set but my concern was more the MIPS-3 flavor libraries

Don't worry about the libs, the MIPSPro linker is genius... :mrgreen:

SAQ
Old Salt
Who joined July 19, 2006, 8:37 a.m.
and authored 3874 notes

Wrote the following at May 13, 2010, 9:34 p.m...

snowolf wrote:

vishnu wrote:

IIRC to cross-compile you can use the -TARG: argument but for mips3 I think it's as simple as cc -mips3 (???)

Right; there are compiler options that will need to be set but my concern was more the MIPS-3 flavor libraries I imagine most software will need to compile against and setting that up on the build machine. I would also like to know people's general experience cross compiling between MIPS-3 and MIPS-4.

For the most part (provided makefiles are done right) there isn't a problem. The libraries are the same as far as the linker goes - it happily links away to whichever version is installed on the target machine (many IRIX 6.5 system libraries are MIPS-3 anyway, so it doesn't matter). I build -mips3 -n32 on a O2k (when it's running, need to get it uncovered but haven't had the time) for my MIPS3 builds and my only problem with arch diffs so far has been one file where -mips4 was hardcoded in the makefile and had to be patched.

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Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

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snowolf
Journeyman
Who joined Sept. 25, 2009, 10:15 p.m.
and authored 32 notes

Wrote the following at May 13, 2010, 11:46 p.m...

SAQ wrote:

For the most part (provided makefiles are done right) there isn't a problem. The libraries are the same as far as the linker goes - it happily links away to whichever version is installed on the target machine (many IRIX 6.5 system libraries are MIPS-3 anyway, so it doesn't matter). I build -mips3 -n32 on a O2k (when it's running, need to get it uncovered but haven't had the time) for my MIPS3 builds and my only problem with arch diffs so far has been one file where -mips4 was hardcoded in the makefile and had to be patched.

Ok, interesting. Guess I'll look into setting up my Octane as a build machine this weekend. This also gives me an excuse to start looking for a nice Octane2 :mrgreen:

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