🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C0Ez6A.LDE@dweomer.org>, brian@dweomer.org (Brian Taylor) writes:
> I'm interested in ordering the GNU CD-ROM that was just released, but
> due to some articles in comp.sys.mips a while ago, I'm concerned that
> my system (a MIPS MAGNUM 4000-PC50 running RISCos 5.0B) couldn't deal
> with the format. Specifically, I read somewhere that the CD-ROM that
> came with some (all?) MIPs systems is only for distributing their own
> media and almost useless for other things.
> 
> Can anyone confirm or deny this? Also, if anyone has any information
> on incorporating an ISO-9660 filesystem into my kernel, that would also
> be most appreciated (thus the Xpost to alt.cd-rom)!
> 
> Thank you kindly,
> 
> Brian
> -- 
> Brian Taylor			UUCP:		uunet.ca!dweomer!brian
> 62 Derry Street		Internet:	brian@dweomer.org
> Guelph, Ontario, CANADA	Voice:		(519) 824-0884
> N1E 2C1

MIPS made an effort to support ISO-9660 format cdroms with an IPG product
(IP6047) which used a Sony CDU-6211 drive, a modified common_scsi.o to
support cdrom drives on the SCSI bus and appropriate device nodes etc.

This product worked just fine with RISCos 4.52, allowing the host computer
to access ISO-9660 (and Rockridge format) cdroms. You could also export the
cdrom to other MIPS systems. There was only one problem with the product,
it mounted the local drive foreign, so that it couldn't be exported using
NFS, but had to use PFS. While PFS is relatively much more efficient than NFS
in terms of read speed etc, it meant that only other MIPS systems configured to
use PFS could access the cdrom.

I believe that the inclusion of PFS support in RISCos 5.0 would supply at
least part of the answer w.r.t. cdroms on MIPS machines. I don't know if
the ISO-9660/PFS support is available as yet. Ask SGI/MIPS.

----------------------------------------------

Ulrich Mack
Comperex Systems
rick@cxbne.cx.oz.au