Amd geode lx800 linux

Linux distribution for the AMD Geode LX 800 (i586)

For the distro, you might want to give Damn Small Linux a go. If you install it to your harddrive, it’s a minimal Debian installation configured to be light on resources.

When it comes to compiling, just compile with -march=geode . That option is defined on any i386/x86-64 gcc , so no real need to cross-compile. If you want to run the binary on your compiler host as well (without a recompile), try something like -march=i486 -mtune=geode . Read more about those options in the GCC docs.

Solution 2

Debian and Ubuntu support every Intel processor from the 485. With Debian, the minimal install is very small (~500Mo) and Ubuntu provide the XUbuntu «flavour» dedicated to small configurations.

ubuntu 10.10 and above no longer support x86 architectures below i686

You can emulate this machine with any virtualisation software able to emulate a i586 CPU (like qemu , but others may be able to do it too).

Solution 3

I recently installed Gentoo on an Alix with an AMD Geode LX processor via the Binhost feature of portag3. As you say, it’s an x86 one (i586 to be precise), but several benchmarks are showing that i486 is the better way. It has a few better results, and almost no lack of features (compared to i586).

Since I havent installed any kind of graphical user interface, I cannot say much about the performance.

Even if you stick to a binary distribution, you should check the kernel features, because there a few special drivers for this cpu (e.g. for hardware-accelerated AES).

Solution 4

The AMD Geode LX is an i686 processor (the NOPL instruction is not part of the i686 specifications). I use it with Arch Linux. The only things you have to take care of are to press TAB at Arch installer’s boot screen and add the option arch=i686, and set Architecture = i686 in your pacman.conf .

Unfortunatelly, uname -m still delivers i586

Источник

Arch Linux

Hello everyone, and please excuse me if I didn’t do sufficient research on my problem before starting this topic.

I am a newbie, but I know how a thing or two about computers, so I decided I want to install Arch Linux on a compact PC based on AMD Geode LX800 SOC, with 512MB ram, of which 32MB (minimum) are shared as video memory. And, I’m guessing that these 480MB (remaining) of RAM are the root of my problem. So, I made the bootable live USB stick, I am booting from it, I am selecting Boot Arch Linux (i686), the system starts fine until it has to set up the loop device from airootfs.sfs image, where it returns an error, because the path is wrong (instead of i686, it tries to find airootfs.sfs in i586 folder). So far, so good. I am manually setting up the loop0 device using

losetup /dev/loop0 /run/archiso/bootmnt/arch/i686/airootfs.sfs

, and it loads with no problem on /dev/loop0 device. But this is where I am getting stuck, because when I try to

mount /dev/loop0 /run/archiso/sfs/airootfs

squashfs: error unable to read inode lookup table

. Googling around this, returned some solutions, but none seems to work. I have tried appending «vmalloc=448M» at Boot Arch Linux i686 and some other variations with appending vmalloc and kmalloc, but none seems to work for me.. Do any of you guys think you can help me out of this one ?

Last edited by tiulian (2014-10-14 22:06:01)

Источник

Linux distribution for the AMD Geode LX 800 (i586) [closed]

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.

1. Which Linux distribution (I’m going use gtk/boost/wxwidgets/cairo)
   • My project is going to be a GUI which is moderately performance oriented, so is there any value in going minimal with the entire distro, given that the CPU is 500mhz? I’m thinking that if I can use some manifestation of Ubuntu or some other popular distro with rich repositories, that would probably work out the best for me.
2. Is there a way to simulate the CPU & chipset in a virtual environment (VMWare/VBox etc) so that I don’t have to cross compile? I know its x86, so I’m assuming simply compiling on any < i686 arch will work, but I'm sure there are some performance optimizations done per architecture.

4 Answers 4

For the distro, you might want to give Damn Small Linux a go. If you install it to your harddrive, it’s a minimal Debian installation configured to be light on resources.

When it comes to compiling, just compile with -march=geode . That option is defined on any i386/x86-64 gcc , so no real need to cross-compile. If you want to run the binary on your compiler host as well (without a recompile), try something like -march=i486 -mtune=geode . Read more about those options in the GCC docs.

Debian and Ubuntu support every Intel processor from the 485. With Debian, the minimal install is very small (~500Mo) and Ubuntu provide the XUbuntu «flavour» dedicated to small configurations.

ubuntu 10.10 and above no longer support x86 architectures below i686

You can emulate this machine with any virtualisation software able to emulate a i586 CPU (like qemu , but others may be able to do it too).

I recently installed Gentoo on an Alix with an AMD Geode LX processor via the Binhost feature of portag3. As you say, it’s an x86 one (i586 to be precise), but several benchmarks are showing that i486 is the better way. It has a few better results, and almost no lack of features (compared to i586).

Since I havent installed any kind of graphical user interface, I cannot say much about the performance.

Even if you stick to a binary distribution, you should check the kernel features, because there a few special drivers for this cpu (e.g. for hardware-accelerated AES).

The AMD Geode LX is an i686 processor (the NOPL instruction is not part of the i686 specifications). I use it with Arch Linux. The only things you have to take care of are to press TAB at Arch installer’s boot screen and add the option arch=i686, and set Architecture = i686 in your pacman.conf .

Unfortunatelly, uname -m still delivers i586

Highly active question. Earn 10 reputation (not counting the association bonus) in order to answer this question. The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity.

Related

Hot Network Questions

Site design / logo © 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA . rev 2023.7.14.43533

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
This site is not affiliated with Linus Torvalds or The Open Group in any way.

By clicking “Accept all cookies”, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy.

Источник

Arch Linux

I am trying to install archlinux on mini pc with amd geode lx 800 processor, which is acording to wikipedia x86 compatible. Having a lot of faith in linux kernel i installed archlinux x86_64 on compact flash, tested it on my laptop and it worked perfectly. But when i boot from ssd on the mini pc, nothing happens. All the logs from the boot on mini pc are empty. So i started to think that there is something up with kernel and processor. What could be causing the issue? Should i use x86_32 and where to find it? Should i use i586 as some have suggested?

PS: i can’t really see what is going on on mini pc, because it only has EGA connector and all my displays are VGA

Last edited by rokowsky (2012-08-17 11:23:35)

#2 2012-08-16 12:45:38

Re: [SOLVED] Arch and AMD Geode LX 800 processor

You won’t find x86_32 binaries, because they don’t exist. 386-compatible binaries have been dubbed i386, 486-compatible i486, and Pentium-compatible i586. Arch’s 32-bit x86 binaries are made generally for Pentium Pro compatible CPUs, AKA i686.

The Geode LX is an updated Nat Semi Geode GX2, which was an updated Cyrix MediaGX, which was a highly-integrated derivative of their 6×86, that came out way back in 1997, long before x86_64’s release in 2001, and subsequent supporting CPUs in 2003.

Being that Arch’s standard 32-bit binaries are i686, the Geode LX might not be fully compatible with them, but it aught to run. A few years ago, on a different distro, I had issues with i686-compiled VLC, for instance, but otherwise everything ran OK as i686.

#3 2012-08-16 23:40:14

Re: [SOLVED] Arch and AMD Geode LX 800 processor

I don’t think you’ll have much luck. The Geode LX 800 is an i586 processor. Many years ago I managed to get Arch to take but it was a fluke. I’ve never been able to do it since. Debian and derivatives perform pretty well though. Try Haiku, I’m using that on my Geode box currently.

#4 2012-08-17 07:47:52

Re: [SOLVED] Arch and AMD Geode LX 800 processor

All that should be required is a kernel patched to emulate the nopl instruction in software. The Geode LX has everything required for i686 except that instruction.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-08-17 07:49:10)

#5 2012-08-17 11:20:48

Re: [SOLVED] Arch and AMD Geode LX 800 processor

Thank you for the replies. There was a project to make archlinux-i586, but now it seems to be dead (http://code.google.com/p/archlinux-i586/) and there are patches that emulate nopl (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=775414) for older versions of kernel, so i would have to use older binutils and glibc and i am not to fond of that solution so i decided to use some other distribution.

For those that might have similar problems, i installed striped debian distribution called voyage linux that is and i quote «best run on a x86 embedded platforms such as PC Engines ALIX/WRAP, Soekris 45xx/48xx and Atom-based boards» — so exacly what i need for my ALIX. Since i only intend to run programs like rtorrent, vsftpd, rsync and lighttpd the voyage will do.

#6 2012-08-17 11:33:57

Re: [SOLVED] Arch and AMD Geode LX 800 processor

so i would have to use older binutils and glibc

I don’t see why that would be required. Those two have been fixed, so you could use the latest versions. Of course there’s the possibility that I’m wrong, so if someone knows for sure what the situation here is, do tell.

Basically, all you’d need is a kernel patch for a still supported kernel, like for example 3.0 LTS. I’ll do a search if that’s available. Not that I have a Geode processor, I’m just curious

Last edited by Gusar (2012-08-17 11:55:11)

#7 2012-11-10 18:15:55

Re: [SOLVED] Arch and AMD Geode LX 800 processor

The Geode LX 800 is an i586 processor.

Which is wrong. Yes, the Geode lacks of the NOPL instruction, but this instruction never was part of Intel’s i686 specification. Unfortunately, it became an unofficial standard. But as it seems, new versions of binutils or gcc or whatever realized that fact and stopped building NOPLs into executables, because ARCH i686 works on the Geode (using arch’s November 2012 iso).

I have just installed Arch Linux on my ALIX Board (3d3) with a Geode LX 800 processor. The only things you have to take care of is to press TAB at the installer’s boot screen and add the option «arch=i686», and set «Architecture = i686» in your pacman.conf. That’s it.

Источник