Getting Started With Linux on ST40 Setting up the ST40 hardware

Currently we only support a very limited set of development hardware. Linux will almost certainly work on other platforms, but there are certain limitations with the current hardware, in particular you cannot use any PCI cards which require DMA to operate.

To try and keep the support load manageable we recommend you use the following:

• SH7750 Overdrive (DB457) and PCI (DB476) boards. For a stand alone Linux system these boards do not need to be plugged into an ST20 motherboard, and can be powered through the disk drive connector.
• NE2000 compatible PCI Ethernet controller. We recommend that you use a board with a RealTek RTL8029, we do not recommend the use of Windbond chips, as in our experience they have not been reliable.
• Imagination Technology PMX1 PCI video card.
• PCI IDE controller cards. Boards based around the Promise PDC20262 are known to work, others may also work but are untested.

In addition if you want to use Flash memory from inside Linux, currently only AMD Flash is supported. Not ST or Intel.

For more information on how to set up the hardware, please consult Brendan O'Conor's excellent guide to setting up the SH7750 Overdrive hardware, available from the APG web site.

Alternatively we have written a quick guide to 7750 Overdrive Hardware which is available from SourceForge.

Note that the port labelling on the back of the SH7750 Overdrive is reversed: COM1 is ttySC1 and COM2 is ttySC0.