[PATCH] Improve System z support and add some tuning

[Torbjorn Granlund]

Mike Frysinger <vapier at gentoo.org> writes:

  On Friday 07 October 2011 05:48:54 Torbjorn Granlund wrote:
  > Andreas Krebbel <krebbel at linux.vnet.ibm.com> writes:
  > 
  >   As David already told you there are mainframe virtual machines available
  > for developers:
  > http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/linux/support/community.html
  > 
  > I read the conditions, and they seem alright.
  > 
  > But a limit of 90 days makes this uninteresting for GMP.  I intend to
  > support GMP for more than 90 more days.  :-)
  
  if ibm can't find a solution for you, i might be able to get you a user acct on 
  Gentoo s390 and s390x systems.  but i'd obviously prefer that ibm enable you 
  so you can install whatever :).

I actually went ahead and made a 90-day account on the IBM system.

But it is not useful for any purpose.

The install is a 5 years old Dead Rat system.  The gcc install is 3.4.
Linux 2.6.9.  A constricted install of severely obsolete GNU software.
I tried to upgrade parts, but it seems too old to have any updates.  I
tried to install a usable GCC from sources, but the measly amount of
virtual RAM provided makes this impossible.

It is all an embarrassment for IBM, "Hey, try out our machine and help
us port your software, we provide you an utterly useless system for
you."  If they wanted to send out the message that their machines are
useless, then they could not do a better job.

So please, if you want to see any progress on GMP for S/390, let's not
rely on IBM.  Guest accounts on maintained systems would be welcome.

-- 
Torbjörn