News About VMELinux
Updated April 2000

April 19, 2000 Support for 2.2.x Kernels and Interrupts
VMELinux now works with the 2.2.X kernels and the latest GCC compilers 2.8.x and above. We have been using the driver for about a year and find it works well in our interrupt driven VMEbus system. The current collection of files is the 0.95 version of the VMELinux Universe driver and associated utilities. This version WILL NOT WORK with 2.0.x kernels; The differences between the two Linux kernels is significant. Visit www.vmelinux.org to obtain the driver.

July 14, 1998 RedHat 5.1 News
For the moment, VMELinux will not correctly compile with the new RedHat 5.1 Linux distribution. The make files expect a GNU C++ compiling environment and the new egcs compiler does not quite provide this. Our initial test at changing the compiler names did allow us to correctly compile the Shell Utilities. However, attempts at compiling the kernel driver failed due to some missing files in the RedHat kernel source tree. The news at RedHat suggests many upgrades are needed since much of their CDROM distribution needs updating. We will try this soon and report our results. We do wish to support VMELinux on RedHat systems.

July 14, 1998 Dynatem Board now works.
We have verified the VMELinux driver does access the VMEbus on the Dynatem DPC board. You may have trouble with older versions of Linux incorrectly accessing the Ethernet circuits. However, this issue should be resolved with the latest releases of Linux and the Tulip Ethernet drivers. None of this has any impact on the functionality of the VMELinux programs.

June 26, 1998 The free drivers have their own web site.
The software items licensed under the GNU Free Software Foundation Public Licence are now at their own web site. Visit WWW.VMELINUX.ORG for details. VMELinux.COM, this webpage, will become the commercial arm of the VMELinux Project. Other items moved to the ORG site are:

• VMELinux HOWTO Documentation
• VMELinux Download Directory

June 24, 1998 0.8a version released.
Many improvements are within this new release. No interrupts yet; That's planned for the fall. The distribution includes several Unix Shell utilities that make accessing the VMEbus easy. Download the latest distribution in the downloads directory at the VMELinux.org web site. Download 0.8a. Refer to the latest howto for documentation.

May, 1998 Example C++ Program Available
We have a crude program which provides a command line interface to the Universe driver. It is not much for looks and could use some tidying up, but it does work. It also provides a working example of how to talk to the driver with ioctl(), lseek() and all that. Here it is for download.

May, 1998 Interrupts
One missing part of the VMELinux Driver is interrupt handling ability. We don't have it... yet. We are mulling over the issues of the Universe chip to make sure we do this right. We appreciate any help from our users as this is a significant missing part of VMELinux. More to come soon as we understand some of the bugs of the Universe Chip.

February, 1998 Xycom Driver Available
Xycom Board VME driver available for download. See below.

February, 1998 GNU Licensing of VMELinux
We will offer the Base Level Kernel Driver and other utilities under the GNU License. Our goal is to make VMELinux available to as many VME applications it may suit.

February, 1998 VME Slave Device Drivers
The VME world has hundreds of VME slave modules. We will develop drivers for these boards on a consulting arrangement with each manufacturer. We will test, evaluate and approve VME Slave Drivers developed by VMELinux users and include them on this website. We believe this will be the most effective method of providing support to the VMELinux end users and system integrators.