Re: Supporting extension ROMs and beyond...
> If I stick with this requirement that the VGA roms get supported by an > external ELF piece, I have to do this: > > linuxbios -> external ELF bit that does VGA ROMs -> some other bit that > loads linux from flash -> linux > I tend to agree with Sone that much of these functions should be seperated into ELFs, but I did so on the assumption that we had a framework to return to LinuxBIOS already. Is that still in the works? It seemed to me like a utility such as Steven James' Bare Metal Toolkit, which seeks out ELF images in ROM could then execute them in order: linuxBIOS -> VGA Search and Init ROM ELF <- Back to linuxBIOS linuxBIOS -> Polled IDE & File Systems Support ELF Success: -> Linux Failure <- Back to LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS -> Etherboot tftp boot ELF Success: -> Linux Failure <- Back to LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS -> Last Ditch Effort Floppy Boot ELF Success: -> Linux Failure <- Back to LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS out of options and says so. All of that could fit in a 256KB part while providing several fallbacks and choices. And it still serves a purpose when EEPROMs are big and roomy, as tasks like a VGA Seek and Init ELF can perform their task without getting LB2 dirty before going to Linux. The complexity of returning to LB to then execute the next ELF image seems trivial next to maintaining polled ide, floppy, INT15, and all these other features right in LB. Thanks for concideration before flames :) - Adam Agnew ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Supporting extension ROMs and beyond...
Adam Agnew wrote: No one really wants LinuxBIOS to support legacy BIOS services. However, the need for them keeps creeping in (I believe Ron plans to add int15 to have better support for some vga roms). True, and too bad if any int's are added, I agree with Linus' original comment that "we don't need no stinking BIOS...", but I agree that reverse engineering these complex VGA chips is no easy task. However, I am going to continue to do it as I have time. I don't know if there is a good argument for this other than religious convictions. I seem to get a certain amount of self satisfaction out of booting linux without ever going into 16-bit mode, save the first instruction or two. And it is disconcerting to see that linux is starting to use BIOS calls in some places, like power management stuff (AFAIR). -Steve ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Supporting extension ROMs and beyond...
On 8 Aug 2003, Eric W. Biederman wrote: > But beyond that having etherboot separate has proved very valuable. agree. In general, having "THE PAYLOAD" separate is a good deal. I would not want to link, e.g., 9load into linuxbios, and I can't even build those two on the same system. My doubts concern the multiple payload scenario. ron ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Using USB Flash drives instead of CF
Hello, I think this link can help you: http://www.8ung.at/spblinux/concept.htm#usb There is an part about usb storage media and linux kernel... -- Luis André Pacheco http://www.neuralbit.com ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Flash chip identified in BIOS Savior PMC4
To answer one of my own questions - The flash chip in the Bios Savior RD1-PMC4 is the PMC Pm49FL004. (Manufacturer ID: 0=0x9D, 2=0x7F; Device ID 1=0x6E) http://www.pmcflash.com/resource_center/docs/Pm49FL002%2D004%2D008%20V1%2E1%2Epdf Regards, Jeff ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: S2880
Ron, After swap _ROMBASE etc to after ROM_SECTION_SIZE and ROM_SECTION_OFFSET. I can switch to the normal mode. But in fallback mode and normal mode ( after reboot) still got problem. ~ # cmos_util -d # The CMOS Definition table was not found in ram # CMOS definition table was not found in RAM memory # Looking for definitions in cmos.layout file Can not open config file cmos.layout Regards Yinghai Lu -邮件原件- 发件人: YhLu 发送时间: 2003年8月6日 11:18 收件人: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; ron minnich 抄送: Stefan Reinauer; [EMAIL PROTECTED] 主题: S2880 Eric, It seems the image that built with can not switch to Normal booting. 1. In Fallback mode, after power on I can use cmos_util. 2. after rebooting it is still in Fallback mode,and can not cmos_util, it said can not find option table in the ram. And can not access cmos.layout. When I using old tool, I can switch to normal mode, but need to change boot_option and last_boot from fallback to normal. regards Yinghai Lu ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Supporting extension ROMs and beyond...
On Fri, 8 Aug 2003, YhLu wrote: > Where is the VGA BIOS support? Still in freebios? it's the one that SONE used in linuxbios, he can describe again how it is enabled. We are using it here for NVidia cards. ron p.s. but it doesn't work on nvidia yet! ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Supporting extension ROMs and beyond...
On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 03:17:26PM -0600, Eric W. Biederman wrote: > Adam Agnew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > No one really wants LinuxBIOS to support legacy BIOS services. However, > > the need for them keeps creeping in (I believe Ron plans to add int15 to > > have better support for some vga roms). In the meantime, with a little > > hacking you can probably get LinuxBIOS working with Bochs BIOS to do the > > same job. Please see freebios/util/ADLO, it currently works for booting > > Windows 2000 on SiS630 boards with LinuxBIOS and you probably only need > > to make a few changes in loader.S to get it to work on your board too. > > Given that Bochs BIOS aka ADLO works. That is solution for supporting > binary only x86 options roms. > > Nothing I have seen requires these things to be up terribly early, and without > source we can't bring them up early anyway. > > Other directions similar directions are OpenBIOS for Open firmware support. > And at some point we might even do EFI support. > > However none of this will get into the core of LinuxBIOS, they will all be > separate ELF loadable components like etherboot. > > The project will still work on them, but they are not components of the core. I thought I would get comments like this. So, we need an external program that provides legacy BIOS compatibility, like ADLO. However, using Bochs BIOS as a base does not look very good idea to me. Adding more code to such a fragile piece of code is almost impossible to me. It's already broken in many ways when dealing with real hardware, for instance, IDE detection is wrong, it tries to probe device presence by writing and reading registers without checking BSY bit cleared. It's violation of ATA spec and that's why one of my drive is not detcted while spinning up. Bochs BIOS is all written this way since Bochs' emulated hard drives never spin up. Also, Bochs BIOS is providing deep level of compatibility, such as hardcoded entry points, and I guess they are unneeded to support option ROMs (and loading modern OS), they only contribute to make it hard to maintain. OTOH, current VGABIOS support in LinuxBIOS can be extended in a lot cleaner way, since it's 32-bit GCC code. So, my suggestion is to move the legacy BIOS support of LinuxBIOS to a new standalone ELF executable, and extend it to support general PCI option ROMs, and optionally IPL from first drive. > The really fun prospect is to put general option ROM support into ADLO and > have Etherboot as an Option ROM implementing the network boot support. Last time I tried ADLO->Etherboot worked. ADLO reserves 64KB for VGABIOS but my VGABIOS is 48KB and ide_disk.zrom is just 16KB so it was easy to have it there. Bochs BIOS already has code to find and call option ROMs when they are on memory already. -- Takeshi ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: quartet boot
On Thu, 7 Aug 2003, Stefan Reinauer wrote: > It looks to me like it's a bad idea[tm] to set the resource map at all > before knowing anything about the machine's resources. Is this the right time to fill out the "probe" and "present" stuff that Greg mentioned for the static cpu map? ron ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: DoC on EPIA-M with DIP2PLCC adapter -- instead of 256kbyte bioschip
On Fri, 8 Aug 2003, Niki Waibel wrote: > my plan is still to use a DoC 2000 on an EPIA-M mobo > with a DIP2PLCC adapter -- instead of the original > 256kbyte (PLCC) bios chip. that won't work, as the 2000 does not have an addressable boot block like the 2001. ron ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Datasheets for EPIA-M10000
>Can anyone help with info on VIA CLE266, VT8235, VT6103, VT1616, VT1662, VT6307S, >anything would be appreciated or have people just used the linux kernel source >for their information??? >James. VIA doesn't give out datasheets easily, for the most part they are available only under NDA, probably so they don't have to be fighting the US patent insanity all the time. Look at viarena.com, more information is there, and try to convince VIA reps you're a serious developer. Contrast that with this page: http://www.national.com/pf/SC/SC1200.html Anyone can anonymously download the geode SC1200 datasheet without any hassle at all, and the doc is accurate and complete. Sometimes VIA's datasheets raise more questions than they answer... -Dave ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
ClearWater533 / Winbond Datasheet?
I'm trying to get a Clearwater 533 board up (the SuperMicro X5DPL-IGM) without success. Or well, there's probably success, but I wouldn't know about it because the serial port throws out only question marks and periods :) The only time I see anything is when i reboot into LinuxBIOS from the original BIOS, though its just the Restarting system. Copying LinuxBIOS to ram. Jumping to LinuxBIOS. LinuxBIOS-1.0.0 Fri Aug 8 02:27:40 EDT 2003 rebooting... ..?.?.?.?...??.?.?.???.??.?.??.??.?.?.?. and so on.. Therefore, I believe the problem is the Winbond SuperI/O. The product number is W83627HF-AW and perhaps that's somewhat different than the W83627HF. So my question is, does anyone know where a datasheet for W83627HF-AW can be found (it's not among those offered at winbond.com), know someone at winbond i could talk to, or have any further insights on the matter? - Adam Agnew ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
