glossary update...
Hi! I've attached an updated glossary of commonly used technical terms in the linuxBIOS community. It may or may not contain some misinterpretations/misunderstanding or irrelevant info etc., and there are some words/acronyms which I haven't found an explanation for (please feel free to fill me in :-). The intended audience for this glossary is linuxBIOS-newbies and it's purpose is to educate/remove the first obstacle for wannabe-linuxBIOS-hackers (like me :-). Is there any interest in adding this to the linuxBIOS wiki? Best regards Peter KMMIO (Memory-mapped I/O) and port I/O (also called port-mapped I/O or PMIO) are two complementary methods of performing input/output between the CPU and I/O devices in a computer. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/mmio PIO (Programmed Input/Output) interface is the original method used to transfer data between the CPU (through the IDE controller) and an IDE/ATA device. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/pio The Framebuffer is a part of RAM in a computer allocated to hold the graphics information for one frame or picture. This information typically consists of color values for every pixel on the screen. A framebuffer is either: # Off-screen, meaning that writes to the framebuffer don't appear on the visible screen # On-screen, meaning that the framebuffer is directly coupled to the visible display http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/framebuffer POST (Power On Self Test) is a test to check that devices the computer will rely on are functioning, and initializes devices. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/booting -- I2C - Inter-Integrated-Circuit, a bidirectional 2-wire bus for efficient inter-IC control. See 'http://www.esacademy.com/faq/i2c/index.htm' for more info. Code examples(?): ... -- VID - Vendor ID, a way of identifying the hardware manufacturer. See 'http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/bus/PCI/infreq.mspx' and 'http://pciids.sourceforge.net/' for more info. A way of obtaining info for your hardware is through the 'lspci' command. Simply type 'lspci -n' in the console (or an xterm) or 'lspci -vn' for more verbose output. -- DID - Device ID, a way of identifying the hardware in question. See VID (above) for more info. DMA (Direct Memory Access) allows certain hardware subsystems within a computer to access system memory for reading and/or writing independently of the main CPU. Examples of systems that use DMA: Hard Disk Controller, Disk Drive Controller, Graphics Card, Sound Card. DMA is an essential feature of all modern computers, as it allows devices of different speeds to communicate without subjecting the CPU to a massive interrupt load. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/direct%20memory%20access RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) is a concept whereby two or more computers communicate via DMA directly from main memory of one system to the main memory of another. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Remote%20Direct%20Memory%20Access The purpose of the VGAcon (VGA controller) is to isolate the details of VGA signal generation from all the other modules in a (hardware) design. It allows the pixel information to be written into its video memory using a very simple interface, while it is alone responsible for generating the required signals for displaying the pixel information on a VGA monitor. (Note: This is mostly relevant to a hardware design - the text is copied from a students fpga project) http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~singhd/241/vgacon.htm AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface). Describes the register-level interface for a SATA host controller. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ahci http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface). IEEE1394 (Firewire) and USB standard (mostly used by other companies than Intel) http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ohci http://developer.intel.com/technology/1394/download/ohci_11.htm UHCI (Universal Host Controller Interface). USB standard. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=uhci http://developer.intel.com/technology/usb/uhci11d.htm SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface Bus) is a very loose standard for controlling almost any digital electronics that accepts a clocked serial stream of bits.
Re: Fw: Re: Documentation [was: new FSF campaign ..]
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005, Ronald G. Minnich wrote: so, peter, you want to accumulate the Glossary for us :-) Sure. It's the least I could do. What would be required of me? I just downloaded a snapshot (the last time I tried cvs it didn't work), so I'll have a look at the code (I'm not good at C or x86 asm though). A small start might be: -- I2C - Inter-Integrated-Circuit, a bidirectional 2-wire bus for efficient inter-IC control. See 'http://www.esacademy.com/faq/i2c/index.htm' for more info. Code examples(?): ... -- VID - Vendor ID, a way of identifying the hardware manufacturer. See 'http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/bus/PCI/infreq.mspx' and 'http://pciids.sourceforge.net/' for more info. A way of obtaining info for your hardware is through the 'lspci' command. Simply type 'lspci -n' in the console (or an xterm) or 'lspci -vn' for more verbose output. -- DID - Device ID, a way of identifying the hardware in question. See above for more info. -- Is this too dumbed-down? I would like some connection with examples, hence the stub in the I2C section. Any suggestions/improvements/critique/comments welcome. And as someone else mentioned that explanation of config options is needed; why not use doxygen (or similar tool), which seems a really easy way to document the code and outputs, text, html, LaTeX etc.? Best regards Peter K ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Fw: Re: Documentation [was: new FSF campaign ..]
On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, Peter Stuge wrote: Exactly right. But with the right flash memory on the mainboard you can use the operating system (Linux) as payload directly. Ok, thanks. I've seen this discussed on this list; dependent on size of flash mem. I'm not sure I agree that the bar must be lowered. Much of the development going on in LinuxBIOS is _heavily_ technical and spans across quite a few different architectures. It's not right or useful to force developers to work and/or communicate below their capabilities, and certainly not in an open source project. I would hate it if someone tried to do that to me. I really don't want to force anyone to do anything they don't want to do. My request/suggestion/whatever was merely what someone else suggested (programmer's manual etc.), not dumb-down the project as a whole, or forcing developers to hand-hold newbies like me... I apologise, if it came across like that. Maybe it's my english (it's not my native language). I do believe however, that all the technical prerequisite knowledge should be listed, so that people can get up-to-speed on their own. I'll try to work for this and I think that the wiki is a great forum. That's a great idea. And I also think the wiki is a great thing to have. :-) SPD is Serial Presence Detect, the name of an I2C bus between the northbridge and all RAM modules. Each RAM module has an EEPROM with more or less correct information about how memory initialization code should set up the memory controller for correct size and optimal performance. Quite frequently the information is busted. :( snip These are short for Vendor ID and Device ID. VID and DID (or PID, Product ID) are id numbers assigned by organizations such as PCI-SIG and USBIF to hardware manufacturers allowing software to identify hardware in a reliable manner. The ids are stored inside the device, whether it's PCI or USB. Also true for PCMCIA/CardBus. Ok, thanks again for educating me! Best regards Peter K ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Documentation [was: new FSF campaign ..]
On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, Peter Stuge wrote: There are probably more sections that would be useful too. Technical jargon? I'm still a bit confused about what payload is and there's probably quite a few words/acronyms that are being used but it's hard to know exactly what they mean. Best regards Peter K ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Porting Linuxbios to Via P4m266A
On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, Bryan E. Chafy wrote: Although one gotcha would be anything that's timing related. Memory/IO access proxied through the serial port would also be orders of magnatude slower. When the DRAM test completes, we'll all be dead :) Also, rom bios code memory references would have to be excluded as well as anything that could upset the serial port. What about handling stuff like cpu/mmu state transitions (ie real mode to protected mode to unreal mode, etc)? Cache? Perhaps the proxied memory access could be limited to just a certain range (if known). My current understanding of how linuxbios works is very limited but, is there an absolute requirement that this should occur over a serial port? Best regards Peter K ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Fw: Re: Documentation [was: new FSF campaign ..]
On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, Anton Borisov wrote: Payload is file that holds, for instance, LAN ROM, i.e. software responsible for remoting loading from server. It's just an example. There are FAQs (try to google) which explain much of your questions. LinuxBIOS (initialises hardware) - payload (etherboot,OpenBIOS, FILO etc.) (- operating system)? Ok, but that was just an example. Technical jargon explanation is still needed to get into linuxbios. For instance: http://www.clustermatic.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2003-March/002240.html This mail mentions SPD,VID,DID,I2C etc. Does everybody know what these mean? To get more people interested in linuxbios one has to lower the bars, and technical jargon is a major blocker (at least for me). And yes, I do know what i2c is, and I think I know what spd is (ram speed?) but vid did does not ring a bell. For anyone not knowing what i2c is I'll recommend: http://www.esacademy.com/faq/i2c/index.htm Best regards Peter K ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Linuxbios and co...
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005, Eric W. Biederman wrote: linuxbios is a subset of freebios that seems to equal the entire set. openbios for the most part runs on top of Linuxbios. So openbios is part of linuxbios which is part of freebios? Best regards Peter K ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: Via passing out linuxbios with out GPL?
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005, Ronald G. Minnich wrote: -Linux bios team http://www.viaarena.com/guides/WinCE/fastboot%20v2.03.zip Looks like via is passing out linux bios, with out ever saying any thing about GPL or linuxbios.org... we've got a couple of GPL violators in the linuxbios space. I know Orion Microsystems has got caught between a rock and a hard place and is distributing linuxbios-based systems without releasing sources; I have no idea if this via fastboot is linuxbios or not; via denies that it is. I downloaded the above zip file, unzipped it and did a quick 'strings */BIOS* | grep -i linux' which resulted in: Try to load Linux(0x%x) at dev 0x%x LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Found file system used by Linux.(File System ID = 0x%x) LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) bash-2.05b$ strings */* | grep -i linux Try to load Linux(0x%x) at dev 0x%x LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Not a Linux kernel image. Linux(non-ELF), Linux version is very old. LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Linux(non-ELF), Try to load Linux(0x%x) at dev 0x%x LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Found file system used by Linux.(File System ID = 0x%x) LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Try to load Linux(0x%x) at dev 0x%x LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Found file system used by Linux.(File System ID = 0x%x) LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Try to load Linux(0x%x) at dev 0x%x LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Found file system used by Linux.(File System ID = 0x%x) LinuxBIOS LinuxBIOS Jump to Linux(0x%lx, 0x%lx) Perhaps FSF or EFF can help? Best regards Peter K ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: OT, Linuxbios usage...
On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, Ronald G. Minnich wrote: I think you want a true emulator for this, did you look at qemu? Yep, got a pointer from R.Smith. Thanks! Best regards Peter K -- We Can Put an End to Word Attachments: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
OT, Linuxbios usage...
Hi! I was just wondering if it's possible to use linuxbios as a kind of virtualisation machine, meaning that I could use linuxbios to snoop windows drivers for register hunting (to get real 3D-gfx-support for instance)? This means that windows would run as a virtual os. Best regards Peter K -- We Can Put an End to Word Attachments: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: OT, Linuxbios usage...
On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, Richard Smith wrote: Not really. LinuxBIOS is pretty much for booting live hardware. What I think you wan't is the bochs project, VMware or Win4lin. Well, if snooping is going to work the windows drivers has to talk to the hardware, which vmware bochs doesn't support. I'm not saying that linuxbios could do it today but was merely asking if it was theoretically possible. Afaicu, when linuxbios (or any bios for that matter) has started the operating system it doesn't run anymore since it basic functions are fullfilled (hardware setup loading of os). A virtualisation machine much like vmware or bochs, except that this machine would let the operating run on the hardware instead of emulating the hardware (am I making sense?). Best regards Peter K -- We Can Put an End to Word Attachments: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: OT, Linuxbios usage...
On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, Richard Smith wrote: So you mean some sort of HAL like the VM on a IBM370 does. Yes. Possible but linuxBIOS is a _long_ way from that. And it's not really compatible with its overall goal which is to get the hardware up enough that a linux kernel can take over. Load a payload into ram and jump to that. I know. But isn't one of linuxBIOS goal to have a stable, remote configurable bios for use in clusters? Wouldn't a vm (or hal if you will) be even more useful than a Basic Input Output System? The qemu is a target in V2 if you start working with that you may be able to do what you want. Yes, it looks interesting... Thanks for the input! Best regards Peter K -- We Can Put an End to Word Attachments: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: 855gme chip set support
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005, Ronald G. Minnich wrote: That is an issue. AMD is very friendly, but some third parties (Nvidia, ServerWorks) are very unfriendly. It remains to be seen whether the idea of an open source BIOS is viable, in the face of such opposition from the chipset vendors. How 'friendly' is VIA? Best regards Peter K -- We Can Put an End to Word Attachments: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html ___ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Re: bios documentation
--- Mathieu Deschamps [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, Here's what i've found for low level programmers :] It's a doc on PCAT BIOS, detailling every interruptions and their values .This is just fine a trusted adress but it's all in french. If you're looking for these type of infos go and have a look : http://www.qsl.net/f6flv Is there an english version of this (http://www.qsl.net/f6flv/docbios.html)? Best regards Peter Karlsson _ Gratis e-postadress --- http://www.mailamig.nu ___ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
