Is this list still alive? I don't see any links to mail archives, but the files in the latest source archive are about 10 months old. I might be using the OpenBIOS code in an embedded project. First I am going to play around with it on my home PC, where I already have the VIA 82Cxxx databook. Once I get that working, I'll probably add support for Intel PIIX4 chipsets, they look pretty easy. Can motherboard chipset coding be done in C? If not, what needs to be fixed before this can happen? Also, is www.openbios.org DNS down? I can't seem to complete a lookup, much less a web hit. Thanks, Jeff -- Custom driver development | Never worry about theory as long Open source programming | as the machinery does what it's | supposed to do. -- R. A. Heinlein - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
And FWIW, there is a 16-bit C compiler that the ELKS guys use, at http://www.tunes.org/~fare/files/asm/bcc-95.3.12.src.tgz -- Custom driver development | Never worry about theory as long Open source programming | as the machinery does what it's | supposed to do. -- R. A. Heinlein - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
More importantly, borland released (*free, for real*) TurboC to the web, which supports far pointers, among other things. Joseph
-----Original Message----- From: owner-openbios@elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de [mailto:owner-openbios@elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de]On Behalf Of Jeff Garzik Sent: Thursday, September 16, 1999 12:50 AM To: openbios@elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de Subject: [OpenBIOS] Re: openbios and via
And FWIW, there is a 16-bit C compiler that the ELKS guys use, at http://www.tunes.org/~fare/files/asm/bcc-95.3.12.src.tgz -- Custom driver development | Never worry about theory as long Open source programming | as the machinery does what it's | supposed to do. -- R. A. Heinlein - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
- To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
"Joseph D. Foley" wrote:
More importantly, borland released (*free, for real*) TurboC to the web, which supports far pointers, among other things.
And probably optimizes better too... But I'll have to run it under DOSemu, as I don't want to install MS-DOS or FreeDOS. :) BTW, can the OpenBIOS firmware be tested from Linux or a boot disk, without having to flash the development code into flash mem? It looks like it wouldn't be hard to integrate Linux's bios32.c into OpenBIOS, to provide PCI support. And I have an Intel PIIX, a popular chipset, in addition to Via, so maybe I can add Via and PIIX4, once PCI support is in. (both chipsets are generally controlled via PCI) Finally, another question: Does OpenBIOS ('make config ; make') built a 32-bit protected mode image, or a 16-bit image? The make output seems to imply both, though most of the code I look at is 16-bit. Can we do _everything_ in protected mode? Personally, I think doing everything in C is the best choice, as you can more easily compile code to be either 16-bit or 32-bit. That way ROMs can choose whether they want larger, faster firmware, or smaller but slower firmware. Regards, Jeff -- Custom driver development | Never worry about theory as long Open source programming | as the machinery does what it's | supposed to do. -- R. A. Heinlein - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
This network boot loader project is interesting: http://nilo.on.openprojects.net/ Most the things it references is OsKit, which looks to potentially be very valuable to OpenBIOS: http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/oskit/ -- Custom driver development | Never worry about theory as long Open source programming | as the machinery does what it's | supposed to do. -- R. A. Heinlein - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
The code is oskit is a good reference... but the kit itself, IMHO, is a mess. And *very* large. Joseph
-----Original Message----- From: owner-openbios@elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de [mailto:owner-openbios@elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de]On Behalf Of Jeff Garzik Sent: Thursday, September 16, 1999 3:01 PM To: openbios@elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de Subject: [OpenBIOS] some links
This network boot loader project is interesting: http://nilo.on.openprojects.net/
Most the things it references is OsKit, which looks to potentially be very valuable to OpenBIOS: http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/oskit/
-- Custom driver development | Never worry about theory as long Open source programming | as the machinery does what it's | supposed to do. -- R. A. Heinlein - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
- To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
Hi, I found something interesting in the back of a motherboard manual, the section is headed "Uncompressed Initialization Codes", with the subtitle "The following runtime checkpoint hex codes are listed in order of execution. These codes are uncompressed in F0000h shadow RAM." There follows around 100 codes, with a textual description of each step. Would anyone be interested in this info (I may try and track down an online copy, as I'm not keen on doing that much typing). Does anyone have any opinions on the legality aspect of posting this info? Tim. - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
Yup this list is still alive, it just goes through some VERY quiet patches. If you're one of the lucky few, you might spark another flurry of activity, but who knows? Sam. - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
At 00:44 16/09/99 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
Is this list still alive? I don't see any links to mail archives, but the files in the latest source archive are about 10 months old.
Well, I'm listening!
... Can motherboard chipset coding be done in C? If not, what needs to be fixed before this can happen?
Yes. Chipset registers are normally accessed via I/O ports. Most C compilers provide appropriate functions such as: unsigned char inportb (unsigned short _port); unsigned short inportw (unsigned short _port); void outportb (unsigned short _port, unsigned char _data); void outportw (unsigned short _port, unsigned short _data); and/or unsigned char inp(unsigned short _port); unsigned short inpw(unsigned short _port); void outp(unsigned short _port, unsigned char _data); void outpw(unsigned short _port, unsigned short _data); The actual types vary between C implementations. Output functions may not be void: they may return the same _data.
Also, is www.openbios.org DNS down? I can't seem to complete a lookup, much less a web hit.
I can't access it site either. I believe information about this can be found at <http://www.freiburg.linux.de/openbios/>. -------- At 14:44:11 16/09/99 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
Finally, another question: Does OpenBIOS ('make config ; make') built a 32-bit protected mode image, or a 16-bit image? The make output seems to imply both, though most of the code I look at is 16-bit.
Can we do _everything_ in protected mode?
BIOS normally operates in real mode, except for identifying the processor and certain POST tests done in protected mode. All calls from the operating system or application program into the BIOS (via software interrupts) will be done in real mode. All calls out of the BIOS (e.g.: to external BIOS ROMs detected during the ROM scan; to the boot code on the boot sector of the disk containing the operating system) must also be in real mode. Apart from these requirements, there is no reason in principle why internal portions of BIOS code should not run in protected mode. However in practice I think you would find it very inconvenient having to switch modes all the time. -------- At 18:37:48 16/09/99 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
... What needs to be done, to write chipset drivers in C?
For a start you will need a fully detailed data sheet on the chipset, and any applications notes and code examples you can find on the chipset's manufacturer's web site. -------- Clive - To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@freiburg.linux.de with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
participants (5)
-
Clive Jenkins -
Jeff Garzik -
Joseph D. Foley -
s.jacobson＠xtra.co.nz -
Tim Small