October 2002 - coreboot - mail.coreboot.org

RFC tagged payload
by steven james Oct. 25, 2002

Oct. 25, 2002

Greetings, I've been working with a tagging system so that multiple payloads in firmware can be selected from serial at boot time. The scheme adds a 16 byte tag block in front of each payload containing a $TAG$ signature, additional block count, a payload length (optional, may be 0), and a name string. The idea is to search for tags in the ROM, present the name strings in a list and allow selection of a particular target. The stream is then positioned just past the tag and passed to elfboot. changes: elfboot no longer calls stream->init(), it presumes that has been done already. add stream methods: searchtags gettags loadtag search tags performs the search and specifies the neded buffer size to hold the result. gettags loads the tags into a provided buffer for presentation loadtag positions the stream just after the selected tag index (0 based) for backwards compatability: Where no tags are found, the stream is positioned at the beginning where the stream->searchtags == NULL, presume the stream object doesn't support tags. Just call init and pass it to elfboot. Yes, No, Comments? G'day, sjames -- -------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs ... ........ ..... .... 230 peachtree st nw ste 701 the original linux labs atlanta.ga.us 30303 -since 1995 http://www.linuxlabs.com office 404.577.7747 fax 404.577.7743 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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movnti
by steven james Oct. 25, 2002

Oct. 25, 2002

Greetings, Recent ramtest and spotcheck.inc use the movnti instruction to bypass the cache when writing. gas 2.9.5 handles everything but that instruction. options: 1. don't use movnti 2. make it configurable 3. shut up and update binutils :-) Comments? G'day, sjames -- -------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs ... ........ ..... .... 230 peachtree st nw ste 701 the original linux labs atlanta.ga.us 30303 -since 1995 http://www.linuxlabs.com office 404.577.7747 fax 404.577.7743 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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root file system where
by OliverArnold＠via.com.tw Oct. 25, 2002

Oct. 25, 2002

Hello World, I try to set up a LinuxBIOS System. What i really can not understand is the following: When I Flash the root filesystem into the BIOS Flash rom, where do i tell the kernel to mount it? How does that work? Thank you Oliver

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RE: AW: DOC vs. IDE
by McMechan, James Oct. 24, 2002

Oct. 24, 2002

Actually it was worse even in 2.4, the flash detection will disable the other device e.g. hda=harddisk hdb=flash core probes hda prints out hda detection everything seems fine core probes hdb prints out hdb detection *** silently disables hda *** system tries to boot from hda dies as device is not present. user goes insane because it is printed in the log as being detected see about line 169 of linux-2.4.19/drivers/ide/ide-probe.c I have a system with soldered in flash that with a hard disk is hdb I have to pass hdb=noprobe to prevent that system from failing The comments indicate that this is put in to prevent wasting time on probing non existent slave device but it is disabling the master device if the slave is flash :( > ---------- > From: Richard A. Smith > Reply To: Richard A. Smith > Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 14:28 > To: linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org > Subject: Re: AW: DOC vs. IDE > > On Wed, 23 Oct 2002 14:28:23 -0600 (MDT), Ronald G Minnich wrote: > > > On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Christopher Bergeron wrote: > > > > > That actually sounds like a brilliant idea. I wonder if anyone on the > > > list can confirm performance... does the CFcard appear as a standard > IDE > > > disk or is there a driver or anything necessary? > > > > we're doing it here on the PCM-5823-A2 geode cards. We use CF as > /dev/hdc, > > there is no /dev/hd1. Works fine. > > > > I'll pipe in a little bit of personal experience here. If you are > _just_ using a CF with an IDE adapter then all is well and things > will work great. > > During bringup and debug though its nice to have a big HD with a full > linux distribution on on it so you can develope on your target. > > However if you are using a CF _and_ a normal IDE drive you may run > into a gotcha. In the 2.2 linux IDE code there are clauses that if a > CF device is dectected on hda it will NOT probe for hdb. Same goes > for hdc and hdd. There is no output telling you its skipping it > either. Apparently there were some early CF devices that did some > funky stuff with the diag signal (drive dection) and Andre (the 2.2 > IDE maintainer) chose to blacklist all CF devices. > > The fix is to feed the kernel some parameter like ide0=flash or > something similar to make it go ahead and probe. > > I haven't looked at the 2.4.x IDE code so I don't know if it carried > over or not. > > But if you mysteriously don't have an hdb with a CF hooked up in your > system go check the IDE probing code before you pull you hair out > trying to figure out whats wrong with your hardware like I did. > > -- > Richard A. Smith Bitworks, Inc. > rsmith(a)bitworks.com 479.846.5777 x104 > > Sr. Design Engineer http://www.bitworks.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Linuxbios mailing list > Linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios > >

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Re: AW: DOC vs. IDE
by Dave Dworin Oct. 24, 2002

Oct. 24, 2002

I doubt if CF is reliable to replace IDE disks. I own a CF digital camera and have experienced data loss. It seems that data loss/file corruption is quite common on CF. Any different experience? Dave >From: "Richard A. Smith" <rsmith(a)bitworks.com> >Reply-To: "Richard A. Smith" <rsmith(a)bitworks.com> >To: "linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org" <linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org> >Subject: Re: AW: DOC vs. IDE >Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 16:28:28 -0500 > >On Wed, 23 Oct 2002 14:28:23 -0600 (MDT), Ronald G Minnich wrote: > > > On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Christopher Bergeron wrote: > > > > > That actually sounds like a brilliant idea. I wonder if anyone on the > > > list can confirm performance... does the CFcard appear as a standard >IDE > > > disk or is there a driver or anything necessary? > > > > we're doing it here on the PCM-5823-A2 geode cards. We use CF as >/dev/hdc, > > there is no /dev/hd1. Works fine. > > > >I'll pipe in a little bit of personal experience here. If you are >_just_ using a CF with an IDE adapter then all is well and things >will work great. > >During bringup and debug though its nice to have a big HD with a full >linux distribution on on it so you can develope on your target. > >However if you are using a CF _and_ a normal IDE drive you may run >into a gotcha. In the 2.2 linux IDE code there are clauses that if a >CF device is dectected on hda it will NOT probe for hdb. Same goes >for hdc and hdd. There is no output telling you its skipping it >either. Apparently there were some early CF devices that did some >funky stuff with the diag signal (drive dection) and Andre (the 2.2 >IDE maintainer) chose to blacklist all CF devices. > >The fix is to feed the kernel some parameter like ide0=flash or >something similar to make it go ahead and probe. > >I haven't looked at the 2.4.x IDE code so I don't know if it carried >over or not. > >But if you mysteriously don't have an hdb with a CF hooked up in your >system go check the IDE probing code before you pull you hair out >trying to figure out whats wrong with your hardware like I did. > >-- >Richard A. Smith Bitworks, Inc. >rsmith(a)bitworks.com 479.846.5777 x104 >Sr. Design Engineer http://www.bitworks.com > > >_______________________________________________ >Linuxbios mailing list >Linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org >http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios _________________________________________________________________ Unlimited Internet access for only $21.95/month. Try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/2monthsfree.asp

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PIC question. (fwd)
by adam＠www.missl.cs.umd.edu Oct. 24, 2002

Oct. 24, 2002

[PS: Can I somehow tell mailman to accept my email from multiple addresses?] hello I'm trying to set "bios classic/dos" like state on the winfast 6300max/sis630 motherboard. one of the issues I'm having is that it seems that interrupt 9 (keyboard) is not beging tiggered. (this is after linuxbios finish booting and I start bochs bios). Initially I have suspected that the PIC in the sis630 is not getting programmed. However, going over boch's bios sources I found out that it does DO program PIC..so it is not the issue here. (relevant code at end of email). Thus the question is : What is the extra step I'm missing that has to be run after linuxbios finish but before attempting to program PIC for bios/dos style interrupt mapping? Ideas? ;; PIC mov al, #0x11 ; send initialisation commands out 0x20, al out 0xa0, al mov al, #0x08 out 0x21, al mov al, #0x70 out 0xa1, al mov al, #0x04 out 0x21, al mov al, #0x02 out 0xa1, al mov al, #0x01 out 0x21, al out 0xa1, al -- Adam http://www.eax.com The Supreme Headquarters of the 32 bit registers

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via information
by OliverArnold＠via.com.tw Oct. 24, 2002

Oct. 24, 2002

hey, nice to see, that you are working on projects wirth our epia mainboard. what information do you need for the port? perhaps i can organise something ... oliver

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(no subject)
by hill91 Oct. 24, 2002

Oct. 24, 2002

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Re: RLX 800i Info?
by Bari Ari Oct. 24, 2002

Oct. 24, 2002

Mark Weinstein wrote: >I don't think that should be a problem. What I am concerned about the most is that from what I understand, since teh RLX can remotely manage/monitor their blades, I didnt know if you would still be able to poll or information or not. > >Have you done one of these installs? Is it a simple pop-in chip or do you have to REALLY hack the board and resolder, etc? That worries me a little. :) > >Also, is there any possible way to remotely reboot a LinuxBIOS machine from a master server other than the obsious shutdown or reboot commands? > > > According to Ron: "we committed support for the RLX 800i blades. There are PIII-based blades that use the Micron 21PAD northbridge. The 21PAD is a fantastic design and the company has been very helpful with information. The RLX blade is also quite nice. Due to space limitations on the flash, we can only fit Etherboot or 9load; Linux kernel is too large at present" Maybe Ron can shed more light on the RLX port. Bari.

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810LMR LinuxBIOS setup
by James Alton Oct. 24, 2002

Oct. 24, 2002

Hello again, I had previously written about which BIOS chip to use, I am wondering now if video and sound will work on the 810LR. I have examined the CVS code and it seems that it doesn't really do anything but set up irq tables for vid/snd, and I figure the linux kernel does the rest. I am pretty sure vid/snd will work but I am wondering if I am wrong in assuming that. Oh, and also, is there a way for LinuxBIOS to just have etherboot and have etherboot load the kernel over the network as it usually does? (Could I use the onboard 2megabit BIOS?) James Alton jalton(a)olsh.cx

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