September 2002 - coreboot - mail.coreboot.org

Re: Need help with LinuxBIOS speech
by Christer Weinigel Sept. 16, 2002

Sept. 16, 2002

Ronald G Minnich <rminnich(a)lanl.gov> writes: > I like the slides a lot. > > can we put them on our web site at some point? Yes, of course. I think I'd like to put a little advertisment for my consulting business on each side (just my mail address and a link to my web page). I have actually written most of the presentation in a more verbose format, so I think that could be a better thing to put on the web. I'll try to clean this up a bit and post a link to it. The presentation went rather well I think, I managed to stay within the allocated time and think I managed to talk about most things that I wanted to. But the presentation was a bit of a disappointment, only five people showed up, a casualty of this being a rather specialized conference (Real time and Embedded Computing Conference) and that I had the absolutely last slot of the day when most people had already left; most other presentations seemed to have about 10 attendants. I did get a presentation out of it though and it sounds as if I might do a presentation at a couple of academic computer societies for friends so this could be rather fun. /Christer -- "Just how much can I get away with and still go to heaven?" Freelance consultant specializing in device driver programming for Linux Christer Weinigel <christer(a)weinigel.se> http://www.weinigel.se

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RE: Need help with LinuxBIOS speech
by STEPHAN,YANN (HP-France,ex1) Sept. 16, 2002

Sept. 16, 2002

I love this one: Less buggy <== Currently the Bios does some many things in order to support all OS, that the code is huge and still written in assembly language. I will say more debuggable than normal bios. Regards -----Original Message----- From: Christer Weinigel [mailto:christer@weinigel.se] Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 5:01 PM To: linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org Subject: Need help with LinuxBIOS speech Hi, it looks as if I might have to jump in and hold a 30 minute speech about LinuxBIOS at a conference here in Stockholm since the original speaker can't make it. I have about a week to prepare. *panics* The information I have about this so far is: > Target audience: Hardware designers, driver programmers, kernel > programmers but also people interested in faster startup times in > their embedded systems. (possible) things to talk about: > - What is a BIOS and especially, LinuxBIOS? > - What are the main benefits in using LinuxBIOS? > - What chipsets are supported by LinuxBIOS today? > - How does the Linux boot system work? > - How does a common x86-based board work? > - How does the initialization sequence work. > - What are the steps involved in creating a LinuxBIOS for this > board? Points that I do need help with are: > - What is a BIOS and especially, LinuxBIOS? I think I need a short introduction to LinuxBIOS and also a short history of where it came from. > - What are the main benefits in using LinuxBIOS? Maybe the rationale behind writing LinuxBIOS at all. > - What are the pros and cons with LinuxBIOS? Pros: Faster bootup. Tiny code. Tailored to the hardware. Written in C and uses 32 bit mode. Less buggy Portable (in theory) across architectures so that x86 and Alpha can boot the same way. Cons: Not as flexible as a normal BIOS. Requires hardware and chipset documentation, it's hard to keep up with the hardware development.. Hard to handle PCI cards with expansion ROMs on them that expect a standard PC BIOS. > - What chipsets are supported by LinuxBIOS today? Is there a list of supported chipsets? > - How does the Linux boot system work? > - How does a common x86-based board work? > - How does the initialization sequence work. These I think I have a rather good handle on. > - What are the steps involved in creating a LinuxBIOS for this > board? I can take the SC2200 port I did as an example here. By the way, one thing I'm not sure about, what is actually stored in the LinuxBIOS table? As far as I can tell right now the only thing there is the amount of memory in the system and the kernel command line. Is there anything else? (The PIRQ table is stored in the BIOS image itself if I understand correctly). Is there anything else missing from the list that I should talk about? Any help would be appreciated. /Christer -- "Just how much can I get away with and still go to heaven?" Freelance consultant specializing in device driver programming for Linux Christer Weinigel <christer(a)weinigel.se> http://www.weinigel.se _______________________________________________ Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

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Re: Need help with LinuxBIOS speech
by Christer Weinigel Sept. 16, 2002

Sept. 16, 2002

Hi again, I'm late as usual, but here are some slides that I'm planning to use for the presentation tomorrow. Any comments? Any glaring errors? http://zoo.weinigel.se/slides.pdf I'm actually a bit nervous, my spoken english is rather rusty and I haven't been talking in front of an audience in years... /Christer (off to sleep) -- "Just how much can I get away with and still go to heaven?" Freelance consultant specializing in device driver programming for Linux Christer Weinigel <christer(a)weinigel.se> http://www.weinigel.se

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Need help with LinuxBIOS speech
by Christer Weinigel Sept. 15, 2002

Sept. 15, 2002

Hi, it looks as if I might have to jump in and hold a 30 minute speech about LinuxBIOS at a conference here in Stockholm since the original speaker can't make it. I have about a week to prepare. *panics* The information I have about this so far is: > Target audience: Hardware designers, driver programmers, kernel > programmers but also people interested in faster startup times in > their embedded systems. (possible) things to talk about: > - What is a BIOS and especially, LinuxBIOS? > - What are the main benefits in using LinuxBIOS? > - What chipsets are supported by LinuxBIOS today? > - How does the Linux boot system work? > - How does a common x86-based board work? > - How does the initialization sequence work. > - What are the steps involved in creating a LinuxBIOS for this board? Points that I do need help with are: > - What is a BIOS and especially, LinuxBIOS? I think I need a short introduction to LinuxBIOS and also a short history of where it came from. > - What are the main benefits in using LinuxBIOS? Maybe the rationale behind writing LinuxBIOS at all. > - What are the pros and cons with LinuxBIOS? Pros: Faster bootup. Tiny code. Tailored to the hardware. Written in C and uses 32 bit mode. Less buggy. Portable (in theory) across architectures so that x86 and Alpha can boot the same way. Cons: Not as flexible as a normal BIOS. Requires hardware and chipset documentation, it's hard to keep up with the hardware development.. Hard to handle PCI cards with expansion ROMs on them that expect a standard PC BIOS. > - What chipsets are supported by LinuxBIOS today? Is there a list of supported chipsets? > - How does the Linux boot system work? > - How does a common x86-based board work? > - How does the initialization sequence work. These I think I have a rather good handle on. > - What are the steps involved in creating a LinuxBIOS for this > board? I can take the SC2200 port I did as an example here. By the way, one thing I'm not sure about, what is actually stored in the LinuxBIOS table? As far as I can tell right now the only thing there is the amount of memory in the system and the kernel command line. Is there anything else? (The PIRQ table is stored in the BIOS image itself if I understand correctly). Is there anything else missing from the list that I should talk about? Any help would be appreciated. /Christer -- "Just how much can I get away with and still go to heaven?" Freelance consultant specializing in device driver programming for Linux Christer Weinigel <christer(a)weinigel.se> http://www.weinigel.se

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Linuxbios for VIA EPIA motherboards?
by Nicholas Mistry Sept. 15, 2002

Sept. 15, 2002

I was wondering what is the status of the support on VIA EPIA motherboards w/ LinuxBIOS. I have dug through the archives quite a bit, and found that there has been someintrest w/ supporting the boards. Unfortunately i have not found any information as to howfar along it has gone. Thanks -Nick

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Re: fdisk DoC ?
by Antony Stone Sept. 15, 2002

Sept. 15, 2002

On Saturday 14 September 2002 1:41 pm, Clark Rawlins wrote: > On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 02:41:14PM +0100, Antony Stone wrote: > > Hi. > > > > Having successfully got LinuxBios to boot from a DoC device, I'm now > > trying to move on to having a root file system in the DoC as well, so I > > can do away with the hard disk altogether... > > > > I'm trying to follow the instructions in the LinuxBios FAQ for "How do I > > put a filesystem on DoC?" and I can't seem to get the DoC partitioned... > > > cwlinux uses: > nftl_format /dev/mtd0 0x100000 > erase /dev/mtd0 128 > dd conv=notrunc if=docipl of=/dev/mtd0 > dd conv=notrunc if=docipl of=/dev/mtd0 seek=1 > dd conv=notrunc if=linuxbios.block of=/dev/mtd0 seek=2 > dd conv=notrunc if=linux.bin.gz.block of=/dev/mtd0 seek=128 > sfdisk /dev/nftla < partition > dd if=fsimage of=/dev/nftla1 > > Where partition is: > # partition table of /dev/nftla > unit: sectors > > /dev/nftla1 : start= 1, size= 14265, Id=83 > /dev/nftla2 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 > /dev/nftla3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 > /dev/nftla4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 Thanks Clark - that worked a treat :-) I now have bootable kernel + 7Mbyte partition without using a hard disk. Has anyone here tried playing with Linux From Scratch http://www.linuxfromscratch.org to build the system to go into the root fs ? Antony. -- Having been asked to provide a reference for this man, I can confidently state that you will be very lucky indeed if you can get him to work for you.

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motherboard for vdr system
by Alessio Sangalli Sept. 14, 2002

Sept. 14, 2002

Hi. I would like to buy a motherboard for a VDR system: http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr This software uses DVB cards to receive digital television and transforms your PC in a powerful videorecorder - dvd player - divx mp3 etc etc etc As you can imagine, a very fast boot would be very appreciate, making it possible to completely replace a standalone digital receiver. I watched around and I found a shop selling PC-CHIPS motherboards. I need an AGP slot, and two or more PCI slots for DVB-cards, plus ethernet etc. I have a bit of fear the 815 is very limited in expansion, perhaps the 830 is better for me. Do you have any advice about motherboards? I've read archive mailing list and all but I still need some more informations. Will I be able to directly boot my own linux kernel, with IDE, XFS etc support? I need a hard-disk anyway, to record movies and load vdr software, etc. bye and thank you! as

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how to build the world's cheapest cluster? (fwd)
by Ronald G Minnich Sept. 13, 2002

Sept. 13, 2002

anybody know if this is the EPIA? ron ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2002 16:00:56 -0400 Subject: how to build the world's cheapest cluster? August 30, 2002 01:53 PM Via processors power sub-$200 LindowsOS PC By Tom Krazit MICROTEL COMPUTER SYSTEMS is selling a PC equipped with a C3 processor from Via Technologies and the LindowsOS operating system from Lindows.com Inc. exclusively at Walmart.com for less than $200. One of the cheapest retail desktop PCs available, the SYSMAR 710 is the first PC sold by a major U.S. retailer to contain the C3 processor from Via, a Via spokeswoman said Friday. The SYSMAR comes with an 800MHz C3 processor, 128M bytes of SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), a 10G-byte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive, and has a list price of $199.86. It does not include a monitor, modem, nor floppy disk drive, according to the Walmart.com Web site. The SYSMAR 715, which costs $218, is identical to the SYSMAR 710 but has a LAN card and a modem. The SYSMAR 715 was not available on Walmart.com at press time. Microtel also makes two other PCs for Walmart.com, the SYSMAR150 and SYSMAR151, which cost $299.84 and $399.72 respectively, and feature Microsoft's Windows XP Home edition operating system. The Windows PCs also use 800MHz C3 processors, and feature the same memory and hard drive specifications. The 151 comes with a 15-inch monitor. Walmart.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores, Microtel, and Lindows.com partnered to offer low-cost PCs in June, releasing eight different models that used processors from both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, priced between $299 and $599. Via is primarily known for its chipset business, but also makes the C3 and Cyrix processors. The C3 is designed to consume small amounts of power.

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fdisk DoC ?
by Antony Stone Sept. 13, 2002

Sept. 13, 2002

Hi. Having successfully got LinuxBios to boot from a DoC device, I'm now trying to move on to having a root file system in the DoC as well, so I can do away with the hard disk altogether... I'm trying to follow the instructions in the LinuxBios FAQ for "How do I put a filesystem on DoC?" and I can't seem to get the DoC partitioned... if I do: ./nftl_format /dev/mtd0 2097152 6291456 as the example shows, then the format appears to go okay, but when I modprobe nftl I get in dmesg: NFTL Media Headers at 0x0 and 0x100000 disagree. Could not find valid boot record. Could not mount NFTL device and fdisk won't recognise /dev/nftla Alternatively, though, if I run nftl_format without any offset or size parameters: ./nftl_format /dev/mtd0 again it appears to go okay, and when I modprobe nftl I get a successful /dev/nftla which fdisk *can* format. However, if I do that, how do I get my LinuxBios boot kernel into the DoC as well as the root file system ? I'm using an 8Mbyte DoC MD-2800-D08 and Linux kernel 2.4.19 Anyone know what I'm doing wrong ? Antony. -- If at first you don't succeed, destroy all the evidence that you tried.

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The DoC problem
by Ronald G Minnich Sept. 12, 2002

Sept. 12, 2002

Anybody have a good idea in the long term about how to solve the DoC mess. I really like this sis730 mainboard with DoC. It's neat to come up in busybox and have all the power of linux available even if the disk is not yet loaded with linux. But that won't work with 735 due to more complex chipset setup. So we have to use FLASH. Then we can't have the nice startup with the kernel etc. that we get with DoC. We need big flash. But we can't just put big flash in the IDE slot -- then we can't have a disk drive! Are we really stuck with 256K forever? is there some plugin that gives us FLASH AND a DoC? ron

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