coreboot September 2004

coreboot@coreboot.org

41 participants
123 discussions

RE: mkelfImage
by Dave Aubin 13 Sep '04

13 Sep '04

Hi, I recall getting that. You want to use Eric's 2.5 flavor. I've attached it here: Dave ________________________________ From: linuxbios-admin(a)clustermatic.org [mailto:linuxbios-admin@clustermatic.org] On Behalf Of Dave Belt Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 2:35 PM To: linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org Subject: mkelfImage There appear to be a couple versions of mkelfImage floating around and I've heard reports of varying degrees of reliability with them. Could anyone enlighten me on differences here? We're trying to boot Linux via Etherboot and are getting the following: Welcome to elfboot, the open sourced starter. January 2002, Eric Biederman. Version 1.3 Loading Etherboot version: 5.2.2 ROM segment 0x2e81 length 0x7938 reloc 0x00020000 CPU 1664 Mhz Etherboot 5.2.2 (GPL) http://etherboot.org Tagged ELF for [3C90X] get_memsizes | linuxbios Relocating _text from: [000244e0,00034330) to [efef01b0,eff00000) Probing pci nic... [3c905b-tpo100] 3C90X Driver 2.00 Copyright 1999 LightSys Technology Services, Inc. Portions Copyright 1999 Steve Smith Provided with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- MAC Address = 00:10:5A:A2:5A:82 Connectors present: 10Base-T / 100Base-TX. Searching for server (DHCP)... Me: 192.168.123.3, Server: 192.168.123.254, Gateway 192.168.123.254 Loading 192.168.123.254:vmlinuz.elf (ELF)... done Issuing RESET: elf_start | breakpoint = 0x0002ee44 Has anyone seen this before? Is this a problem with our Linux kernel or is the problem with Etherboot? Thanks in advance.

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mkelfImage
by Dave Belt 13 Sep '04

13 Sep '04

There appear to be a couple versions of mkelfImage floating around and I've heard reports of varying degrees of reliability with them. Could anyone enlighten me on differences here? We're trying to boot Linux via Etherboot and are getting the following: Welcome to elfboot, the open sourced starter. January 2002, Eric Biederman. Version 1.3 Loading Etherboot version: 5.2.2 ROM segment 0x2e81 length 0x7938 reloc 0x00020000 CPU 1664 Mhz Etherboot 5.2.2 (GPL) http://etherboot.org Tagged ELF for [3C90X] get_memsizes | linuxbios Relocating _text from: [000244e0,00034330) to [efef01b0,eff00000) Probing pci nic... [3c905b-tpo100] 3C90X Driver 2.00 Copyright 1999 LightSys Technology Services, Inc. Portions Copyright 1999 Steve Smith Provided with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- MAC Address = 00:10:5A:A2:5A:82 Connectors present: 10Base-T / 100Base-TX. Searching for server (DHCP)... Me: 192.168.123.3, Server: 192.168.123.254, Gateway 192.168.123.254 Loading 192.168.123.254:vmlinuz.elf (ELF)... done Issuing RESET: elf_start | breakpoint = 0x0002ee44 Has anyone seen this before? Is this a problem with our Linux kernel or is the problem with Etherboot? Thanks in advance.

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Re: epia m vga + memcpy update
by Li-Ta Lo 13 Sep '04

13 Sep '04

On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 11:44, Egbert Eich wrote: > > Cool. I'm going to route this info back to Jon Smirl who seems to be in > > charge of the DRI x86emu stuff hopefully he can merge in any > > improvements from his stuff. > > > > I would prefer to do this stuff myself as Jon is mostly working on > top of my old code. I would rather use the code from X.Org as a basis > for enhancements as it had more public exposure and testing. Are you working on the core instruction emulation or something else like the PCI BIOS you mentioned ? Ollie

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Re: epia m vga + memcpy update
by Richard Smith 13 Sep '04

13 Sep '04

Egbert Eich wrote: > > But testbios dosen't work on an ASUS P2B booting LB or COTS and my > > modified ATI vbios. Nor does LB+ADLO+BOCHS with the original M1 vbios. > > X with InitPrimary works both under COTS and LB but that was using > > using the orginal M1 bios not my "fixed" version. > > The X version has eveloved quite a lot and is a lot smarter now as the > version of vbios that it originally forked off. Where does the smartest version now live? X.org or whats in Xfree86 4.4? > > IO range requested by the card and the Legacy VGA ranges. Currently > > testbios lets the vbios access any port it wishes. The X emu must be > > doing this or the ATI M1 bios would not work. > > Currently the emulator in X doesn't do this either. > It intercepts certain port accesses like 0x43 and 0x5c and attempts to > emulate the action behind it. Also it tries to intercept PCI accesses, > however this is only true if they happen 32bit wise. So it just handles the timer. Well it does it better than testbios. Seems a sync would be a good thing. How hard is that currently? Do you have to pull the entire xc tree down?

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Re: epia m vga + memcpy update
by Li-Ta Lo 13 Sep '04

13 Sep '04

On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 02:08, Egbert Eich wrote: > Li-Ta Lo writes: > > > > Did they do anything on the "core" x86emu? Last time I checked, > > XF86 4.4.0 has almost the same x86emu as testbios. > > Any XF86 stuff may be outdated. > Then, what is the most updated thing? X.org ? > > > > BTW, I think a fork of x86emu is inevitable. If we want to move > > testbios into LinuxBIOS, we have to remove all OS/libc dependence > > from the emulator. > > > > A fork would be crazy. x86emu is hard enough to maintain as it is: > the main sources are hosted by scitech somewhere deep down under > then it is also living in the X.Org tree in extras/ where the stuff > that's maintained elsewhere exists. > Scitech has this stupid version control system called 'Perforce'. > I have been unable to commit my stuff back there although > Kendall Bennett and I have tired hard to make write access work for > me. > > Removing OS/libc dependences is a valid proposal which should be persued > in the main version. > I would like to move hosting someplace else. I could host it on > freedesktop.org - although it is not primarily desktop related. > I have not done it so far for lack of time, however if somebody > would volunteer to help we could get started on this. > Since we (LinuxBIOS) are pretty much depending on x86emu for initializing the VGA and probably other "obscured" device, I am willing to help. Ollie

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building romimage for tyan s2850 mainboard
by Sagiv Yefet 12 Sep '04

12 Sep '04

I am trying to build and run a romimage for tyan s2850: Hardware: No disks Superio : w83627hf Ethernet: broadcom Southbridge: 8111 It looks like the default mainboard configuration. In order to start I wanted to build only the normal image. Only to see some output in the console. I made the following changes in Config.lb: * put the romimage "fallback" statement in comment. * FALLBACK_SIZE =0. * HAVE_FALLBACK_BOOT = 0 * remove "fallback from build: buildrom ./linuxbios.rom ROM_SIZE "normal" * Use filo boot. I built the romimage, burn it and the console doesn't show output. The problem is not in the cable. What am I doing wrong ? Thanks, Sagiv

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about linux, linuxbios and bootup times
by linuxg33k 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

Hi everyone. I'm a new member, I joined the list to learn more about the Linuxbios project. A question for anyone that can point me in the right direction to information: Q: I read everything on linuxbios.org as well as googled until i got a nosebleed, but i can't find any real world examples of linuxbios + linuxdistro setups. I am looking right now to purchase a linux bios compatable mobo based on the list from linuxbios.org to play around with, but what i was wondering is, just how can linuxbios speed up the boot process of a linux based system? Pardon my newbieness, but I have never had a bios be anything more than a fraction of the total bootup time on any linux system, so does linuxbios have the capability to litterally boot a linux system to cli login prompt of any distro within seconds or not? I realize it's a general question, assume I'm running debian base install ( no x, no desktop environment, boot staright to command line), most of the bootup process is taken up by the bootup scripts checking the hardware and starting up various services (I probably have too many and unoptimized i'm sure but thats another issue alltogether). From everything that I have read, I am understanding that basically its a faster bios that jumps to the distros bootloader when done? Or does this redefine the bootup process where the linuxbios is the bootloader and upon coming to life jumps straight to the distro kernel? If it jumps to the distro bootloader surely the time savings are a few seconds at best? If linuxbios takes over some of the bootloader functions, how does this affect a typicall install if at all? Sorry for the overgeneralized questions, I just need a few answers here, even if vague to help me create a knowledge sandbox into which i can then drill down to proper understanding. By the way, i read an article recently of an interview with the president of Tyan. According to the interview Tyan will be shipping all motherboards with Linuxbios. I have no idea if they are using the real deal from cvs, or forking it, or what, but goddamn that really cool stuff. I'm hoping some of the answers to my question will mean that linux on the desktop has a bright future vis a vis Tyan at least. If anyone wants a copy of it, email me and I will attach the html document - I knew they would take it down as indeed they have. Thanks aforehand!!!! - Rob

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Thanks for all the great answers!
by linuxg33k 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

Wow! Allright that answers a whole lot then. I will have more answers when the mobo arrives, I think I'll order a Tyan and an Ecs depending on spec, etc. Does anyone have any recommendations for particular models? Any favourites and why? I understand how the fast boot times now work. This completely changes my pedestrian understanding of computer boot process - what you guys describe is revolutionary. I have a feeling my plans for systems upgrade will be drastically changed after i grok LB (we were planing on refreshing desktops and moving to debian, but LB alone opens up a whole new set of possibilites). As I have buying power for our company, I would like to send encouraging words to Tyan and Nvidia. Does anyone know of any 'in' emails i could send encouraging words to - the corporate websites hide behind low level cronies and fake webreply systems and I'm never sure if the message gets passed on or deleted? Obviously a lot of research is left to be done on our part, but if what i think is possible with LB, we will be standardizing on a single motherboard and single chipset and Linux Bios - this is a message I want to get to the right parties. As a former professional graphic/web designer, I'll take on the challenge of the website if the project needs help. The site is small so I can maintain it fairly easily, but as well, I think we can move to a CMS that would allow users to update info as they want without doing any html. The new mozilla.org website is a wonderfull example of a clean design that I prefer, perhaps something with different esthetics but similar clean layout would be appropriate? Just a thought. If any of the owners are interested email me, I can get started right away. I really think the first thing that is necessary is to toss up as much updated info as possible, so let's get going. As a side note, Linux Bios may or may need a logo like the one mozilla has. Now, the artist for mozilla far outstrips my talents, thats some world class logo work, but, what I thought would be neat tho is to have a LinuxBios official logo that manufacturers can put on their motherboards/systems to indicate it has a linux bios inside. Obviously my marketing side is showing up so if it's feeling a bit gross, I appologize. Any opinions on this idea? And thanks again for the torrent of answers, it's helped a great deal! - Rob

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Re: about linux, linuxbios and bootup times
by Trellix78＠aol.com 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

I think the nice thing about linuxbios is the flexibility it provides. You're not limited by what the mainboard manufacturer gives you and can be more creative. With a video chip, you can have accelerated video 2 seconds after the system boots like, say, the xbox. This is on a regular off-the-shelf motherboard. I've been working for the past few weeks on my epia M 10000 motherboard to do some nice things with the video subsystem in the BIOS. It's been great so far and the folks on the message board have done a fantastic job answering questions. I couldn't have gotten anywhere with a closed source BIOS.

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about linux, linuxbios and bootup times
by Ken Fuchs 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

Hi Rob, >I'm a new member, I joined the list to learn more about the Linuxbios >project. A question for anyone that can point me in the right direction >to information: Other then reading all the old (at least more recent) posts to this list, joining the list and working with LinuxBIOS are excellent ways to learn about LinuxBIOS. >Q: I read everything on linuxbios.org as well as googled until i got a >nosebleed, but i can't find any real world examples of linuxbios + >linuxdistro setups. I am looking right now to purchase a linux bios >compatible mobo based on the list from linuxbios.org to play around >with, but what i was wondering is, just how can linuxbios speed up the >boot process of a linux based system? The http://www.linuxbios.org/ web site is anywhere from 1-4 years out of date. No one is updating the web site and I believe the primary LinuxBIOS developers are looking for someone to keep the web site current. The LinuxBIOS developers are too busy designing/writing/porting/debugging code (including helping people get LinuxBIOS working a new mainboard, etc. Even if they had the time to update the web site, it would be better for someone with more skill in web design to do this type of work. >Pardon my newbieness, but I have >never had a bios be anything more than a fraction of the total bootup >time on any linux system, so does linuxbios have the capability to >literally boot a linux system to CLI login prompt of any distro within >seconds or not? I realize it's a general question, assume I'm running >debian base install ( no x, no desktop environment, boot straight to >command line), most of the bootup process is taken up by the bootup >scripts checking the hardware and starting up various services (I >probably have too many and unoptimized I'm sure but that's another issue >altogether). From everything that I have read, I am understanding >that basically its a faster bios that jumps to the distros bootloader >when done? Or does this redefine the bootup process where the linuxbios >is the bootloader and upon coming to life jumps straight to the distro >kernel? If it jumps to the distro bootloader surely the time savings >are a few seconds at best? If linuxbios takes over some of the >bootloader functions, how does this affect a typical install if at all? If a Linux system is taking more time to boot than the COTS BIOS takes to initialize and start a boot loader that Linux system needs a major tune up. Maybe it is not using DMA and perhaps starting up services that aren't needed, etc. LinuxBIOS goes into 32 bit mode within a few seconds of powerup/reset whereas a COTS BIOS initializes all hardware in 16 bit mode. Furthermore, LinuxBIOS only does the minimum hardware initialization that a Linux kernel doesn't do, so the Linux kernel finishes the hardware initialization. When the various layers of code (BIOS, OS) don't repeat the same initializations, this alone can drastically reduce boot up time. LinuxBIOS is composed to two parts, the LinuxBIOS kernel and a Linux kernel: The LinuxBIOS kernel initializes the hardware enough that a Linux kernel can finish the job. This initial kernel is often loaded from an ATA flash, since LinuxBIOS is too fast for most hard drives to be ready (not spun up to speed yet). This initial Linux kernel can be used as the final Linux kernel, but the original intent of the LinuxBIOS was to let the initial Linux kernel do the bulk of the hardware initialization and boot another Linux kernel from any device that the initial Linux kernel supports (Linux boots Linux). >Sorry for the overgeneralized questions, I just need a few answers here, >even if vague to help me create a knowledge sandbox into which i can >then drill down to proper understanding. Follow the discussion on the mailing list for a few months or follow selected threads in the archives or read the LinuxBIOS code for a better understanding of LinuxBIOS. If interested in using LinuxBIOS for AMD64 mainboards see: http://www.openbios.org/LinuxBIOS-AMD64.pdf BTW, Tyan supports LinuxBIOS on eight of its AMD-8000 chipset mainboards. See the Tyan directory in the LinuxBIOS source. Tyan also has LinuxBIOS working on one of its nVidia CK8-04 chipsets (including two CK8-04 chips), but this chip isn't officially released yet and nVidia hasn't yet decided to support LinuxBIOS, I beleive. Anyone interested in using LinuxBIOS on nVidia chipsets, please contact nVidia and let them know now. >By the way, i read an article recently of an interview with the >president of Tyan. According to the interview Tyan will be shipping all >motherboards with Linuxbios. I have no idea if they are using the real >deal from CVS, or forking it, or what, but goddamn that really cool >stuff. I'm hoping some of the answers to my question will mean that >linux on the desktop has a bright future vis a vis Tyan at least. If >anyone wants a copy of it, email me and I will attach the html document >- I knew they would take it down as indeed they have. All the code for Tyan AMD-8000 chipset based mainboards is already in the LinuxBIOS CVS codebase plus code for the S2735 mainboard. See freebios2/targets/tyan in the CVS tree. This clearly isn't all Tyan mainboards yet, but of course it doesn't count LinuxBIOS supported mainboards whose LinuxBIOS code isn't yet in CVS for a variety of reasons. I see that someone has recently posted a URL to the interveiw! Thanks. Sincerely, Ken Fuchs <kfuchs(a)winternet.com>

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coreboot September 2004