August 2006 - coreboot - mail.coreboot.org

Re: [LinuxBIOS] BIOS Saver RD1
by Ken Fuchs June 5, 2007

June 5, 2007

> On Wed, Aug 03, 2005 at 11:59:20AM +0900, Jun OKAJIMA wrote: > > Probably, most guys here use BIOS Saver. > > And it works well? > > In mine, RD1 for PLCC gets not being writable suddenly. > > I mean, it seems writable but # flash_rom -v fails. > > I solved this problem by a quick hack. > > > > How about yours? You can write RD1 or W49F002U well? > > Any problem happen? Johnathan McDowell wrote: > Even after that it's sometimes a bit flakey and I have to erase, then > write it. I've put the board's original BIOS in the RD1 and am writing > to the SST 39SF020A instead, which works without problems. I've read posts about the RD1 that suggest its integrated flash device is low quality and it may take 10 or more flash attempts to get a good flash update to the RD1 flash device. As a result, many RD1 BIOS Savior users will flash the commercial BIOS image (or other known good BIOS image) into the RD1 integrated flash device as many times as needed to get an image that boots. Then use the original BIOS device to flash test BIOS image (usually LinuxBIOS images among this group), since the original BIOS device usually flashes OK on the first attempt. I've used the RD1 in the above fashion with great success on the Tyan S2885 mainboard. The same RD1 would not work on the nVidia CK8-04 CRB mainboard. I think the CK8-04 CRB requires a flash device that the RD1 does not support. However, the RD1 worked well as an "do nothing" adapter which allowed swapping the BIOS flash device between my flash burner and the mainboard without any wear to the mainboard's BIOS socket. BTW, my flash burner is an older Enhanced Willem Universal Programmer. I got mine for only $60 US over a year ago. I've seen it for less than $40 on eBay a few weeks ago. The newest model is going for about $50 US. It does a LinuxBIOS flash in about 5 minutes; not bad for a $60 burner. However, it does require changing DIP switches to match an image for each device it can program. Great for the amateur or professional with a small budget. > > BTW, a cable of your RD1 is not broken? > > I needed soldering to fix it. > Mine was fine out of the box. Mine cable and switch worked fine out of the box as well. Sincerely, Ken Fuchs <kfuchs(a)winternet.com> ami-mac-sun

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[LinuxBIOS] LinuxBIOS Debian package.
by Uwe Hermann Nov. 22, 2006

Nov. 22, 2006

Hi, being a Debian developer I wondered wether it would make sense to create one or more Debian packages for LinuxBIOS. It seems there are no packages available at the moment - is this correct? I'm not sure it makes sense to have the src/* and targets/* stuff packaged (maybe it does), but some things would be nice, I guess. For example (quick draft): linuxbios - metapackage which draws in all/most other packages linuxbios-doc - documentation linuxbios-utils - standalone utilities, e.g. romcc, flashrom, ... Maybe also something like linuxbios-src which contains the rest, and which can be used to compile images(?) Anyways, let me know if that makes sense or whether there are problems (e.g. if you'd HAVE TO recompile romcc/flashrom/whatever every time on your own, it doesn't make sense to package it)... Cheers, Uwe. -- Uwe Hermann http://www.hermann-uwe.de http://www.it-services-uh.de | http://www.crazy-hacks.org http://www.holsham-traders.de | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

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Re: [LinuxBIOS] selection of compression algorithm
by Carl-Daniel Hailfinger Oct. 27, 2006

Oct. 27, 2006

yhlu wrote: > then how about the lines for 7z uncompress code? > > YH Working on it. 7z decompressor is really small (8 kb compiled on i386) and written in ISO C (1884 lines of code), but compressor is big and written in C++. Does it still make sense to try to use 7z? How much RAM is the decompressor allowed to use? Regards, Carl-Daniel -- http://www.hailfinger.org/

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[LinuxBIOS] LinuxBIOS on ASUS P2B-L
by Don Waugaman Oct. 2, 2006

Oct. 2, 2006

Hi all, I'm working on putting LinuxBIOS on an old ASUS P2B-L that I'd like to convert into an "instant-on" server for home use. It has an Intel 440BX Host Bridge with Intel PIIX4e hard disk controller, and a Winbond W83977TF SuperIO chip. I downloaded the manuals for these various chips, so I think I might have a shot at getting them working correctly as long as I can get some debug output on the serial port. Since this will be a server, I don't need any video support, though I'd like to keep the card in the machine uninitialized for when I have to boot the factory BIOS. I've configured grub and the kernel to use the serial port as the console, which works OK. My plan is to use FILO as the LinuxBIOS payload. I've installed a BIOS Savior in the machine and flashed it with another copy of the factory BIOS, which works OK, so (barring checks in the utility's code) I should be able to use the ASUS AFLASH program rather than flashrom. First, I tried to build a FILO payload with serial console only and USE_GRUB=1, which didn't work - it looked like it was still trying to use the VGA console for some functions. It worked OK when I commented out the USE_GRUB line, but I'd still like to try the former configuration - any FILO experts have any tips on how to squash the VGA functions once and for all? Then I grabbed the SVN trees for both v1 and v2. I copied the bitworks/ims mainboard and target directories, as they seemed to be using the 440bx code, and I'm slogging through changing the various bitworks & ims entries in the code to asus & p2bl entries. So far, so good, though I feel somewhat like I'm in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. My main question is: The W83977TF has support under v1, but not v2 - any tips on porting from one to the other? Also, once I have the superIO initialization code installed, is there some way to get some kind of debug output before RAM initialization? I'm not sure where to put my own debugging output into the code - just a "hello, I'm here" is all I need for starters. I'd be happy for pointers to some docs which might answer some of these questions - I perused some of what I could find in the SVN tree and wiki, but ended up just trying to jump right in instead. Another big question would be - should I continue ahead with v2, or go back to v1? I noticed that v1 had the 440bx support as well, but it looked like v2's configuration setup was a lot easier to deal with, so I started there. Would it be worth it to learn how v1 does things for this project? The other outstanding issue coming down the pike is that the machine has all ECC RAM. Is ECC supported by v1 or v2, and if not by either, which would make it easiest to add support? I'm assuming v2, but I'll try v1 if that would be easier. Many thanks, Don

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[LinuxBIOS] VGA bring up
by rohit.venkatachalam＠wipro.com Sept. 22, 2006

Sept. 22, 2006

Hi, I have got LinuxBIOS running on my system. I have got serial console output. I am trying to get the display(VGA) working. However, from the serial output, I see something like - 0000:4002 ILLEGAL EXTENDED X86 OPCODE halt_sys:/home/rohit/LinuxBIOSv2/src/devices/emulator/x86emu/ops2.c line 60 and the VGA display does not start. The execution of LinuxBIOS continues beyond this point but no VGA display. What could be the problem? Someone please reply ASAP. Regards , Rohit. The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments. WARNING: Computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. www.wipro.com

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[LinuxBIOS] Tyan s2895 clarification
by Lionel Elie Mamane Sept. 8, 2006

Sept. 8, 2006

Hi, I'm confused. My Tyan s2895 has a 8Mbit LPC Flash ROM, so I thought I could not use a RD1 Bios Savior, as no 8Mbit model was available; this kept me from trying out LinuxBIOS by fear of turning my computer into an expensive paper weight. But now I see posts to this ML's archive (such as http://www.linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2006-January/013420.html) that talk about using 4Mbit savior with the Tyan s2895. Quid? -- Lionel

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[LinuxBIOS] IT8718F support.
by Uwe Hermann Sept. 4, 2006

Sept. 4, 2006

Hi, here's some code for the IT8718F. Untested, but compiles. Please also checkin my patch at http://www.linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2006-August/015412.html I think that got overlooked (or is there a technical problem with it?). Btw, is the code for the Super IOs supposed to initialize/enable _all_ supported devices or merely COM1/COM2 and the rest gets enabled later on? U "I read ITE datasheets when I'm bored" we. -- Uwe Hermann http://www.hermann-uwe.de http://www.it-services-uh.de | http://www.crazy-hacks.org http://www.holsham-traders.de | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

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[LinuxBIOS] Geode GX1/5530: How to forward SMI to a regular IRQ
by Juergen Beisert Sept. 1, 2006

Sept. 1, 2006

Hi all, I try to write a native sound driver for the Geode GX1/5530a Companion chip. Problem here: The sound chip only generates SMI. Does anyone knows a trick or a chipset switch that let me forward this SMI to a regular IRQ? Its too ugly to use a polling loop.... ;-) Regards, Juergen

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[LinuxBIOS] License clarification, round 1
by Uwe Hermann Sept. 1, 2006

Sept. 1, 2006

Hi all, this will probably make me very unpopular around here, but oh well... ;) I've started looking at _all_ files in svn and checking their respective license to see if it's GPL'd or at least has another Free Software license. Also, all such licenses must be GPL compatible, too, AFAIK (but I'm no lawyer). This is important for a) the Debian package, which must meet the DSFG (Debian Free Software Guidelines), see http://www.us.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines and b) for the legal status of the LinuxBIOS project itself, as any non-free-software/non-gpl-compatible code in the repository would probably be illegal to distribute (depending on the exact license terms), may cause all kinds of other legal hassle and just simply compromise the whole idea of the project - to have a _free_ implementation. So here I am, reading through all files, taking notes which of them are not GPL'd. Please check the list and clarify the exact license status of the files, e.g. by adding a GPL header similar to this one below: /* * Copyright (C) 200x Author Name <email(a)example.com> * * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or * (at your option) any later version. * * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the * GNU General Public License for more details. * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA */ (or at least a tiny note saying "this file is copyright 200x John Doe and is licensed under the GPL)... I'm happy to provide patches which add the above license header to all files, but someone has to tell me who wrote the code, when, and which license applies (if that's not obvious from the code). I noticed that many files do not have any license header at all (some don't even say who the author is); such files have an unclear status and must be considered non-free usually, so in cases where that's just an oversight, please add a respective license note. If the file was taken from another project, please add a note saying so, and mention the license of that project in the file. Assumption: All *.lb config files are GPL'd even though they don't have the lengthy GPL header in them. Correct? I don't think it's necessary for those files. The same is probably true for ChangeLog, NEWS, and documentation/ChangeLog.cvsimport, etc. The biggest problems I notices so far is the code from IBM and AMD, which says things like "Copyright 2005 ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. All Rights Reserved" or stuff like: LICENSED MATERIAL - PROGRAM PROPERTY OF I B M US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. That alone (which no additional "this is GPL'd" text would make the code non-free and GPL-incompatible, I guess. I hope this can be resolved or clarified somehow. I also found some licenses which I simply don't know and cannot tell right now if they're fine or not - that has to be checked at some point. Anyways, here's the list of issues I noticed so far (haven't checked all the code, yet): -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOWTO/EPIA-M-howto: No license note. documentation/Makefile: No license note. documentation/RFC/*: No license note. * Is that stuff used at all? documentation/*.eps: No license note. * I assume this is GPL'd as LinuxBIOS-AMD64.tex is GPL'd. Correct? src/arch/i386/boot/acpi.c: * Says among other things "Copyright 2005 ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. All Rights Reserved." which is bad as it means it's NOT GPL'd and you cannot use it for anything, really. No explicit permissions means you have no rights according to international copyright laws, AFAIK (but I'm no lawyer). src/arch/i386/boot/boot.c: No license note. src/arch/i386/boot/linuxbios_table.*: No license note. src/arch/i386/boot/pirq_routing.c: No license note. src/arch/i386/boot/tables.c: * Says: 2006.1 yhlu add mptable cross 0x467 processing 2003-07 by SONE Takeshi Ported from Etherboot to LinuxBIOS 2005-08 by Steve Magnani Etherboot is GPL'd (mostly, some parts are BSD), so this is GPL'd, right? src/arch/i386/include/*.h: No license note. src/arch/i386/include/arch/acpi.h: * Now this is totally confusing. * written by Stefan Reinauer <stepan(a)openbios.org> (GPL'd?) * (C) 2004 SUSE LINUX AG (license?) * The ACPI table structs are based on the Linux kernel sources. (GPL'd!) * ACPI FADT & FACS added by Nick Barker <nick.barker9(a)btinternet.com> those parts (C) 2004 Nick Barker (license?) * ACPI SRAT support added in 2005.9 by yhlu (license?) * Copyright 2005 ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. All Rights Reserved. ---> Baaad... src/arch/i386/include/arch/intel.h: * Not sure what to make of this... It's not the GPL, it's not the BSD license (or the MIT license), either. ((2)) Is this GPL compatible? /* This software and ancillary information (herein called SOFTWARE ) called LinuxBIOS is made available under the terms described here. The SOFTWARE has been approved for release with associated LA-CC Number 00-34 . Unless otherwise indicated, this SOFTWARE has been authored by an employee or employees of the University of California, operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-36 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has rights to use, reproduce, and distribute this SOFTWARE. The public may copy, distribute, prepare derivative works and publicly display this SOFTWARE without charge, provided that this Notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor the University makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this SOFTWARE. If SOFTWARE is modified to produce derivative works, such modified SOFTWARE should be clearly marked, so as not to confuse it with the version available from LANL. */ /* Copyright 2000, Ron Minnich, Advanced Computing Lab, LANL * rminnich(a)lanl.gov */ src/arch/i386/include/arch/*.h (except for the above ones): No license note. src/arch/i386/include/arch/boot/boot.h: No license note. src/arch/i386/include/arch/smp/*.h: No license note. src/arch/i386/init/ldscript.lb: * Says: Copyright (c) 1999 by Net Insight AB. All Rights Reserved. Not good... src/arch/i386/lib/printk_init.c: * Copyright (C) 1991, 1992 Linus Torvalds No explicit license note, but it's quite surely GPL ((1)). src/arch/i386/lib/*: No license note. src/arch/i386/llshell/readme.linuxbios: No license note. * Probably GPL'd, as the file it documents (llshell.inc) is GPL'd. src/arch/i386/smp/*: No license note. src/arch/ppc/boot/*: No license note. src/arch/ppc/include/ppc4xx.h: * Strange non-standard header, not sure what to make of it. This source code has been made available to you by IBM on an AS-IS basis. Anyone receiving this source is licensed under IBM copyrights to use it in any way he or she deems fit, including copying it, modifying it, compiling it, and redistributing it either with or without modifications. No license under IBM patents or patent applications is to be implied by the copyright license. Any user of this software should understand that IBM cannot provide technical support for this software and will not be responsible for any consequences resulting from the use of this software. Any person who transfers this source code or any derivative work must include the IBM copyright notice, this paragraph, and the preceding two paragraphs in the transferred software. COPYRIGHT I B M CORPORATION 1999 LICENSED MATERIAL - PROGRAM PROPERTY OF I B M src/arch/ppc/include/ppc970.h: COPYRIGHT I B M CORPORATION 2003 LICENSED MATERIAL - PROGRAM PROPERTY OF I B M US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. src/arch/ppc/include/*.* (except for the above ones): No license note. src/arch/ppc/include/arch/*.h: No license note. src/arch/ppc/include/arch/boot/*.h: No license note. src/arch/ppc/init/ldscript.lb: * No license, but some authors: Written by Johan Rydberg, based on work by Daniel Kahlin. Rewritten by Eric Biederman Re-rewritten by Greg Watson for PPC src/arch/ppc/init/ppc_main.c: * No license, but an author: Copyright (C) 2003 by Greg Watson, Los Alamos National Laboratory gwatson(a)lanl.gov src/arch/ppc/lib/cpu.c: No license note. src/arch/ppc/lib/pci_dev.c: No license note. src/arch/ppc/lib/pci_ppc_conf1_ops.c: No license note. src/boot/hardwaremain.c: Same as ((2)). src/config/LinuxBIOSDoc.config: No license note (GPL?). src/config/doxyscript.base: No license note (GPL?). src/config/linuxbios_ram.ld: * Copyright (c) 1999 by Net Insight AB. All Rights Reserved. --> Bad. src/console/btext_console.c: No license note, but some authors: * Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh(a)kernel.crashing.org> move to LinuxBIOS by LYH yhlu(a)tyan.com src/console/font-8x16.c: Same as ((1)). src/console/printk.c: Same as ((1)). src/console/vga_console.c: No license note, but an author: * modified from original freebios code by Steve M. Gehlbach <steve(a)kesa.com> src/console/vsprintf.c: Same as ((1)). src/console/vtxprintf.c: Same as ((1)). targets/buildtarget: No license note. The rest of target/ has no license, too, but should be fine (mostly config files). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HTH, Uwe. -- Uwe Hermann http://www.hermann-uwe.de http://www.it-services-uh.de | http://www.crazy-hacks.org http://www.holsham-traders.de | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

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[LinuxBIOS] VGA Fonts
by steve yannalfo Aug. 31, 2006

Aug. 31, 2006

Hello Everyone, I have had very good success with LB but I am having trouble with the VGA fonts during boot but, the screen becomes readable when the kernel loads "setfont" in the init-scripts. (that uses ioctls etc.) Also, xdm loads fine. (Also, the display is cleaner sooner if I use FB in the kernel, but I loose output again during init-scripts, and then OK for login prompt.) I have an on-board ATI M9, and have included the vgabios part in th LB image. I have tried many sequences of writing to the VGA regs in vga_console.c->vga_hardware_fixup() including loading fonts & colormaps but, nothing I do there seems to affect the display output. I know I am in that function ok... just, nothing to seems to work. // sequencer outw(0x0612,0x3C4 ); /* unlock ext regs */ mdelay(5); outw(0x0700,0x3C4); /* reset ext sequence mode */ mdelay(5); outw(0x0120,0x3C4); /* disable video */ mdelay(5); setTextRegs(VgaTextRegs); /* initial register setup */ mdelay(5); setTextCLUT(); /* load color lookup table */ mdelay(5); loadFont(); /* load font */ mdelay(5); setTextRegs(VgaTextRegs); /* reload registers */ mdelay(5); outw(0x0100,0x3C4); /* re-enable video */ mdelay(5); outb(0x63,0x3c2); /* MISC */ mdelay(50); It is like the vga part of the bios has intentionally left out the fonts, and any writes to 0xa0000000 or the vga regs have no effect. The vga bios is copied correctly: rom address for PCI: 03:01.0 = fff80000 copying VGA ROM Image from 0xfff80000 to 0xc0000, 0xf000 bytes entering emulator halt_sys: file /work/bios/linuxbios/src/devices/emulator/x86emu/ops.c, line 4485 OK thanks steve I know I am asking a lot...:-) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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