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Dear LinuxBIOS developers,
Please add a line like the following to your FILO readme and on the
Wiki page http://linuxbios.org/FILO. Many thanks go to Robert Millan
for http://linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2007-November/026789.html
and to Google.
+ On AMD64 for Debian install the gcc-multilib package.
Eventually I got to the point that the tutorial suggests to reach
Booting 'hda:/boot/vmlinuz'
Mounted ext2fs
Found Linux version 2.6.23-1-amd64 (unknown@Debian) #1 SMP Fri Nov 30
12:19:15 UTC 2007 bzImage.
Loading kernel... ok
Jumping to entry point...
but no further than that. And, jumping to the rescue of FILO a bit,
qemu -hda disk.img -nographic does not even say "hello".
In this thread from Sept2006/April2007
http://linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2006-September/015568.html it
was suggested to use a different FILO than the version 0.5 that I
tapped into, however, I could not find any indication for any earlier
release I could try. Please consider to update the tutorial respectively.
After some food uptake I then downloaded
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r1/i386/iso-cd/debian-40r1-i386-net…,
a CD image to net-install Debian. This is something bootable. Running
qemu -cdrom debian-40r1-i386-netinst.iso -hda disk.img -boot d does
the expected and shows the Debian boot splash. This should be
repeatable with FILO and LinuxBIOS, so I thought, good I am not overly
knowledgable here, but qemu -L . -cdrom debian-40r1-i386-netinst.iso
- -hda disk.img -boot d (just the -L being added with . harboring the
bios.bin and the vgabios-cirrus.bin) instead the system booted right
into my debootstrapped system in disk.img. Hillarious, isn't it, after
spending the full afternoon at it? The qemu option -boot d officially
indicates to boot from cdrom and thus represents not much of a magic.
With a second look at the iso it became fairly obvious why this was
not bootet:
$ ls /mnt/loopmountedNetInstIsoCD
autorun.bat dists/ isolinux/
README.html tools/
autorun.inf doc/ md5sum.txt
README.mirrors.html
debian/ install/ pics/
README.mirrors.txt
.disk/ install.386/ pool/ README.txt
So, apparently, it is just some stupid (?) initial hurdle that the
CD's iso gave before the kernel with its the initrd on /dev/hda could
be run.
As another sidenote, the tutorial should not suggest to first copy the
kernels and then run deboostrap. Instead, one should chroot into
/mnt/rootfs and apt-get install linux-image-686, especially if one's
own kernels are AMD64. And if using debootstrap then the /etc/fstab
needs to be set, still. Setting the inittab default userlevel to 2
instead of the suggested 1 provides me with a login prompt. Otherwise
the daemons are not started properly and I am kicked out.
Is there someone on this list who could help me with preparing a fully
bootable image file that is compatible with FILO? These guys here are
cheating
http://franciscoalecrim.blogspot.com/2007/08/howto-debian-qemu-running-debi…
by specifying the kernel outside the chroot. I am doing something
wrong when I now go and install lilo or so, right?
Cheers,
Steffen
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Hello All and Merry Christmas,
Our first hands-on with Linux Bios.
We removed the Flashrom from K8Upgrade-VM800 Bios socket and inserted the
new Flashrom SST49LF004A/B.
But the flash is not happening properly and the Bios is not written to the
Bios chip.
Hence unable to boot with new Flashrom.
Is it the problem of the flashrom utility ?
We are ready fix things, please guide us.
Note:
We did not try to boot Linux bios, instead we tried to boot the
PC-Bios which is present in the Motherboard by writing it on to new
flashrom, so as to check whether the flashrom utility is working properly or
not.
Execution steps:
--------------------------
lspci output:
-------------------
root@example:/home/kiran/bios_files# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800/K8T890
South]
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID
Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge
[KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev
78)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM
Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. S3 Unichrome Pro
VGA Adapter (rev 01)
Erasing Flashrom:
-----------------------------
root@example:/home/kiran/bios_files# flashrom -E
Calibrating delay loop... ok
No LinuxBIOS table found.
Found chipset "VT8237": Enabling flash write... OK.
SST49LF004A/B found at physical address: 0xfff80000
Flash part is SST49LF004A/B (512 KB)
Erasing flash chip
Writing the Original Bios to the new Flashrom:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@example:/home/kiran/bios_files# flashrom -w Dec26_Bios
Calibrating delay loop... ok
No LinuxBIOS table found.
Found chipset "VT8237": Enabling flash write... OK.
SST49LF004A/B found at physical address: 0xfff80000
Flash part is SST49LF004A/B (512 KB)
Flash image seems to be a legacy BIOS. Disabling checks.
Programming Page: 0007 at address: 0x00070000
Verifying flash against file:
------------------------------------------
The last step shows FAILED which means the Bios has not been written
properly.
root@example:/home/kiran/bios_files# flashrom -v Dec26_Bios
Calibrating delay loop... ok
No LinuxBIOS table found.
Found chipset "VT8237": Enabling flash write... OK.
SST49LF004A/B found at physical address: 0xfff80000
Flash part is SST49LF004A/B (512 KB)
Flash image seems to be a legacy BIOS. Disabling checks.
Verifying flash - FAILED
Reading flash and saving into file:
------------------------------------------------------
root@example:/home/kiran/bios_files# flashrom -r Pc_Bios
Calibrating delay loop... ok
No LinuxBIOS table found.
Found chipset "VT8237": Enabling flash write... OK.
SST49LF004A/B found at physical address: 0xfff80000
Flash part is SST49LF004A/B (512 KB)
Reading Flash...done
Diff of Original Bios and latest read Bios:
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@example:/home/kiran/bios_files# diff Dec26_Bios Pc_Bios
Binary files Dec26_Bios and Pc_Bios differ
Thanks,
Kiran.
Hi, all,
Is this possible that the FLASH memory containing BIOS code can be partly saved for NVRAM? Programming FLASH chip is not as easy and fast as RAM, but it is larger and holds data for ever.
Best Regards
丰立波 Feng Libo @ AMD Ext: 20906
Mobile Phone: 13683249071
Office Phone: 0086-010-62801406
On 20/12/07 18:25 -0200, Omar Esteves Duarte Filho wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I'm trying to use LinuxBIOS with AMD Geode DB800 platform. However, until
> now, I could not manage to get VGA output working.
>
> Here is a summary of what i've tried:
>
> - built a LinuxBIOS rom image without VGA support.
> - downloaded a brand new kernel from www.kernel.org (kernel version:
> 2.6.23.9).
> - configured this kernel, enabling these options:
> [*] AMD Geode family framebuffer support (EXPERIMENTAL)
> <*> AMD Geode LX framebuffer support (EXPERIMENTAL)
>
> - editted GRUB's menu.lst file to include the following entry:
>
> title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.23.9-geodelx-fb
> root (hd0,1)
> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.9-geodelx-fb
> root=UUID=b40ebb15-49bd-4042-ab40-5437c0caa1ba ro quiet splash pnpbios=off
> initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.23.9-geodelx-fb
> quiet
> savedefault
>
> - compiled fbcon as a module.
Compile fbcon in to the kernel - if it is a module, then you won't see
any of the early kernel output at all. I would also get rid of the
Ubuntu splash screen, it just getting in the way right now - remove 'quiet'
and 'splash' from the kernel line in grub.
> However, if I try to modprobe fbcon, i get nothing. Running startx also
> gives me no result... Does anyone have any idea or clue about this?
Was X configured for the 'amd' driver?
Jordan
>
> this can be still be caused by bad dram timing. Once you start
> caching, cache flush to ram will be a burst. If the dram timing is not
> right, you will get data corruption that will not occur with caching
> off. I used to have this happen very frequently.
>
> So, I still think you have a memory configuration problem.
>
>
Thank you ron for your opinions.
but here is a probem, if it's dram configuration that caused this,
why when I set and enabled the fixed range mtrr, data wasn't corrupted?
linuxbios ram part code runs in the 1MB memory range, so that's
exactly the fixed range mtrr covers. If enbaling fixed mtrr doesn't cause
data corruption, then it shouldn't be a dram configuration problem,
am I right?
>
> Hmm. I think this also is true with some Intel chipsets. Even without
> graphics enabled there has to be some kind of reserved memory space
> just below tolm (the smallest I was sucessfull with was 1MB) or filo
> chokes. Doesn't LB allocate a bounce buffer just before the payload
> starts? Is this bounce buffer just below tolm??
>
>
> Thanks - Joe
>
yes, this bounce buffer is just below tolm with the size twice of
(&_eram_seg - &_ram_seg).
I'm now having trouble with mtrr, after setting variable mtrr, data gets
corrupted.
If only set and enable fixed range mtrr, everything works fine except that I
have to reserve
extra space near the tolm or filo couldn't start. With variable mtrr not
set(but enabled by earlymtrr),
the linux kernel could be booted though the speed is aweful...
There have been a few threads in the past about trying to get Dell or
some other major laptop vendor to partner with LinuxBIOS.
Unfortunately, only a large vendor has the clout to request specs that
someone small such as the LB project could never get on its own.
I'm currently in the market for a couple more linux laptops (this time
for my mother and grandmother), and while I don't have any delusions
of getting support in time for this purchase, I'd love to be able to
spend my money in a way that support LB (and the hope of laptops with
LB support at some point in the future).
When buying hardware right now, how can I make those purchases support
vendors who support LinuxBIOS?
---
In a past thread concerning laptops, Peter Stuge said that the
graphics hardware isn't there yet:
"For now, the graphics hardware simply isn't there ... Until there is
powerful open graphics hardware from someone the laptop wont happen.
But keep pushing for it!"
According to later threads, it sounds like there is development afoot
to make it possible to use a Free Software BIOS on certain Radeon
cards -- cards that I believe could be used in both desktop and laptop
machines.
Is there a possibility that work on these Radeon cards could make
laptop support more feasible?
---
I found the wiki page about laptops here: http://linuxbios.org/Laptop,
but it appears that it hasn't been updated in a couple of months.
Would it be helpful to have more entries for the "Laptop Survey" table
on that wiki page?
Is someone spearheading the effort to get LinuxBIOS support on laptops?
Cheers,
-- Robinson
> Can you check this in to buildrom svn? Jordan is driving across Wyoming
> today (lovely weather) and I don't have buildrom access.
I don't envy him. It's been icy here.
> Thanks,
> Marc
>
Revision 89
Myles