Hi
I want to run LinuxBIOS on an NCR-7456 POS PC. It`s mainboard is said to be "Tiger MVP" (http://developer.novell.com/yes/75294.htm) and it doesn`t seem to be on the SupportedMainboards list. However it`s equipped with a VT8601A northbridge and VT82C686 southbridge. It also has a 39VF040 flash chip soldered onboard. The northbridge is said to be supported by LinuxBIOS but the VT82C686 has a question mark in the SupportedChipsets table (for linuxbios v1) and isn`t mentioned at all on the list of devices supported by LinuxBIOS v2. If so, what are the odds of successfully running LinuxBIOS on this machine ? The BIOS flash is soldered to the mainboard so it won`t be easy to reflash when something goes wrong. If the southbridge chip (VT82C686) isn`t supported what minimal code must be written for it to work ? I assume that rs232 support is crucial for further development. I have 2 of those machines, so I`m can experiment a little on one of them. The second machine has already Linux installed (standard BIOS though) and here is it`s lspci output:
gammu ~ # lspci -v 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] (rev 05) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 8 Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=16M] Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP] (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0 Memory behind bridge: fb100000-fc7fffff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 10000000-100fffff Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40) Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. Unknown device 0668 Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0 Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP]) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64 I/O ports at 1860 [size=16] Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a) (prog-if 00 [UHCI]) Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) USB Controller Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9 I/O ports at 1800 [size=32] Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a) (prog-if 00 [UHCI]) Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) USB Controller Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9 I/O ports at 1820 [size=32] Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40) Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 9 Capabilities: [68] Power Management version 2
00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller Subsystem: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 90, IRQ 9 I/O ports at 1400 [size=256] Memory at fb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] [virtual] Expansion ROM at 10100000 [disabled] [size=64K] Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a) Subsystem: Creative Labs SBLive! 5.1 Digital Model SB0220 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 15 I/O ports at 1840 [size=32] Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1
00:10.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 0a) Subsystem: Creative Labs Gameport Joystick Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64 I/O ports at 1878 [size=8] Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1 (rev 6a) (prog-if 00 [VGA]) Subsystem: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1 Flags: fast Back2Back, 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 7 Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8M] Memory at fb100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K] Memory at fb800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8M] [virtual] Expansion ROM at 10000000 [disabled] [size=64K] Capabilities: [80] AGP version 2.0 Capabilities: [90] Power Management version 1
I can also provide dmesg output, exact chip types, dmesg output and any information that is neccessary. Unfortunately I didn`t find any additional specs for this machine apart from marketing gibberish. But I`ll keep looking.