Hello Rene(?),
Thanks for reaching out and appreciate your offer to help test. I'll prioritize porting Sabertooth Z77.
coreboot has an issue tracker at https://ticket.coreboot.org/projects/coreboot. However since this is a "new" board not previously in tree (but with support for he individual components), I'm not sure under what category issues with this new port should be reported. However, issues reported there are sent to the mailing list as well, so I should see them. Having said that, email and the list is the best way to reach me.
Also because this is a new board to coreboot, it will first appear as a change on gerrit (https://review.coreboot.org). Usually you would have to get the source, apply the patch, and compile. I can precompile a binary and get it to you somehow to test, probably with a Google Drive or OneDrive link. That can be worked out later.
Usually, I have to get a dump of the flash chip with vendor firmware to get the SPI descriptor. A full dump is also a great backup in case the port doesn't boot. For that you probably want one of those little CH341 SPI programmers. You'll pop the chip out while your board is running, dump it and put it back. Then get that dump file to me. This dump file will also allow me to integrate the SPI descriptor and ME firmware so you can flash my precompiled binary whole.
I'll also need to run autoport on your stock board for things that I can't get otherwise like HDA and super IO config. It's a porting tool that's part of coreboot sources that automates much of the necessary data dumping. It needs Linux and Go though.
The wall of text above re chip dumps to say I haven't looked deep enough about BIOS flashback on Asus boards. They do it with a very proprietary, separate microcontroller that can control the SPI flash chip, and they take the .CAP vendor firmware update file stored on a USB drive plugged into a specific USB port, which is NOT a straight dump of the BIOS area of the SPI chip.
Any questions feel free to ask. Again thank you for your help in testing.
Regards Keith
On Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 17:44 R S rene.shuster@bcsemail.org wrote:
Hi Keith, Appreciate the undertaking. I have a Z77 Sabertooth which will be replaced with a different system in the near future, so I would be willing to test with a precompiled ROM. If the ROM would be publically available at one point on Github or Gitlab where issues can be reported conveniently similarly to what the Dasharo/3mdeb guys do that would be wonderful. Also for the sake of being able to recover easily (without an RTE or CH341A) from a no-POST situation I'd like to have the USB BIOS FlashBack feature implemented *first* before doing any test. Michał Żygowski has reverse-engineered this for the MSI Z690 boards (USB FlashBIOS) and it's working great. I'm not an expert here, but I would assume that there are possibly similarities in how this works across vendors? -- Network Security Analyst Technology Department http://comicsanscriminal.com http://comicsanscriminal.com Buncombe County Schools ComicSans Awareness Campaign https://comicsanscriminal.com
On Fri, Dec 20, 2024 at 1:46 PM Keith Hui buurin@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
I recently got my hands on boardviews of many Asus P8x7x series mainboards, and some offshoots such as Z77-A and Sabertooth Z77, and have also found a way to extract VBT data and the USB port config out of the vendor firmware image (which isn't really a straight image, but what looks like an update capsule), allowing me to attempt something quite ambitious given I only have the P8Z77-M on hand: Bring coreboot to the entire family.
Again because I only have the vendor firmware image and boardview to go by, I will only be able to put out an untested new board patch, hence I am calling for anyone with these boards, that aren't already in the tree, to help me test them, and to get things I can't get out of firmware image, such as HDA verbs and GPIO setup, by running autoport on your board.
Additionally, if you have a P8Z77-V (Hello Bill!), please test this patch: https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/85413 And if you have a P8Z77-M PRO, please test your serial port, and if changing it to use serial port A like P8Z77-M does, make the serial port work.
Now, during my survey of the board family, I found that:
- They link their power LEDs to only one of two GPIOs on the PCH: 8
or 27. That's easily determined from the boardview. 2. Except for P8C WS which I can't get a boardview for, this family only uses one of two Nuvoton super I/Os: NCT5535D or NCT6779D. 6779 is well known, but I cannot find the datasheet for 5535, and the pinout for the closest thing I can find, NCT5532D, have the pins shifted by approximately 3 pins, and there may be more differences.
Does anyone know anything about NCT5535D or can hook me up with a datasheet?
Thanks Keith _______________________________________________ coreboot mailing list -- coreboot@coreboot.org To unsubscribe send an email to coreboot-leave@coreboot.org