On Mon, 2007-12-10 at 09:05 -0800, ron minnich wrote:
On Dec 10, 2007 7:51 AM, Steve Isaacs yasteve@gmail.com wrote:
That's something I don't understand. What is essential and what is not?
Essential is "needed to configure machine to load Linux". Which really means that devices for it exist in the device tree, and those devices need to run some code to make the node boot.
Can I assume that the list of devices needed to load Linux are a subset of devices needed to run Linux?
Just so I know I understand, let's say what I need to boot Linux is RAM and an IDE interface (on the southbridge). What I need to run Linux includes the IDE interface plus SATA, USB, (all on the southbridge)... Does Config.lb need to list these interfaces in order to run Linux or is it expected that the Linux kernel will take care of that part?
e.g. Can I leave out the 18.x as well and LB will auto-detect like it did for node 1 (19.x)?
Those are northbridge register on k8 and on a 2-cpu system you need them. But do you need them in Config.lb? You know, I just realized, I don't know :-)
Using some info in the doc Uwe reminded me of could I say that northbridge 18.* is necessary because the southbridge is connected to it? Whereas, for my board, I don't need to list northbridge 19.* because none of the "essential" devices are connected through it? (disregarding RAM of course)
Even disabled, they are still in the static tree. I am saying to not even list pci devices (particularly slots) if they are not needed to configure the platform for linuxbios. In many, many cases, all you need are the IO APIC, the superio, the CPU, and that's it. We have poor documentation and as a result people tend to put more in config.lb thany they need.
This makes me wonder about the semantics of the phrase "Left over static devices." Is this saying there are devices listed in the Config.lb that do not exist on the board or that there are devices on the board that are not mentioned in Config.lb?
Thanks to all for bearing with me on this. I need to understand this since real hardware arrives next week and is a different design.
Steve