Re: [coreboot] Coreboot on Tyan S2892

[Myles Watson]

> Sorry in advance if I ask stupid questions that are covered in a FAQ or
> the like.
> If that's the case, I can't seem to find it, so feel free to point me in
> that direction.

These aren't stupid questions. There are plenty of non-obvious things here.
> What I'm trying to do, is take an existing Linux installation (on a SATA
> disk) and
> shrink the BIOS-related part of the boot time.  I don't ever need to
> boot with different
> kernels or ramdisks.  They will always be located at
> /dev/sda1/boot/<static kernel|initrd name>.
>
> So I grabbed the latest buildrom from SVN, and had trouble doing a 'make
> menuconfig' on various
> Linux boxes.  I was finally able to do a 'make menuconfig' after
> installing ncurses on an Ubuntu box,
> and then after selecting the appropriate options for the Tyan S2892, and
> FILO (before I saw Myle's response),
> the long awaited tyan-s2892.rom file appeared in my deploy directory.
>
> In the discussion between Myles and Marc about SATA/FILO, I became more
> confused about what my payload
> should be.  Based on my system configuration, should I use FILO?  LAB?
> GRUB2?  What is "legacy mode" SATA?

Legacy mode SATA is where the SATA adapter responds to ATA commands.
Nvidia's ck804 (on the s2892) doesn't support that.

Because of that, you need something with a SATA driver to load your kernel.
You could:
1. port a driver to FILO
2. Use LAB (linux kernel with the driver in your ROM)
> The first ROM image I created painted some nice pinstripes on the
> display after a warm reboot, and when I
> fully powered down and started again, I got a nice alternating tone from
> the PC speaker.  I'm suspecting this
> has something to do with my payload.  Either it is wrong entirely, or it
> needs additional configuration.

Are you going to use the onboard video controller?  Did you include the VGA
BIOS for it?
> Serial console output seems to indicate that basic coreboot
> initialization was happening, but maybe never
> got to the point where it could give me useful VGA output.

Including the boot log once you decide which payload you want to use would
help us track it down.

Thanks,
Myles
> Sorry also for top-posting, but I'm stuck with Outlook.
>
> -Bijoy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail]
> [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Myles Watson
> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 4:30 PM
> To: 'Marc Jones'
> Cc: 'Coreboot'
> Subject: Re: [coreboot] Coreboot on Tyan S2892
> > > > SATA devices should be in legacy mode and filo should be able to
> > > > load
> >
> > your
> > > > kernel. The only challenge is getting the drive numbering lined
>
> up.
> > > > in buildrom do a make filo-config. You also need a grub like
> > > > menu.lst
> >
> > on
> > > > the drive.
> > >
> > > I thought there was no legacy mode because it's Nvidia's CK804.  If
> >
> > there is
> > > I went through a lot of pain for nothing (except learning of course
> > > :)
> >
> > Ah, it would be a controller limitation not a filo one. Sorry. I
> > didn't mean to confuse the issue.
>
> No problem.  I should have been clearer in the original response.  You
> probably helped clarify it for everyone else.
>
> Myles