Re: [coreboot] new to coreboot

[Philip Aston]

On Thu, 2008-07-10 at 15:22 +0100, Philip Aston wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail]
> [mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of Uwe Hermann
> Sent: 10 July 2008 12:30
> To: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
> Cc: Philip Aston; Coreboot
> Subject: Re: [coreboot] new to coreboot
>
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 01:32:05AM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > > > > I have MS6178 ver 1.1, supported board, noted as not working on Linux.
>
> I can
> > > > > only get it working reliably with Knoppix although Debian Etch has
>
> worked
> > > > > intermittently. Embedded VGA... does that complicate things?
> > > >
> > > > I don't have the board in question, but if it has problems running
>
> Linux
> > > > under the factory BIOS, probably something is wrong with the hardware.
>
> Yep.
> > > Thank you for your very prompt reply, Carl-Daniel
> > >
> > > Probably true, worth a try I believe because googling "MS6178 Linux"
> > > revealed "News - coreboot
> > > Linux has never been able to run on this board until now. .... Thanks to
> > > Uwe Hermann we now have preliminary support for the MSI MS-6178
> > > mainboard." (Sep07). Nothing to lose anyway.
> >
> > Ah, that piece of news referred to the Thomson IP1000, a set-top box.
>
> Hm? Don't think so, there _is_ a MS-6178 target and partially works:
> http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial
>
> There are some TODOs left, but it boots Linux just fine.
> > > > > I'm an intermediate user finding detail on the readme within Coreboot
> > > > > download difficult to understand. My chip is soldered and I'll have to
> > > > > reflash in situ, not worried about that because
> > > > > 1 without linux the board is useless
> > > > > 2 might be able to retrieve original image (which I have saved) from
> > > > > bootblock.
> > > >
> > > > Actually, the "boot block recovery" will not work if flashrom
>
> misbehaves
> > > > or coreboot does not work.
> > > > > Can I build the .rom on another box? Is there a way to build using a
>
> live cd
> > > > > or do I have to reinstall etch?
> > > >
> > > > You can build the .rom on another box, it's even recommended to do so.
> > > > > And very important, is this too ambitious for someone who needs to ask
>
> these
> > > > > questions? Thank you.
> > > >
> > > > Well, having a soldered flash is certainly increasing the risk beyond
> > > > what I'd recommend. A top hat flash override might work in case of
> > > > problems, but I wouldn't bet on it.
>
> Are you sure this is really the MSI MS-6178? See the photo here, in my
> case the ROM was _not_ soldered:
> http://www.coreboot.org/Image:Msi_ms6178.jpg
> You seem to have a different revision (1.1 vs. 1.0) so maybe they
> changed that...
>
> I'll take a look but probably won't have access to a spare chip anyway.
> Wimsbios have heard of ver 1.1 & from the ID string suggested mine was an
> "OEM", hence different factory bios etc?.
> > > So I have compiled a coreboot.rom, same size as my factory bios; but
> > > uniflash gives "verification failed" (not exact wording). What causes
> > > this error message please?
> >
> > AFAIK uniflash checks for a factory BIOS signature/checksum. Since
>
> I doubt it, I've been able to write coreboot images with Uniflash just
> fine. The verification errors (some red "bars" instead of only green
> ones) sometimes do happen to me too, but it's always reproducible for
> certains boards and chips (so I think that happens when Uniflash doesn't
> fully support some hardware part, or the part is stale/broken).
>
> I have also tried (with uniflash) 2 other factory bios files, admittedly of
> uncertain quality- originated from another user's backupimage, zipped, etc..
> with same result. However, before quitting, I reflashed my backup bios image
> and (despite a few red bars) that worked. Not sure what that means but
> Knoppix runs well, so I could possibly compile a flash utility from
> Corebios? Being very new to this I'm not good at navigating the download- is
> there a particular utility I should be looking for?

-I should have looked harder, I think it's Flashrom?-Philip
> BTW even a brief look at the emails indicates the professional nature of
> your work so I appreciate your guidance here. -Philip
>
> As noted at http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial I was
> _not_ able to use flashrom on this board successfully, so if the flash
> is indeed soldered I would not recommend to try it unless you have some
> way to recover (soldering probably)...
> HTH, Uwe.
>
> http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
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