On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Pattrick Hueper phueper@hueper.netwrote:
Hi,
well following the BIOS spec (i think its somewhere in the PNP BIOS spec... i have to check... ) the BIOS copies the ROM to RAM... since YABEL uses its own "virtual" memory it _has_ to copy the ROM to its RAM...
Yes. Right now there's just a redundant copy, since Coreboot copies it to RAM too.
also some of the cards i have used do actually modify the memory where the ROM is stored, so it has to be in the virtual RAM.
Currently, the ROM is always copied from the Expansion ROM bar of PCI devices.... i havent had to initialize any onboard devices. If there is a parameter to run_bios that points to the location of the Option ROM i could pass that parameter to YABEL and only use the Expansion ROM BAR if that parameter is not set (null?).
That's what I was thinking.
But IIRC i still have to copy it to the virtual memory.
Yes.
If it helps coreboot to know where the Option ROM image is after execution of the ROM, i guess YABEL could return the location of the ROM (the length which could be changed during execution is part of the ROM, so coreboot could figure out how much to copy back if it decides to do so.
I don't think Coreboot cares after the card is initialized.
I am thinking of buying a x86 board to do coreboot development, i am wondering which one would be a good choice with regards to YABEL and maybe SEABIOS development? Any recommendations?
My requirements:
coreboot-v3 and preferably v2 "compatible" PCI and PCIe slots since Myles mentioned onboard devices with ROM in LAR that would be very interesting too...
You can test even with an add-in card if you "pretend" its onboard. Then you can have coreboot give you a pointer to it and initialize it.
"affordable"
I am really unsure what else to look for... Flash Chip Types? Processor?
Socketed flash chip. Preferably compatible with a BIOS savior.
Thanks, Myles