On Mon, Apr 07, 2008 at 06:14:01PM -0600, Jordan Crouse wrote:
The libpayload stuff for geode is nice, but there is similar code for ATI cards in linuxbios, and there is option rom based init in another place. This is very scattered and I don't really see the reason for that, nor believe it makes sense.
My opinion is - during PCI init, if you have an optionROM, you should run it. If we start deciding to run some optionROMs and not others, then we'll get confused fast.
My opinion is that option ROMs should not be needed, and that we have code for basic init for all supported hardware in coreboot. (Set a graphics mode or init a SCSI controller, but not spin up disks.)
My other opinion is that native graphics drivers should run in the payload, We should lose the ATI card stuff in coreboot. That consolidates the code by type - native code in the payload, optionROM in coreboot, and we can ignore what actual device either mechanism runs.
Short term (a few years or so) I pretty much agree. Long term I think I would like to set a graphics mode in coreboot.
Typically that isn't practical right now, but I would like to keep the RageXL code in v3 too when the time comes. That will make us think about where that type of init code fits in.
//Peter