I read an articel about the Linux BIOS Project in the Linux-Magazin (German)----It's great!!!!!!!!!!!!
What i want to know is: "Does anybody think about using in Workstations/Laptops?????".
CU ------------------------------------- Klemens Mantzos
Dynatools Communication Services GmbH Schopenhauerstrasse 36 1180 Wien
Tel: +43-1-4031600 Fax: +43-1-4031600-34
mailto:klemens.mantzos@dynatools.com http://www.dynatools.com http://www.projectmaker.at http://www.dynaweb.at -------------------------------------
On Thu, 8 May 2003, Klemens Mantzos wrote:
What i want to know is: "Does anybody think about using in Workstations/Laptops?????".
we've been trying to find a good laptop for a few years for this purpose.
One possibility is the $700 lindows laptop, which does use a supported chipset.
ron
I'm lucky enough to have one of these and would be willing to experiment. I have experience with working with firmware(u-boot in particular). I have to figure out a way to open up the case enough to see if I can find out what kind of flash chip is on this board. I've heard of boards with dual-flash parts so if you screw up one you can still boot. Is there any strategy out there for doing this with pc motherboards yet? Don't tell me I have to lift the flash to burn it and put it back on the board... Jeff
On Thu, 2003-05-22 at 16:13, ron minnich wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2003, Klemens Mantzos wrote:
What i want to know is: "Does anybody think about using in Workstations/Laptops?????".
we've been trying to find a good laptop for a few years for this purpose.
One possibility is the $700 lindows laptop, which does use a supported chipset.
ron
Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
can you send an lspci?
ron
:) As soon as I hit send I thought, "oh crap..."
On Fri, 2003-05-23 at 12:33, ron minnich wrote:
can you send an lspci?
ron
Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
On 22 May 2003, Jeff Carr wrote:
I'm lucky enough to have one of these and would be willing to experiment. I have experience with working with firmware(u-boot in particular). I have to figure out a way to open up the case enough to see if I can find out what kind of flash chip is on this board. I've heard of boards with dual-flash parts so if you screw up one you can still boot. Is there any strategy out there for doing this with pc motherboards yet? Don't tell me I have to lift the flash to burn it and put it back on the board...
on the RLX, Suravee put the linuxbios in the fallback area, and we ran normal bios in the normal area. Then when we tested we would tell it to use fallback (linuxbios) via a jumper.
ron
The best solution for that is the "BIOS Savior". Check the Linuxbios archives or the web to learn more about that. On many of our boards, you don't have to lift the prom to write it, they can be programmed in place, you'll just have to lift them when you screw up (expect to) :) Or, there are EPROM emulators. Many solutions..
However, I doubt your laptop has a DIP32 socket and is more likely to have a TSOP40 directly on the board. You should definitely check first.
If you have a TSOP40, you will need to have the TSOP40 extracted and a "coffin" put in its place. For that, some of us have used Century Technology, Inc in San Fransisco (the guys name is Henry Ho, hho@century-technology.com) though i'm sure there are other places which will do it.
You can mail them just the mainboard, and they'll extract your TSOP40 and put a socket in its place for a pretty reasonable price. That's just so you can program your TSOP40 in a prom programmer, or get a backup TSOP40 so you'll have a working BIOS if you mess up and then you could switch the two.
------------------ Adam Agnew Independent Contractor www.adamagnew.com
On 22 May 2003, Jeff Carr wrote:
I'm lucky enough to have one of these and would be willing to experiment. I have experience with working with firmware(u-boot in particular). I have to figure out a way to open up the case enough to see if I can find out what kind of flash chip is on this board. I've heard of boards with dual-flash parts so if you screw up one you can still boot. Is there any strategy out there for doing this with pc motherboards yet? Don't tell me I have to lift the flash to burn it and put it back on the board... Jeff
On Thu, 2003-05-22 at 16:13, ron minnich wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2003, Klemens Mantzos wrote:
What i want to know is: "Does anybody think about using in Workstations/Laptops?????".
we've been trying to find a good laptop for a few years for this purpose.
One possibility is the $700 lindows laptop, which does use a supported chipset.
ron
Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Adam Agnew wrote:
If you have a TSOP40, you will need to have the TSOP40 extracted and a "coffin" put in its place. For that, some of us have used Century Technology, Inc in San Fransisco (the guys name is Henry Ho, hho@century-technology.com) though i'm sure there are other places which will do it.
Just curious, what is a "coffin" socket? I have had some really bad luck with ET's zif socket for TSOPs. After a few insertions the traces start to lift, since there is nothing else mechanically holding it on the board but the tiny SM traces.
-Steve
Let me see if i can dig around and find you a picture.. Basically its TSOP socket with a lid which locks the tsop into place. It has worked really well for me, i don't recall having trouble making the connection. http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/t23pictures/
You'll see the socket open and closed there. It's got a little latch you pry open with your finger to release the chip.
------------------ Adam Agnew Independent Contractor www.adamagnew.com
On Mon, 23 Jun 2003, Steve Gehlbach wrote:
Adam Agnew wrote:
If you have a TSOP40, you will need to have the TSOP40 extracted and a "coffin" put in its place. For that, some of us have used Century Technology, Inc in San Fransisco (the guys name is Henry Ho, hho@century-technology.com) though i'm sure there are other places which will do it.
Just curious, what is a "coffin" socket? I have had some really bad luck with ET's zif socket for TSOPs. After a few insertions the traces start to lift, since there is nothing else mechanically holding it on the board but the tiny SM traces.
-Steve
Linuxbios mailing list Linuxbios@clustermatic.org http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
Adam Agnew wrote:
http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/t23pictures/
You'll see the socket open and closed there. It's got a little latch you pry open with your finger to release the chip.
Yep, that looks like the Emulation Technolgy zif socket (or at least that's what I call it). Never heard the term "coffin" but it seems appropriate for a couple of reasons.
http://www.emulation.com/catalog/off-the-shelf_solutions/sockets/tsop/
I guess it depends on how well you install it, but I had one of these lift the traces on a board I was working on, after a few dozen cycles of in and out. Almost put me in a "coffin" since I was debugging a program where the bug turned out to be an intermittent on the socket. So I would be very gentle with it. I never tried it, but epoxying it to the PCB might make it more rugged.
TSOPs are neat for their size, but they sure are delicate for R&D use. I have found them to be tempermental on my EMP programmer as well.
I don't know of a better solution, BTW, just an FYI.
-Steve
Jeff Carr wrote:
I'm lucky enough to have one of these and would be willing to experiment. I have experience with working with firmware(u-boot in particular). I have to figure out a way to open up the case enough to see if I can find out what kind of flash chip is on this board. I've heard of boards with dual-flash parts so if you screw up one you can still boot. Is there any strategy out there for doing this with pc motherboards yet? Don't tell me I have to lift the flash to burn it and put it back on the board... Jeff
What are they using in the Lindows laptop for a keyboard/power managment controller? The keyboard scan, power managment (power buttons, cover open/closed) is typically done with a micro with its own firmware. The chipset is the Via 8606 and 82C686B with the C3 Ezra CPU.
--Bari
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Adam Agnew -
Bari Ari -
Jeff Carr -
Jeff Carr -
Klemens Mantzos -
ron minnich -
Steve Gehlbach