Laptops?

[Klemens Mantzos]

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: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

mailto:[e-mail]
 
http://www.dynatools.com
http://www.projectmaker.at
http://www.dynaweb.at
-------------------------------------

[ron minnich]

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

[Jeff Carr]

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
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[ron minnich]

can you send an lspci?

ron

[Jeff Carr]

:) 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
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[ron minnich]

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

[Adam Agnew]

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,
[e-mail]) 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
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Steve Gehlbach]

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,
> [e-mail]) 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

[Adam Agnew]

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,
> > [e-mail]) 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
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Steve Gehlbach]

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

[Bari Ari]

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