What are the chances of running coreboot on an HP hdx9494 laptop ?
Specs: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01490775&cc=us&...
Its a pretty straight forward machine. Intel 965 chipset, T8100 processor, etc.
$ /sbin/lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 03) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03) 00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03) 00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800M GTS (rev a2) 02:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05) 02:06.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22) 02:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12) 02:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12) 10:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61) 20:00.0 Mass storage controller: Silicon Image, Inc. Unknown device 3531 (rev 01) 28:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
I imagine the hardest part of running an open BIOS on a machine like this would be controlling the fan and power management stuff. Am I right ?
The impetus for doing this is that the hdx9000 comes with various processors, from a T7600 to T9500 to X9000. Some of use would like to try running the QX9300, and it would be advantageous to be able to set the processor frequency multiplier. We are not sure the current HP BIOS would properly recognize the QX9300. Any comments ?
Thanks
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:58 -0400, Linuxguy123 wrote:
What are the chances of running coreboot on an HP hdx9494 laptop ?
<snip>
One other thing about this laptop... one can flash the BIOS from the machine itself. Does that make loading/testing coreboot harder or easier ?
Thanks
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 6:08 AM, Linuxguy123 linuxguy123@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:58 -0400, Linuxguy123 wrote:
What are the chances of running coreboot on an HP hdx9494 laptop ?
<snip>
One other thing about this laptop... one can flash the BIOS from the machine itself. Does that make loading/testing coreboot harder or easier ?
you are going to have to deal with intel. I doubt they will like your reason :-)
Question: what is the business case from the HP and intel viewpoint? Why do they care?
ron
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:20 -0700, ron minnich wrote:
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 6:08 AM, Linuxguy123 linuxguy123@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:58 -0400, Linuxguy123 wrote:
What are the chances of running coreboot on an HP hdx9494 laptop ?
<snip>
One other thing about this laptop... one can flash the BIOS from the machine itself. Does that make loading/testing coreboot harder or easier ?
Thanks for replying.
you are going to have to deal with intel. I doubt they will like your reason :-)
What do you mean by that ?
Question: what is the business case from the HP and intel viewpoint? Why do they care?
Of course, they don't. I am doing this for myself. Is there something proprietary about my laptop that I need to know to install the BIOS ?
LG
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 6:49 AM, Linuxguy123 linuxguy123@gmail.com wrote:
you are going to have to deal with intel. I doubt they will like your reason :-)
What do you mean by that ?
intel has their own bios, efi. They would rather see people use efi.
Question: what is the business case from the HP and intel viewpoint? Why do they care?
Of course, they don't. I am doing this for myself. Is there something proprietary about my laptop that I need to know to install the BIOS ?
many, many proprietary things, sadly.
ron
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Linuxguy123 linuxguy123@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:20 -0700, ron minnich wrote:
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 6:08 AM, Linuxguy123 linuxguy123@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:58 -0400, Linuxguy123 wrote:
What are the chances of running coreboot on an HP hdx9494 laptop ?
<snip>
One other thing about this laptop... one can flash the BIOS from the machine itself. Does that make loading/testing coreboot harder or easier ?
Thanks for replying.
you are going to have to deal with intel. I doubt they will like your reason :-)
What do you mean by that ?
Question: what is the business case from the HP and intel viewpoint? Why do they care?
Of course, they don't. I am doing this for myself. Is there something proprietary about my laptop that I need to know to install the BIOS ?
You'll need to know a lot of thing to *first* port coreboot to this new motherboard (a port to a possibly new northbridge & southbridge) which will all need proper free documentation. Then you'll need a way to recover from development glitches such as having flashed a non-working bios... And for a laptop, you better have some good soldering skills at hand.
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Vincent Legoll vincent.legoll@gmail.comwrote:
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Linuxguy123 linuxguy123@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:20 -0700, ron minnich wrote:
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 6:08 AM, Linuxguy123 linuxguy123@gmail.com
wrote:
On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 08:58 -0400, Linuxguy123 wrote:
What are the chances of running coreboot on an HP hdx9494 laptop ?
<snip>
One other thing about this laptop... one can flash the BIOS from the machine itself. Does that make loading/testing coreboot harder or easier ?
Thanks for replying.
you are going to have to deal with intel. I doubt they will like your
reason :-)
What do you mean by that ?
Question: what is the business case from the HP and intel viewpoint? Why do they care?
Of course, they don't. I am doing this for myself. Is there something proprietary about my laptop that I need to know to install the BIOS ?
You'll need to know a lot of thing to *first* port coreboot to this new motherboard (a port to a possibly new northbridge & southbridge) which will all need proper free documentation. Then you'll need a way to recover from development glitches such as having flashed a non-working bios... And for a laptop, you better have some good soldering skills at hand.
The southbridge should work with the generic ICHx support, but the northbridge would need a new port (datasheets available here: http://www.intel.com/Products/Notebook/Chipsets/PM965/PM965-technicaldocumen...). There are also not-so-public BIOS developer guides that you would need to try to convince Intel to allow you to see and use (which may be difficult for the reasons outlined by Ron), or else deal without them. There's also typically an embedded controller, which you would also need datasheets for and they're also usually under NDA. You would need to open your laptop up and find the embedded controller to identify it, I don't think there's any way to detect it through software.
If you're serious about it, I'd start by looking for the embedded controller, and trying to get the datasheet from the manufacturer. If you can, then buy a PM965-based desktop board with socketed flash (and a cheap cpu/memory, if you need them), and start by porting that. Better yet would be a mini-ITX board with the 965 mobile chipset and socketed flash, but I can't find any. Once that's up and running, then go to work on the laptop. If you're really serious and feeling rich, buy a board for me too and I'll help ;) I have a Dell XPS M1530 that also has the 965 mobile chipset, and I'd like to get coreboot on it as well, but I don't have the cash to buy a 965 desktop board, and I haven't had the ambition to check on the EC yet.
-Corey
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Corey Osgood -
Linuxguy123 -
ron minnich -
Vincent Legoll