Re: [coreboot] new to coreboot

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi Philip,

[I believe you intended this to go to the list as well. Please use the
"reply all" button in your mailer. Thanks.]

On 10.07.2008 00:22, Philip Aston wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-07-09 at 16:00 +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > Hi Philip,
> >
> > On 09.07.2008 13:14, Philip Aston wrote:
> > > I have MS6178 ver 1.1, supported board, noted as not working on Linux. I can
> > > only get it working reliably with Knoppix although Debian Etch has worked
> > > intermittently. Embedded VGA... does that complicate things?
> >
> > I don't have the board in question, but if it has problems running Linux
> > under the factory BIOS, probably something is wrong with the hardware.
>
> Thank you for your very prompt reply, Carl-Daniel
>
> Probably true, worth a try I believe because googling "MS6178 Linux"
> revealed "News - coreboot
> Linux has never been able to run on this board until now. .... Thanks to
> Uwe Hermann we now have preliminary support for the MSI MS-6178
> mainboard." (Sep07). Nothing to lose anyway.

Ah, that piece of news referred to the Thomson IP1000, a set-top box.
> > > I'm an intermediate user finding detail on the readme within Coreboot
> > > download difficult to understand. My chip is soldered and I'll have to
> > > reflash in situ, not worried about that because
> > > 1 without linux the board is useless
> > > 2 might be able to retrieve original image (which I have saved) from
> > > bootblock.
> >
> > Actually, the "boot block recovery" will not work if flashrom misbehaves
> > or coreboot does not work.
> > > Can I build the .rom on another box? Is there a way to build using a live cd
> > > or do I have to reinstall etch?
> >
> > You can build the .rom on another box, it's even recommended to do so.
> > > And very important, is this too ambitious for someone who needs to ask these
> > > questions? Thank you.
> >
> > Well, having a soldered flash is certainly increasing the risk beyond
> > what I'd recommend. A top hat flash override might work in case of
> > problems, but I wouldn't bet on it.
>
> The Howto was specific to a different mobo but it translated into mine
> with few headaches, except advice to place lilo.elf in / was incorrect
> in my case, dialogue indicated that it should be in /tmp and that
> worked.

Yes, that's a peculiarity of the default configuration.
> So I have compiled a coreboot.rom, same size as my factory bios; but
> uniflash gives "verification failed" (not exact wording). What causes
> this error message please?

AFAIK uniflash checks for a factory BIOS signature/checksum. Since
coreboot has its own checksum mechanism, uniflash fails to recognize
that. It would be interesting to measure voltages of a few pins of the
ROM during a BIOS update of the factory BIOS. That could help to find
out what flashrom needs to do to flash this board.

Uwe (in CC of this mail) has worked on this board and should know more.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

new to coreboot

[Uwe Hermann]

Hi,

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 01:32:05AM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > > > I have MS6178 ver 1.1, supported board, noted as not working on Linux. I can
> > > > only get it working reliably with Knoppix although Debian Etch has worked
> > > > intermittently. Embedded VGA... does that complicate things?
> > >
> > > I don't have the board in question, but if it has problems running Linux
> > > under the factory BIOS, probably something is wrong with the hardware.

Yep.
> > Thank you for your very prompt reply, Carl-Daniel
> >
> > Probably true, worth a try I believe because googling "MS6178 Linux"
> > revealed "News - coreboot
> > Linux has never been able to run on this board until now. .... Thanks to
> > Uwe Hermann we now have preliminary support for the MSI MS-6178
> > mainboard." (Sep07). Nothing to lose anyway.
>
> Ah, that piece of news referred to the Thomson IP1000, a set-top box.

Hm? Don't think so, there _is_ a MS-6178 target and partially works:
http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial

There are some TODOs left, but it boots Linux just fine.
> > > > I'm an intermediate user finding detail on the readme within Coreboot
> > > > download difficult to understand. My chip is soldered and I'll have to
> > > > reflash in situ, not worried about that because
> > > > 1 without linux the board is useless
> > > > 2 might be able to retrieve original image (which I have saved) from
> > > > bootblock.
> > >
> > > Actually, the "boot block recovery" will not work if flashrom misbehaves
> > > or coreboot does not work.
> > > > Can I build the .rom on another box? Is there a way to build using a live cd
> > > > or do I have to reinstall etch?
> > >
> > > You can build the .rom on another box, it's even recommended to do so.
> > > > And very important, is this too ambitious for someone who needs to ask these
> > > > questions? Thank you.
> > >
> > > Well, having a soldered flash is certainly increasing the risk beyond
> > > what I'd recommend. A top hat flash override might work in case of
> > > problems, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Are you sure this is really the MSI MS-6178? See the photo here, in my
case the ROM was _not_ soldered: http://www.coreboot.org/Image:Msi_ms6178.jpg
You seem to have a different revision (1.1 vs. 1.0) so maybe they
changed that...
> > So I have compiled a coreboot.rom, same size as my factory bios; but
> > uniflash gives "verification failed" (not exact wording). What causes
> > this error message please?
>
> AFAIK uniflash checks for a factory BIOS signature/checksum. Since

I doubt it, I've been able to write coreboot images with Uniflash just
fine. The verification errors (some red "bars" instead of only green
ones) sometimes do happen to me too, but it's always reproducible for
certains boards and chips (so I think that happens when Uniflash doesn't
fully support some hardware part, or the part is stale/broken).

As noted at http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial I was
_not_ able to use flashrom on this board successfully, so if the flash
is indeed soldered I would not recommend to try it unless you have some
way to recover (soldering probably)...

HTH, Uwe.

new to coreboot

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi,

On 10.07.2008 13:30, Uwe Hermann wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 01:32:05AM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > > Thank you for your very prompt reply, Carl-Daniel
> > >
> > > Probably true, worth a try I believe because googling "MS6178 Linux"
> > > revealed "News - coreboot
> > > Linux has never been able to run on this board until now. .... Thanks to
> > > Uwe Hermann we now have preliminary support for the MSI MS-6178
> > > mainboard." (Sep07). Nothing to lose anyway.
> >
> > Ah, that piece of news referred to the Thomson IP1000, a set-top box.
>
> Hm? Don't think so, there _is_ a MS-6178 target and partially works:
> http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial

I was referring to "Linux has never been able to run on this board until
now". That sentence does not belong to the MS-6178.
Of course your "preliminary support" statement is true and refers to the
MS-6178.
Mixing these two sentences led to misunderstanding.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

new to coreboot

[Philip Aston]

-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of Uwe Hermann
Sent: 10 July 2008 12:30
To: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
Cc: Philip Aston; Coreboot
Subject: Re: [coreboot] new to coreboot

Hi,

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 01:32:05AM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > > > I have MS6178 ver 1.1, supported board, noted as not working on Linux.

I can
> > > > only get it working reliably with Knoppix although Debian Etch has

worked
> > > > intermittently. Embedded VGA... does that complicate things?
> > >
> > > I don't have the board in question, but if it has problems running

Linux
> > > under the factory BIOS, probably something is wrong with the hardware.

Yep.
> > Thank you for your very prompt reply, Carl-Daniel
> >
> > Probably true, worth a try I believe because googling "MS6178 Linux"
> > revealed "News - coreboot
> > Linux has never been able to run on this board until now. .... Thanks to
> > Uwe Hermann we now have preliminary support for the MSI MS-6178
> > mainboard." (Sep07). Nothing to lose anyway.
>
> Ah, that piece of news referred to the Thomson IP1000, a set-top box.

Hm? Don't think so, there _is_ a MS-6178 target and partially works:
http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial

There are some TODOs left, but it boots Linux just fine.
> > > > I'm an intermediate user finding detail on the readme within Coreboot
> > > > download difficult to understand. My chip is soldered and I'll have to
> > > > reflash in situ, not worried about that because
> > > > 1 without linux the board is useless
> > > > 2 might be able to retrieve original image (which I have saved) from
> > > > bootblock.
> > >
> > > Actually, the "boot block recovery" will not work if flashrom

misbehaves
> > > or coreboot does not work.
> > > > Can I build the .rom on another box? Is there a way to build using a

live cd
> > > > or do I have to reinstall etch?
> > >
> > > You can build the .rom on another box, it's even recommended to do so.
> > > > And very important, is this too ambitious for someone who needs to ask

these
> > > > questions? Thank you.
> > >
> > > Well, having a soldered flash is certainly increasing the risk beyond
> > > what I'd recommend. A top hat flash override might work in case of
> > > problems, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Are you sure this is really the MSI MS-6178? See the photo here, in my
case the ROM was _not_ soldered:
http://www.coreboot.org/Image:Msi_ms6178.jpg
You seem to have a different revision (1.1 vs. 1.0) so maybe they
changed that...

I'll take a look but probably won't have access to a spare chip anyway.
Wimsbios have heard of ver 1.1 & from the ID string suggested mine was an
"OEM", hence different factory bios etc?.
> > So I have compiled a coreboot.rom, same size as my factory bios; but
> > uniflash gives "verification failed" (not exact wording). What causes
> > this error message please?
>
> AFAIK uniflash checks for a factory BIOS signature/checksum. Since

I doubt it, I've been able to write coreboot images with Uniflash just
fine. The verification errors (some red "bars" instead of only green
ones) sometimes do happen to me too, but it's always reproducible for
certains boards and chips (so I think that happens when Uniflash doesn't
fully support some hardware part, or the part is stale/broken).

I have also tried (with uniflash) 2 other factory bios files, admittedly of
uncertain quality- originated from another user's backupimage, zipped, etc..
with same result. However, before quitting, I reflashed my backup bios image
and (despite a few red bars) that worked. Not sure what that means but
Knoppix runs well, so I could possibly compile a flash utility from
Corebios? Being very new to this I'm not good at navigating the download- is
there a particular utility I should be looking for?

BTW even a brief look at the emails indicates the professional nature of
your work so I appreciate your guidance here. -Philip

As noted at http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial I was
_not_ able to use flashrom on this board successfully, so if the flash
is indeed soldered I would not recommend to try it unless you have some
way to recover (soldering probably)...

HTH, Uwe.
--
http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

new to coreboot

[Philip Aston]

On Thu, 2008-07-10 at 15:22 +0100, Philip Aston wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail]
> [mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of Uwe Hermann
> Sent: 10 July 2008 12:30
> To: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
> Cc: Philip Aston; Coreboot
> Subject: Re: [coreboot] new to coreboot
>
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 01:32:05AM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > > > > I have MS6178 ver 1.1, supported board, noted as not working on Linux.
>
> I can
> > > > > only get it working reliably with Knoppix although Debian Etch has
>
> worked
> > > > > intermittently. Embedded VGA... does that complicate things?
> > > >
> > > > I don't have the board in question, but if it has problems running
>
> Linux
> > > > under the factory BIOS, probably something is wrong with the hardware.
>
> Yep.
> > > Thank you for your very prompt reply, Carl-Daniel
> > >
> > > Probably true, worth a try I believe because googling "MS6178 Linux"
> > > revealed "News - coreboot
> > > Linux has never been able to run on this board until now. .... Thanks to
> > > Uwe Hermann we now have preliminary support for the MSI MS-6178
> > > mainboard." (Sep07). Nothing to lose anyway.
> >
> > Ah, that piece of news referred to the Thomson IP1000, a set-top box.
>
> Hm? Don't think so, there _is_ a MS-6178 target and partially works:
> http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial
>
> There are some TODOs left, but it boots Linux just fine.
> > > > > I'm an intermediate user finding detail on the readme within Coreboot
> > > > > download difficult to understand. My chip is soldered and I'll have to
> > > > > reflash in situ, not worried about that because
> > > > > 1 without linux the board is useless
> > > > > 2 might be able to retrieve original image (which I have saved) from
> > > > > bootblock.
> > > >
> > > > Actually, the "boot block recovery" will not work if flashrom
>
> misbehaves
> > > > or coreboot does not work.
> > > > > Can I build the .rom on another box? Is there a way to build using a
>
> live cd
> > > > > or do I have to reinstall etch?
> > > >
> > > > You can build the .rom on another box, it's even recommended to do so.
> > > > > And very important, is this too ambitious for someone who needs to ask
>
> these
> > > > > questions? Thank you.
> > > >
> > > > Well, having a soldered flash is certainly increasing the risk beyond
> > > > what I'd recommend. A top hat flash override might work in case of
> > > > problems, but I wouldn't bet on it.
>
> Are you sure this is really the MSI MS-6178? See the photo here, in my
> case the ROM was _not_ soldered:
> http://www.coreboot.org/Image:Msi_ms6178.jpg
> You seem to have a different revision (1.1 vs. 1.0) so maybe they
> changed that...
>
> I'll take a look but probably won't have access to a spare chip anyway.
> Wimsbios have heard of ver 1.1 & from the ID string suggested mine was an
> "OEM", hence different factory bios etc?.
> > > So I have compiled a coreboot.rom, same size as my factory bios; but
> > > uniflash gives "verification failed" (not exact wording). What causes
> > > this error message please?
> >
> > AFAIK uniflash checks for a factory BIOS signature/checksum. Since
>
> I doubt it, I've been able to write coreboot images with Uniflash just
> fine. The verification errors (some red "bars" instead of only green
> ones) sometimes do happen to me too, but it's always reproducible for
> certains boards and chips (so I think that happens when Uniflash doesn't
> fully support some hardware part, or the part is stale/broken).
>
> I have also tried (with uniflash) 2 other factory bios files, admittedly of
> uncertain quality- originated from another user's backupimage, zipped, etc..
> with same result. However, before quitting, I reflashed my backup bios image
> and (despite a few red bars) that worked. Not sure what that means but
> Knoppix runs well, so I could possibly compile a flash utility from
> Corebios? Being very new to this I'm not good at navigating the download- is
> there a particular utility I should be looking for?

-I should have looked harder, I think it's Flashrom?-Philip
> BTW even a brief look at the emails indicates the professional nature of
> your work so I appreciate your guidance here. -Philip
>
> As noted at http://www.coreboot.org/MSI_MS-6178_Build_Tutorial I was
> _not_ able to use flashrom on this board successfully, so if the flash
> is indeed soldered I would not recommend to try it unless you have some
> way to recover (soldering probably)...
> HTH, Uwe.
>
> http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
> http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

new to coreboot

[Uwe Hermann]

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 12:12:52AM +0100, Philip Aston wrote:
> > Knoppix runs well, so I could possibly compile a flash utility from
> > Corebios? Being very new to this I'm not good at navigating the download- is
> > there a particular utility I should be looking for?
>
> -I should have looked harder, I think it's Flashrom?-Philip

Yep, http://www.coreboot.org/Flashrom

A number of distributions already ship flashrom as packages, so you
probably don't even need to compile it.

Uwe.