[LinuxBIOS] How to start with a new mainboard (commel lv-671)

[Dieter Bloms]

Hi,

I got my IOSS RD1 Bios-Saver RD1-PMC4 and want to start with make a
linuxbios for my commel lv-671.

I found out, that the existing mainboard adl855pc from digitallogic
seems to have the same north and south bridge.

Shall I copy all the files from this mainboard to start, or should I
start from scratch ?I searched for a howto start from beginning, but I
haven't found one.

[Peter Stuge]

On Sun, May 27, 2007 at 09:54:48PM +0200, Dieter Bloms wrote:
> I found out, that the existing mainboard adl855pc from digitallogic
> seems to have the same north and south bridge.
>
> Shall I copy all the files from this mainboard to start

Yep, I think this is a good idea.

You can even try the adl855pc target first to see if you get any
serial. You'll want to change things right after that though so a
copy is a good idea.

//Peter

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Dieter Bloms  [070527 21:54]:
> I found out, that the existing mainboard adl855pc from digitallogic
> seems to have the same north and south bridge.

i855 is currently not supported. The adl855pc never worked.
> Shall I copy all the files from this mainboard to start, or should I
> start from scratch ?I searched for a howto start from beginning, but I
> haven't found one.

Stefan

[Dieter Bloms]

Hi Stefan,

On Sun, May 27, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Dieter Bloms  [070527 21:54]:
> > I found out, that the existing mainboard adl855pc from digitallogic
> > seems to have the same north and south bridge.
>
> i855 is currently not supported. The adl855pc never worked.
> > Shall I copy all the files from this mainboard to start, or should I
> > start from scratch ?I searched for a howto start from beginning, but I
> > haven't found one.

I've tried to compile a bios for adl855pc, but it fails with:

--snip--
gcc -m32 -nostdlib -nostartfiles -static -o linuxbios -T ldscript.ld crt0.o
/usr/bin/ld: section .id [00000000fffdffce -> 00000000fffdffef] overlaps section .rom [00000000fffd663a -> 00000000fffe208f]
/usr/bin/ld: linuxbios: section .id lma 0xfffdffce overlaps previous sections
/usr/bin/ld: linuxbios: section .reset lma 0xfffdfff0 overlaps previous sections
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [linuxbios] Fehler 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc/adl855pc/normal'
make: *** [normal/linuxbios.rom] Fehler 1
video:/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc/adl855pc#                                                      
--snip--

so do I have a change to get linuxbios to work for my board ?
Today I added the bios savior and now I can do some testing, but don't
have any skills for programming :(

@leo: You sad you have some patches. Are you willing to send them to me,
so I can add them to give them i try.

[ron minnich]

The ADL855PC uses an intel northbridge. Intel's stated policy, going
back some years now, is that they do not publish or make available the
info needed to write a bios. Period. To really get this to work, you
will have to contact intel for docs, and I hope they are willing to
help you. Maybe their policy is open to change.

Ron

[Stefan Reinauer]

Hi Dieter,

* Dieter Bloms  [070528 15:36]:
> I've tried to compile a bios for adl855pc, but it fails with:
>
> --snip--
> gcc -m32 -nostdlib -nostartfiles -static -o linuxbios -T ldscript.ld crt0.o
> /usr/bin/ld: section .id [00000000fffdffce -> 00000000fffdffef] overlaps section .rom [00000000fffd663a -> 00000000fffe208f]
> /usr/bin/ld: linuxbios: section .id lma 0xfffdffce overlaps previous sections
> /usr/bin/ld: linuxbios: section .reset lma 0xfffdfff0 overlaps previous sections
> collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
> make[1]: *** [linuxbios] Fehler 1
> make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc/adl855pc/normal'
> make: *** [normal/linuxbios.rom] Fehler 1
> video:/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc/adl855pc#

Try setting ROM_SIZE in the mainboard Config.lb to your rom size (512k?)
and ROM_IMAGE_SIZE in the targets/ Config.lb to 0x16000 or 0x17000
instead of 0x10000 or whatever it is.
> so do I have a change to get linuxbios to work for my board ?
> Today I added the bios savior and now I can do some testing, but don't
> have any skills for programming :(

Yes, there is a good chance. It wont happen instantly though. Try the
above and try to get an image out of it.

I am in the same process for another i855 board, but I dont get any
serial output yet. (In my case either the onboard microcontroller keeps
the machine in reset or the superio driver is not working yet)

If you have a little bit of patience and passion, we might try to get
this working together.

Stefan

[Uwe Hermann]

Hi,

On Mon, May 28, 2007 at 05:41:13PM +0200, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > gcc -m32 -nostdlib -nostartfiles -static -o linuxbios -T ldscript.ld crt0.o
> > /usr/bin/ld: section .id [00000000fffdffce -> 00000000fffdffef] overlaps section .rom [00000000fffd663a -> 00000000fffe208f]
> > /usr/bin/ld: linuxbios: section .id lma 0xfffdffce overlaps previous sections
> > /usr/bin/ld: linuxbios: section .reset lma 0xfffdfff0 overlaps previous sections
> > collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
> > make[1]: *** [linuxbios] Fehler 1
> > make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc/adl855pc/normal'
> > make: *** [normal/linuxbios.rom] Fehler 1
> > video:/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc/adl855pc#
>
> Try setting ROM_SIZE in the mainboard Config.lb to your rom size (512k?)
> and ROM_IMAGE_SIZE in the targets/ Config.lb to 0x16000 or 0x17000
> instead of 0x10000 or whatever it is.

This patch works for me. It's strange that abuild doen't complain
here, but manually building does indeed not work...

Uwe.

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Uwe Hermann  [070528 17:58]:
> This patch works for me. It's strange that abuild doen't complain
> here, but manually building does indeed not work...

Not at all. abuild only uses the Config.abuild template if it exists.
If not, it creates its own Config.lb with size 0x17000.

v3 will rock, lacking dozens of config files and Makefiles that are
called Config something and doing things dynamically.

[Dieter Bloms]

Hi,

On Mon, May 28, Uwe Hermann wrote:
> > Try setting ROM_SIZE in the mainboard Config.lb to your rom size (512k?)
> > and ROM_IMAGE_SIZE in the targets/ Config.lb to 0x16000 or 0x17000
> > instead of 0x10000 or whatever it is.
>
> This patch works for me. It's strange that abuild doen't complain
> here, but manually building does indeed not work...

I tried both and I can compile a linuxbios.rom.
But it is to small:

--snip--
video:/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc/adl855pc# ls -l linuxbios.rom
-rw-r--r-- 1 root src 393216 2007-05-28 18:18 linuxbios.rom
--snip--

My Config.lb looks like this:

video:/usr/src/neues_bios/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/digitallogic/adl855pc# grep -v ^# Config.lb |grep -v ^$
target adl855pc
mainboard digitallogic/adl855pc
option ROM_SIZE=512*1024
option DEFAULT_CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL=10
option MAXIMUM_CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL=10
romimage "image"
        option USE_FALLBACK_IMAGE=0
    			option ROM_IMAGE_SIZE=80 * 1024
    		  option LINUXBIOS_EXTRA_VERSION=".0Normal"
    		  payload /usr/src/neues_bios/filo-0.5/filo.elf
end
buildrom ./linuxbios.rom ROM_SIZE "image"

my payload works with qemu.

[LinuxBIOS] (data sheet for i852/i855 chip) was " How to start with a new mainboard (commel lv-671)"

[Dieter Bloms]

Hi,

On Mon, May 28, ron minnich wrote:
> The ADL855PC uses an intel northbridge. Intel's stated policy, going
> back some years now, is that they do not publish or make available the
> info needed to write a bios. Period. To really get this to work, you
> will have to contact intel for docs, and I hope they are willing to
> help you. Maybe their policy is open to change.

yesterday I send an email to intel and today they answered with this
link:

http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel852gm/

I don't understand anything in the pdf, so I think may be usefull for
you:

http://download.intel.com/design/mobile/datashts/25240705.pdf