[LinuxBIOS] AMD PIC BIOS - Flashing on WinCE?

Hello all,
 I have one of those AMD PIC Computers (Personal Internet Communicator). It has a Geode processor (x86). it comes with WIndows CE preinstalled and refuses to boot antthing else.
 I read on numerous places that there is some cryptographic handshaking going on between BIOS and the OS loader.

Therefore at the moment I cannot boot it with Linux. And unfortunately the BIOS chip is soldered onto the mainboard. So my only bet is programming the chip with LinuxBIOS under Windows CE. Is this possible? I want it so bad, as this machine is garbage with Windows CE running.

Thanks in advance.

[Alan Carvalho de Assis]

Hi,

2006/12/7, [e-mail] :
> Hello all,
>  I have one of those AMD PIC Computers (Personal Internet Communicator). It has a Geode processor (x86). it comes with WIndows CE preinstalled and refuses to boot antthing else.
>  I read on numerous places that there is some cryptographic handshaking going on between BIOS and the OS loader.
>
> Therefore at the moment I cannot boot it with Linux. And unfortunately the BIOS chip is soldered onto the mainboard. So my only bet is programming the chip with LinuxBIOS under Windows CE. Is this possible? I want it so bad, as this machine is garbage with Windows CE running.
>
> Thanks in advance.

Look at here:
http://pclab.nectec.or.th/wiki/index.php/Hardware#AMD_Personal_Internet_Comm...

They are running Linux on AMD FIC, but I don't know how they flashed the BIOS.

Do you tried to compile flashrom to WinCE? I think it can be possible
with very little modifications.

Cheers,

Alan

[Tom Sylla]

On 12/7/06, [e-mail]  wrote:
> Therefore at the moment I cannot boot it with Linux. And unfortunately the BIOS chip is soldered onto the mainboard. So my only bet is programming the chip with LinuxBIOS under Windows CE. Is this possible? I want it so bad, as this machine is garbage with Windows CE running.

That is a very dangerous undertaking. Being able to flash the ROM is
the least of your worries. Even if you somehow were able to flash the
ROM from WinCE (extremely unlikely), you will certainly stop it from
booting the first time you try and flash LinuxBIOS on it.

GX LinuxBIOS requires a VSA binary to boot. The GX VSA code was
actually released under GPL for the OLPC project, but the OLPC VSA
binary does not work on all GX platforms (at least not on Rumba, and I
would bet not on PIC) So you need to not only do the normal (hard)
work of porting LinuxBIOS to the PIC, you also have to do the (harder)
work of making a VSA binary for the machine. Also, I do not believe
the PIC has a serial port sticking out, and the southbridge inside
does not support the EHCI debug port.

You could maybe get there, but doing it without a removable flash ROM
is not reasonable. At a minumum, you need to de-solder the flash,
solder on a socket, and figure out how to get a serial port.

[Corey Osgood]

[e-mail] wrote:
> Hello all,
>  I have one of those AMD PIC Computers (Personal Internet Communicator). It has a Geode processor (x86). it comes with WIndows CE preinstalled and refuses to boot antthing else.
>  I read on numerous places that there is some cryptographic handshaking going on between BIOS and the OS loader.
>
> Therefore at the moment I cannot boot it with Linux. And unfortunately the BIOS chip is soldered onto the mainboard. So my only bet is programming the chip with LinuxBIOS under Windows CE. Is this possible? I want it so bad, as this machine is garbage with Windows CE running.
>
> Thanks in advance.

IF you have a windows-based flash tool, you should be able to use that
to flash linuxbios onto it. However, where your BIOS chip is sodiered
on, I'd first worry about sodiering on a plcc socket onto the
motherboard (if it has a plcc bios, the pics I've seen of them do) and
getting a backup bios chip. Then, you should be able to flash with
another PC running a BIOS chip of the same voltage (or else the windows
flash option). This way, if something unexpected should happen, you're
covered. My personal option: 2 extra chips, one for the original ROM,
the other for your lb ROM, and the original chip in storage (in case you
mess up).

-Corey