New to list

[Mike Westfall]

Hello, everyone here.

This LinuxBios stuff sounds interesting.

I have a Micron Millenium with a BCM DR737 motherboard sitting around 
doing nothing in my lab. I know, it's kind of old, but maybe it'll be 
good enough to provide me a learning experience...

Any opinions on whether this MoBo is even worth experimenting with?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering,
Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security Division.
Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Gregg C Levine]

Hello from Gregg C Levine
Mike, can you provide some information on this beast? What's its
chosen processor? Also you'll need to run a "#lspci -v" for us (# mark
for shell prompt). Oh, and as a side note, nice to see you here.
-------------------
Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
------------------------------------------------------------
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Mike Westfall
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 2:44 PM
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: New to list
>
> Hello, everyone here.
>
> This LinuxBios stuff sounds interesting.
>
> I have a Micron Millenium with a BCM DR737 motherboard sitting

around
> doing nothing in my lab. I know, it's kind of old, but maybe it'll

be
> good enough to provide me a learning experience...
>
> Any opinions on whether this MoBo is even worth experimenting with?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
> Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems

Engineering,
> Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security

Division.
> Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory,

NM 87545
>

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

[Mike Westfall]

Gregg C Levine wrote:
> Hello from Gregg C Levine
> Mike, can you provide some information on this beast? What's its
> chosen processor? Also you'll need to run a "#lspci -v" for us (# mark
> for shell prompt). Oh, and as a side note, nice to see you here.

OK, well I haven't actually got linux installed yet. That's the first step.

It's got a Pentium II in it, and, I believe, a 440BX chipset.

More when I get the thing set up and running....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering,
Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security Division.
Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mike Westfall]

Mike Westfall wrote:
> Gregg C Levine wrote:
> > Hello from Gregg C Levine
> > Mike, can you provide some information on this beast? What's its
> > chosen processor? Also you'll need to run a "#lspci -v" for us (# mark
> > for shell prompt). Oh, and as a side note, nice to see you here.
>
> OK, well I haven't actually got linux installed yet. That's the first step.
>
> It's got a Pentium II in it, and, I believe, a 440BX chipset.
>
> More when I get the thing set up and running....

OK.. Linux installed.
Here's what I have:

Script started on Thu 04 Sep 2003 04:01:38 PM MDT
[mikew@dirtbag mikew]$ su -lc "lspci -v"
Password:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge 
(rev 02)
         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
         Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
         Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 1.0

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge 
(rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
         Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64
         Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
         I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
         Memory behind bridge: e4000000-e5ffffff
         Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e6000000-e6ffffff

00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) 
(prog-if 80 [Master])
         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
         I/O ports at f000 [size=16]

00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) 
(prog-if 00 [UHCI])
         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
         I/O ports at e000 [size=32]

00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
         Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 9

00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1968 Maestro 2
         Subsystem: Micron: Unknown device 0737
         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
         I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
         Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 1

00:13.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905 100BaseTX [Boomerang]
         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
         I/O ports at e800 [size=64]
         Expansion ROM at e7000000 [disabled] [size=64K]

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVidia / SGS Thomson (Joint Venture) 
Riva128 (rev 22) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
         Subsystem: Micron: Unknown device 0737
         Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
         Memory at e4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
         Memory at e6000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=16M]
         Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=4M]
         Capabilities: [44] AGP version 1.0

[mikew@dirtbag mikew]$ exit

Script done on Thu 04 Sep 2003 04:02:03 PM MDT

Oh, and thanks for the welcome, and any help y'all can provide.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering,
Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security Division.
Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ron minnich]

this will probably work just fine.

Hey, looks like you are from LANL, come by and say hello (we're in the 
ACL)

ron

[Mike Westfall]

ron minnich wrote:
> this will probably work just fine.
>
> Hey, looks like you are from LANL, come by and say hello (we're in the 
> ACL)

Hey, cool. I'd love to see what you guys are up to. When would be a good 
time?

On another note, the system I have here has its BIOS on a 256 kByte 
32-pin PLCC flash device (AM29F002NT). Is this big enough?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering,
Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security Division.
Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Richard Smith]

Mike Westfall wrote:
> OK.. Linux installed.
> Here's what I have:
>
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge

You appear to be good to go here.  The 440 code in the LB 1 tree should 
just work.

I don't see a superIO in your device listing though.  What does your 
serial ports?
> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVidia / SGS Thomson (Joint Venture) 
> Riva128 (rev 22) (prog-if 00 [VGA])

Don't know about the status here but you might get it to work under ADLO.

[Mike Westfall]

Richard Smith wrote:
> I don't see a superIO in your device listing though.  What does your 
> serial ports?

I'm assuming that legacy devices are taken care of by the PIIX4 
southbridge (FW82371EB).

But I'm probably just blowing smoke, 'cause I don't really know...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering,
Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security Division.
Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mike Westfall]

Mike Westfall wrote:
> Richard Smith wrote:
> > I don't see a superIO in your device listing though.  What does your 
> > serial ports?
>
> I'm assuming that legacy devices are taken care of by the PIIX4 
> southbridge (FW82371EB).
>
> But I'm probably just blowing smoke, 'cause I don't really know...

Ok, I was blowing smoke.

The serial ports (and other stuff) are handled by a Winbond W83977TF 
chip, which I suppose is connected to the PIIX4E's ISA bus...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering,
Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security Division.
Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Richard Smith]

Mike Westfall wrote:
> > > I don't see a superIO in your device listing though.  What does your 
> > > serial ports?
>
> Ok, I was blowing smoke.
>
> The serial ports (and other stuff) are handled by a Winbond W83977TF 
> chip, which I suppose is connected to the PIIX4E's ISA bus...

Correct.  The southbrige will pass all the legacy IO's to the isa buss. 
  mouse and keyboard are usually in that group of superIO functions as 
well.

I looked at the superio tree and there is a W83977ef but not a tf you 
will need to get the datasheets and look at the difference between the 
them.  Of course you can probally just try the ef and see what happens. 
  If you don't get any serial activity though you will have to fix 
whatever superio serial port issues there are.

I'm really interested in you trying this board so I can see if all my 
changes to the 440bx tree work for someone else besides me.  I don't 
beleive they have been re-tested by someone else since they were comitted.

[Jeff Noxon]

I have an MSI board with a 440BX (BXmaster), and also a Dell PWS 210.
I'm particulary interested in getting the Dell to work.  But the Dell
boxes are SMP...

The MSI uses a Winbond W83977EF-AW, which is supported.  Are most of
the BX boards really generic enough that they can be made to work easily?

Regards,

Jeff

On Fri, Sep 05, 2003 at 11:56:02AM -0500, Richard Smith wrote:
> I'm really interested in you trying this board so I can see if all my 
> changes to the 440bx tree work for someone else besides me.  I don't 
> beleive they have been re-tested by someone else since they were comitted.

[Richard Smith]

Jeff Noxon wrote:
> I have an MSI board with a 440BX (BXmaster), and also a Dell PWS 210.
> I'm particulary interested in getting the Dell to work.  But the Dell
> boxes are SMP...

Hmmm.... Dunno about the SMP.  Ron and Eric perhaps can comment on that 
.  I never messed with any of the smp stuff.  Assuming the MSI board 
dosen't have something flaky with the SMbus to gain access to the SPD it 
should come up and "just work"  YMMV of course.
> The MSI uses a Winbond W83977EF-AW, which is supported.  Are most of
> the BX boards really generic enough that they can be made to work easily?

Yes.  I think so.  There are a few bits in the southbridge setup that 
are hardcoded to match my board.  (ie they aren't configurable in the 
config file)  However, I think that these settings are going to be the 
same on most of the boards.  Perhaps some other custom embedded system 
might have them different but any board set up like a normal desktop PC 
should work.

[ron minnich]

On Fri, 5 Sep 2003, Richard Smith wrote:
> Hmmm.... Dunno about the SMP.  Ron and Eric perhaps can comment on that 
> .  I never messed with any of the smp stuff.  Assuming the MSI board 
> dosen't have something flaky with the SMbus to gain access to the SPD it 
> should come up and "just work"  YMMV of course.

smp has been working fine for years, no issue.
ron

[Richard Smith]

ron minnich wrote:
> > Hmmm.... Dunno about the SMP.  Ron and Eric perhaps can comment on that 
> > .  I never messed with any of the smp stuff.  Assuming the MSI board 
> > dosen't have something flaky with the SMbus to gain access to the SPD it 
> > should come up and "just work"  YMMV of course.
>
> smp has been working fine for years, no issue.
> ron

Well what I was trying to say is that I don't know if the 440bx code 
will do SMP.  I don't remember seeing much of anything about smp in the 
440bx stuff I looked at.

I know that all the code I worked on dosen't have a clue about smp.  But 
it was all SDRAM detection stuff and some mouse/keyboard settings work. 
  Perhaps thats much further on down the init chain and dosen't care 
about smp?

I do remember the serial ouput mentioning finding a CPU 0 so I may have 
just never needed to look in those areas.

In any case sounds like things are good to go for a test.  Check out the 
lb 1 CVS tree and give it a shot.
> On another note, the system I have here has its BIOS 
> on a 256 kByte 32-pin PLCC flash device (AM29F002NT). Is this big enough?

Plenty big enough for linuxbios testing.  Not big enough to put a kernel 
in so you will have to use etherboot or ide to load a kernel.  But to 
test all the linuxbios stuff a kernel isn't necessary.

What package type do you have and is it soldered on or socketed?  That 
part has a TSOP option as well as PLCC and DIP.

[ron minnich]

On Fri, 5 Sep 2003, Mike Westfall wrote:
> The serial ports (and other stuff) are handled by a Winbond W83977TF 
> chip, which I suppose is connected to the PIIX4E's ISA bus...

the 83977ef is supported already.

ron

[Richard Smith]

ron minnich wrote:
> > The serial ports (and other stuff) are handled by a Winbond W83977TF 
> > chip, which I suppose is connected to the PIIX4E's ISA bus...
> the 83977ef is supported already.

What's the diff between a TF and EF?

Winbond W83977 TF vs EF (was: New to list)

[Mike Westfall]

Richard Smith wrote:
> ron minnich wrote:
> > > The serial ports (and other stuff) are handled by a Winbond W83977TF 
> > > chip, which I suppose is connected to the PIIX4E's ISA bus...
> > the 83977ef is supported already.
>
> What's the diff between a TF and EF?

Looking at the data sheets...

- The TF suppports 13 IRQs, the EF only 12.

- The TF has
         "23 programmable general purpose I/O ports; 3 dedicate, 20 
optional", while
      the EF has only
         "14 programmable general purpose I/O ports; 6 dedicate, 8 
optional".

Oh, and the TF is compliant wih the Microsoft PC97 Hardware Design Guide;
the EF with the PC98 version of same. Big Deal.

Other than that, they look identical.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Westfall          Software/Systems Engineer,
Phone: [phone]    NIS-4, Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering,
Email: [e-mail]  Nonproliferation and International Security Division.
Snail: Mailstop D448, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------------