[LinuxBIOS] Will LinuxBIOS support my Gigabyte GA-7VTXE soon?

[Ian Walker]

I'm wondering if you would be able to add support for my motherboard.  Here
is the information for my board:

My details are:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP1800+
Northbridge: Via KT266A(VT8366A)
Southbridge: Via VT8233
Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-7VTXE

lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333
AGP]
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet
10/100 (rev 11)
00:0a.0 Communication controller: 3Com Corp, Modem Division USR 56k Internal
WinModem
00:0b.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7892B U160/m (rev 02)
00:0c.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 PCI to ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1Controller (rev 1b)
00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1Controller (rev 1b)
00:11.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1Controller (rev 1b)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 30)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4 Ti
4400] (rev a2)

The 3COM/USR modem, Adaptec AIC7892B and Linksys NC100 Ethernet card are not
on-board.  These are additional PCI cards installed in the machine.

Super I/O Chip:

I ran lm_sensors and sensors-detect to find out the Super I/O Chip.  This is
what it said:

Probing for `ITE 8705F Super IO Sensors'
Success... found at address 0x0290

It also found the same one again, when scanning for Secondary Super I/O
Sensors:

Probing for `ITE 8705F Super IO Sensors'
Success... found at address 0x0290

hope this is enough information.

BIOS Type: PLCC

URL:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID...

If you require any further information, please do let me know.  This is all
I'm able to find out from my system so far.

Regards

Ian Walker

[Uwe Hermann]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 07:13:20PM +0100, Ian Walker wrote:
> Northbridge: Via KT266A(VT8366A)
> Southbridge: Via VT8233

They're not supported yet, sorry. I haven't checked whether there are
public datasheets. Do you want to work on support for this chipset?
> Probing for `ITE 8705F Super IO Sensors'
> Success... found at address 0x0290

The Super I/O should be supported, but we haven't actually tested that
code on real hardware, yet.

If you're inclined you can give it a try (check whether you get serial
debugging output). Please note, that this is all you'll be able to
achieve at the moment, you will _not_ be able to really boot your system
as long as northbridge + southbridge don't work.

HTH, Uwe.

[Ian Walker]

> > They're not supported yet, sorry. I haven't checked whether there are
> > public datasheets. Do you want to work on support for this chipset?

I'm not sure what I could do to help on this.  I've no idea when it comes to
this sort of stuff.   I could give it a go, if I knew what it was I needed
to do.

The Super I/O should be supported, but we haven't actually tested that
> code on real hardware, yet.
>
> If you're inclined you can give it a try (check whether you get serial
> debugging output). Please note, that this is all you'll be able to
> achieve at the moment, you will _not_ be able to really boot your system
> as long as northbridge + southbridge don't work.

If I try it out, can I revert to my old BIOS if it doesn't work?  Or is it a
case of not actually flashing the BIOS, but running some sort of
diagnostic?  Again, I've no idea, I just came across this as I use Linux,
and figured would be nice.

Regards

Ian

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 02.03.2007 07:49, Ian Walker wrote:
> > If you're inclined you can give it a try (check whether you get serial
> > debugging output). Please note, that this is all you'll be able to
> > achieve at the moment, you will _not_ be able to really boot your system
> > as long as northbridge + southbridge don't work.
>
> If I try it out, can I revert to my old BIOS if it doesn't work?

No. Unless you have a second flash chip with a backup of your BIOS or
you can reburn your flash chip in another board.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[Ian Walker]

> > No. Unless you have a second flash chip with a backup of your BIOS or
> > you can reburn your flash chip in another board.

Ah, I wouldn't want to do this then, as I use my machine regularly.  It does
have a Dual BIOS, so not sure if it means I can recover if something goes
wrong.  If I wasn't using it, then I'd be happy to do it until we got
something supported on it.

Regards

Ian Walker

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 02.03.2007 13:20, Ian Walker wrote:
> > > No. Unless you have a second flash chip with a backup of your BIOS or
> > > you can reburn your flash chip in another board.
>
> Ah, I wouldn't want to do this then, as I use my machine regularly.  It
> does have a Dual BIOS, so not sure if it means I can recover if
> something goes wrong.

Sorry, Dual BIOS usually doesn't work the way that it would save you
from such a test flash.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[Ian Walker]

On 02/03/07, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger 
wrote:
> > Sorry, Dual BIOS usually doesn't work the way that it would save you
> > from such a test flash.

OK, I don't have a second flash chip, so would most likely be impossible for
me to recover from it.

Was just a thought, in case it was possible for my board to be supported.

Many thanks for all your replies

Ian Walker

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Carl-Daniel Hailfinger  [070302 13:32]:
> On 02.03.2007 13:20, Ian Walker wrote:
> > > > No. Unless you have a second flash chip with a backup of your BIOS or
> > > > you can reburn your flash chip in another board.
> >
> > Ah, I wouldn't want to do this then, as I use my machine regularly.  It
> > does have a Dual BIOS, so not sure if it means I can recover if
> > something goes wrong.
>
> Sorry, Dual BIOS usually doesn't work the way that it would save you
> from such a test flash.

How does it work, btw? I asked Gigabyte a couple of times a couple of
years ago, but they never cared to answer.

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 02.03.2007 13:57, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Carl-Daniel Hailfinger  [070302 13:32]:
> > On 02.03.2007 13:20, Ian Walker wrote:
> > > > > No. Unless you have a second flash chip with a backup of your BIOS or
> > > > > you can reburn your flash chip in another board.
> > >
> > > Ah, I wouldn't want to do this then, as I use my machine regularly.  It
> > > does have a Dual BIOS, so not sure if it means I can recover if
> > > something goes wrong.
> >
> > Sorry, Dual BIOS usually doesn't work the way that it would save you
> > from such a test flash.
>
> How does it work, btw? I asked Gigabyte a couple of times a couple of
> years ago, but they never cared to answer.

AFAIK the chip is organized in two areas which can be flashed separately
and in case of a problem the fallback image in the unflashed area is
executed.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Carl-Daniel Hailfinger  [070302 14:10]:
> AFAIK the chip is organized in two areas which can be flashed separately
> and in case of a problem the fallback image in the unflashed area is
> executed.

Yes. This is also how Normal/Fallback in LinuxBIOS works. The question
is: Who decides which image to execute. Do they have an extra circuit
for that, or is it all done in software? (in which case it would exactly
match the LinuxBIOS way of doing things)

[Ward Vandewege]

On Fri, Mar 02, 2007 at 02:10:49PM +0100, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> On 02.03.2007 13:57, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > Carl-Daniel Hailfinger  [070302 13:32]:
> > > On 02.03.2007 13:20, Ian Walker wrote:
> > > > > > No. Unless you have a second flash chip with a backup of your BIOS or
> > > > > > you can reburn your flash chip in another board.
> > > >
> > > > Ah, I wouldn't want to do this then, as I use my machine regularly.  It
> > > > does have a Dual BIOS, so not sure if it means I can recover if
> > > > something goes wrong.
> > >
> > > Sorry, Dual BIOS usually doesn't work the way that it would save you
> > > from such a test flash.
> >
> > How does it work, btw? I asked Gigabyte a couple of times a couple of
> > years ago, but they never cared to answer.
>
> AFAIK the chip is organized in two areas which can be flashed separately
> and in case of a problem the fallback image in the unflashed area is
> executed.

Actually, in the Gigabyte context, what Gigabyte calls 'DualBIOS Plus' really
means 2 BIOS chips. See here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2001/12/07/under_closer_scrutiny/index.html

This shouldn't be confused with their 'Virtual DualBIOS', which is more like
what you describe I suspect. Virtual DualBIOS is what the m57sli-s4 has, by
the way (the paths on the board are there, but the second bios chip is
missing).

Here's the marketing page:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/NewTech/2006_motherboard_newtech/tech_20...

Thanks,
Ward.