LinuxBios support for Via Mini-ITX motherboard

[Pierre-Yves Kerembellec]

Hi all,

I'm pretty sure this question has already been asked a thousand times, but
I'd just like to know the status of the LinuxBios support on the VIA Mini-ITX
motherboards (typically C3-based). I've seen things like mainboard/via/epia,
src/northbridge/via/vt8601, src/southbridge/via/vt8231 or superio/via/vt8231
in the source tree but I don't know the exact status of the port ... the status
on the web page does not state anything else ...

Did anyone successfully used LinuxBios on the Eden platform ?

Many thanks,
Pierre-Yves

[Ronald G Minnich]

On Wed, 9 Oct 2002, Pierre-Yves Kerembellec wrote:
> Did anyone successfully used LinuxBios on the Eden platform ?

I set up the trees and ran out of time. Andrew Ip is working on this and
now has commit priveleges so we can hope he gets us something soon :-)

ron

[Andrew Ip]

> I set up the trees and ran out of time. Andrew Ip is working on this and
> now has commit priveleges so we can hope he gets us something soon :-)

I spent some time on it.  It has trouble to jump to hardwaremain from 
crt0.base somehow.  I'm tracking it at the moment.

-Andrew

[Ronald G Minnich]

On Thu, 10 Oct 2002, Andrew Ip wrote:
> I spent some time on it.  It has trouble to jump to hardwaremain from
> crt0.base somehow.  I'm tracking it at the moment.

When I had this problem it always got back to a DRAM issue.

ron

[Steve M. Gehlbach]

> > I spent some time on it.  It has trouble to jump to hardwaremain from
> > crt0.base somehow.  I'm tracking it at the moment.
>
> When I had this problem it always got back to a DRAM issue.

I agree. Below is my favorite "check and see if the copy worked" hack for
crt0.base.  There is an extra pattern test if the copy fails for some reason
or other that I don't remember.  Maybe we ought to always compare ram to
flash as a sanity check after the copy.

-Steve

// see if copy succeeded
        leal    EXT(_liseg), %esi
        leal    EXT(_iseg), %edi
        cmpl    %esi, %edi
        jz      .Lnocopy
        movl    $EXT(_eliseg), %ecx
        subl    %esi, %ecx
        jz      .Lnocopy                /* should not happen */
0:      cmpsb
        jnz .failed
        loop 0b

CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_success)
        jmp .Lnocopy

.failed:
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_failed)
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_HEX32(%ecx)
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_crlf)
        leal    EXT(_liseg), %esi
        movl    $0xa5a5a5a5,0(%esi)
        movl    0(%esi),%eax
        cmpl    $0xa5a5a5a5,%eax
        jne 1f
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_g1)
        jmp .Lnocopy
1:
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_f1)
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_failed)
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_HEX32(%eax)
        CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_crlf)
        jmp . - 2
        hlt     /* no sense in going on */

.Lnocopy ....

(at the end)

str_success:   .string "\n\rRam compare succeeded.\r\n"
str_failed:    .string "\n\rRam compare failed: val: "
str_crlf:      .string "\n\r"
str_f1:        .string "test 1 failed.\n\r"
str_g1:        .string "test 1 okay.\n\r"

[Angelo Arifi]

Sorry to bud in again but we constantly keep talking about linuxbios and
mini-tx mobos :) keep up to date on the discussion:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6552&perpa...
genumber=1

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve M. Gehlbach" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 11:32 PM
Subject: RE: LinuxBios support for Via Mini-ITX motherboard
> > > I spent some time on it.  It has trouble to jump to hardwaremain from
> > > crt0.base somehow.  I'm tracking it at the moment.
> >
> > When I had this problem it always got back to a DRAM issue.
>
> I agree. Below is my favorite "check and see if the copy worked" hack for
> crt0.base.  There is an extra pattern test if the copy fails for some

reason
> or other that I don't remember.  Maybe we ought to always compare ram to
> flash as a sanity check after the copy.
>
> -Steve
>
> // see if copy succeeded
>         leal    EXT(_liseg), %esi
>         leal    EXT(_iseg), %edi
>         cmpl    %esi, %edi
>         jz      .Lnocopy
>         movl    $EXT(_eliseg), %ecx
>         subl    %esi, %ecx
>         jz      .Lnocopy                /* should not happen */
> 0:      cmpsb
>         jnz .failed
>         loop 0b
>     CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_success)
>     jmp .Lnocopy
>
> .failed:
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_failed)
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_HEX32(%ecx)
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_crlf)
>         leal    EXT(_liseg), %esi
>         movl    $0xa5a5a5a5,0(%esi)
>         movl    0(%esi),%eax
>         cmpl    $0xa5a5a5a5,%eax
>         jne 1f
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_g1)
>         jmp .Lnocopy
> 1:
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_f1)
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_failed)
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_HEX32(%eax)
>         CONSOLE_DEBUG_TX_STRING($str_crlf)
>         jmp . - 2
>         hlt     /* no sense in going on */
>
> .Lnocopy ....
>
> (at the end)
>
> str_success:   .string "\n\rRam compare succeeded.\r\n"
> str_failed:    .string "\n\rRam compare failed: val: "
> str_crlf:      .string "\n\r"
> str_f1:        .string "test 1 failed.\n\r"
> str_g1:        .string "test 1 okay.\n\r"
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Justin Cormack]

> Hi all,
>
> I'm pretty sure this question has already been asked a thousand times, but
> I'd just like to know the status of the LinuxBios support on the VIA Mini-ITX
> motherboards (typically C3-based). I've seen things like mainboard/via/epia,
> src/northbridge/via/vt8601, src/southbridge/via/vt8231 or superio/via/vt8231
> in the source tree but I don't know the exact status of the port ... the status
> on the web page does not state anything else ...
>
> Did anyone successfully used LinuxBios on the Eden platform ?

Not yet. I intend to work on it but have other things to do right this minute.
I do have a large pile of machines though, and most of the specs

(though if anyone can persuade VIA to give out all the right specs it would
be good).

Justin

[Pierre-Yves Kerembellec]

Justin,
> > I'm pretty sure this question has already been asked a thousand times, but
> > I'd just like to know the status of the LinuxBios support on the VIA Mini-ITX
> > motherboards (typically C3-based). I've seen things like mainboard/via/epia,
> > src/northbridge/via/vt8601, src/southbridge/via/vt8231 or superio/via/vt8231
> > in the source tree but I don't know the exact status of the port ... the status
> > on the web page does not state anything else ...
> >
> > Did anyone successfully used LinuxBios on the Eden platform ?
>
> Not yet. I intend to work on it but have other things to do right this minute.
> I do have a large pile of machines though, and most of the specs
>
> (though if anyone can persuade VIA to give out all the right specs it would be good).

I'm ready to provide help for this port, what do you exactly need ?

Pierre-Yves