Interesting HOWTO

[Pedro M.]

I have seen an interesting HOWTO about BIOS and Booting .

http://www.freewebs.com/tsj/bootingUSB_ldp_v0.1.htm

Regards.

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Pedro M.  [040129 18:28]:
> http://www.freewebs.com/tsj/bootingUSB_ldp_v0.1.htm

Unfortunately this won't work unless we have some stripped down USB
stack or get the kernel into flash...

Best regards,
  Stefan Reinauer

[Pedro M.]

Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Pedro M.  [040129 18:28]:
> > http://www.freewebs.com/tsj/bootingUSB_ldp_v0.1.htm
>
> Unfortunately this won't work unless we have some stripped down USB
> stack or get the kernel into flash...
>
> Best regards,
>   Stefan Reinauer

I send you interesting links ;)

http://www.wlug.org.nz/KeyDrive

http://d-i.pascal.at/

and http://www.wlug.org.nz/LinuxDistribution (removable media ).

Regards.

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Pedro M.  [040129 19:18]:
> http://www.wlug.org.nz/KeyDrive

cite:
------------------ 8< ---------------------------------------------
You can even boot from one, if your BIOS knows how to talk to them.
------------------ 8< ---------------------------------------------

LinuxBIOS can't :-(

Stefan

[Steven James]

Greetings,

I just checked in a polling USB stack (FINALLY!) in
freebios/util/baremetal/usb

So far, it only supports uhci, but successfully enumerates the bus and
loads an ELF image from some USB drives (It loads from the ones I have
anyway).

G'day,
sjames

-------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs
... ........ ..... ....                    230 peachtree st nw ste 2701
the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us 30303
      -since 1995                              http://www.linuxlabs.com
                                   office 404.577.7747 fax [phone]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Pedro M.  [040129 19:18]:
> > http://www.wlug.org.nz/KeyDrive
>
> cite:
> ------------------ 8< ---------------------------------------------
> You can even boot from one, if your BIOS knows how to talk to them.
> ------------------ 8< ---------------------------------------------
>
> LinuxBIOS can't :-(
>
> Stefan

[Gregg C Levine]

Hello (again) from Gregg C Levine
Great news!
Now the next great question. For which mother boards have you tested
this? Or one anyway. And of course which USB drives have you tested?

I remember this issue first coming up, when our friends at M-SYS,
launched their Disk-On-Key project. One of us, mentioned the device,
and posted a link for the thing.

Now the next big question, have you had a chance to create a HOWTO for
using your baremetal boot loader?
-------------------
Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Use the Force, Luke."  Obi-Wan Kenobi
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Steven James
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:25 AM
> To: Stefan Reinauer
> Cc: Pedro M.; [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: Interesting HOWTO
>
> Greetings,
>
> I just checked in a polling USB stack (FINALLY!) in
> freebios/util/baremetal/usb
>
> So far, it only supports uhci, but successfully enumerates the bus

and
> loads an ELF image from some USB drives (It loads from the ones I

have
> anyway).
>
> G'day,
> sjames
>
> -------------------------steven james, director of research, linux

labs
> ... ........ ..... ....                    230 peachtree st nw ste

2701
> the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us

30303
>   -since 1995

http://www.linuxlabs.com
>                                office 404.577.7747 fax

404.577.7743
>

----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > Pedro M.  [040129 19:18]:
> > > http://www.wlug.org.nz/KeyDrive
> >
> > cite:
> > ------------------ 8<

---------------------------------------------
> > You can even boot from one, if your BIOS knows how to talk to

them.
> > ------------------ 8<

---------------------------------------------
> > LinuxBIOS can't :-(
> >
> > Stefan
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Steven James]

Greetings,

I suppose I really should write up a howto for that.

So far, It has been tested on a few i7501 boards (Supermicro x5dpr, Intel
Clearwater, Tyan Tiger-7501).

The drive was a TrekStore Thumbdrive. It's SCSI over bulk transfer.

Also worked connected through the hub in an iMac keyboard.

To test it, in brief,

Go to baremetal/lib
make
cd ../usb
make

This will produce an ELF image suitable for LinuxBIOS (or bootselect).

The usb loader will attempt to load a kernel from the first partition on
the drive that has the boot flag set. The image should be written to the
raw partition (using dd or similar).

G'day,
sjames

-------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs
... ........ ..... ....                    230 peachtree st nw ste 2701
the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us 30303
      -since 1995                              http://www.linuxlabs.com
                                   office 404.577.7747 fax [phone]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Gregg C Levine wrote:
> Hello (again) from Gregg C Levine
> Great news!
> Now the next great question. For which mother boards have you tested
> this? Or one anyway. And of course which USB drives have you tested?
>
> I remember this issue first coming up, when our friends at M-SYS,
> launched their Disk-On-Key project. One of us, mentioned the device,
> and posted a link for the thing.
>
> Now the next big question, have you had a chance to create a HOWTO for
> using your baremetal boot loader?
> Gregg C Levine [e-mail]
>
> "The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
> "Use the Force, Luke."  Obi-Wan Kenobi
> (This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
> (This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [e-mail] [mailto:linuxbios-
> > [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Steven James
> > Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:25 AM
> > To: Stefan Reinauer
> > Cc: Pedro M.; [e-mail]
> > Subject: Re: Interesting HOWTO
> >
> > Greetings,
> >
> > I just checked in a polling USB stack (FINALLY!) in
> > freebios/util/baremetal/usb
> >
> > So far, it only supports uhci, but successfully enumerates the bus
>
> and
> > loads an ELF image from some USB drives (It loads from the ones I
>
> have
> > anyway).
> >
> > G'day,
> > sjames
> >
> > -------------------------steven james, director of research, linux
>
> labs
> > ... ........ ..... ....                    230 peachtree st nw ste
>
> 2701
> > the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us
>
> 30303
> >   -since 1995
>
> http://www.linuxlabs.com
> >                                office 404.577.7747 fax
>
> 404.577.7743
> >
> > On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > > Pedro M.  [040129 19:18]:
> > > > http://www.wlug.org.nz/KeyDrive
> > >
> > > cite:
> > > ------------------ 8<
> > > You can even boot from one, if your BIOS knows how to talk to
>
> them.
> > > ------------------ 8<
> > > LinuxBIOS can't :-(
> > >
> > > Stefan
> >
> > Linuxbios mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Peter Lister]

On Thu, 2004-01-29 at 16:24, Steven James wrote:
> So far, it only supports uhci, but successfully enumerates the bus and
> loads an ELF image from some USB drives (It loads from the ones I have
> anyway).

Congratulations. This is very valuable work. I'll have a look when I can
get SF to let me cvs update...

But my immediate comment is that this code should be available to
Etherboot, FILO and anything else which needs to pull an image from a
USB device without the help of a legacy BIOS.

[Steve Gehlbach]

Peter Lister wrote:
> But my immediate comment is that this code should be available to
> Etherboot, FILO and anything else which needs to pull an image from a
> USB device without the help of a legacy BIOS.

Love to see this in FILO.

/sg

[Steven James]

Greetings,

I agree. The loader I wrote is really just a quick and dirty way to
exercize the code for testing.

It souuldn't be too painful to link it in to other loaders and call the
ll_read_block function.

block_fill_inbuf.c best demonstrates the interface to the USB stack.
init_bytes() shows getting the bus enumerated and finding an appropriate
boot device and usb_read() shows grabbing the blocks.

Really, it's just a matter of calling usb_poll(0 in a loop until you see a
device you want or it quits finding new devices. usb_poll just checks all
known hubs for connect events and enumerates the device that was
connected. It returns 1 if it processed an event, 0 for no events and -1
for an error (retryable).

G'day,
sjames

-------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs
... ........ ..... ....                    230 peachtree st nw ste 2701
the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us 30303
      -since 1995                              http://www.linuxlabs.com
                                   office 404.577.7747 fax [phone]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004, Peter Lister wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-01-29 at 16:24, Steven James wrote:
> > So far, it only supports uhci, but successfully enumerates the bus and
> > loads an ELF image from some USB drives (It loads from the ones I have
> > anyway).
>
> Congratulations. This is very valuable work. I'll have a look when I can
> get SF to let me cvs update...
>
> But my immediate comment is that this code should be available to
> Etherboot, FILO and anything else which needs to pull an image from a
> USB device without the help of a legacy BIOS.

[Peter Lister]

On Sat, 2004-01-31 at 08:02, Steven James wrote:
> It souuldn't be too painful to link it in to other loaders and call the
> ll_read_block function.
>
> block_fill_inbuf.c best demonstrates the interface to the USB stack.
> init_bytes() shows getting the bus enumerated and finding an appropriate
> boot device and usb_read() shows grabbing the blocks.
>
> Really, it's just a matter of calling usb_poll(0 in a loop until you see a
> device you want or it quits finding new devices. usb_poll just checks all
> known hubs for connect events and enumerates the device that was
> connected. It returns 1 if it processed an event, 0 for no events and -1
> for an error (retryable).

The Etherboot guys are champing at the bit for USB, and anything which
advances the work is very useful. I'm sure that with this and the Linux
usb ethernet dongle source, there'll be something soon.

Dumb question - how much work is it to add OHCI?

[Peter Lister]

On Sun, 2004-02-01 at 01:11, Peter Lister wrote:
> Dumb question - how much work is it to add OHCI?

Duh, sorry, meant EHCI. The USB 2.0 one.

[Steven James]

Greetings,

I just got EHCI also :-)

I'm not sure it's all that necessary to support EHCI in firmware since any
USB 2.0 device is required to fall back if necessary. EHCI devices are
required to include a UHCI or OHCI companion device to handle 1.1 devices.
There's a bitmask to select which controls each port.

The USB boot over 1.1 only takes a second or 2 for a Linux kernel.
Given all that, the best bet is probably just set the ports to the
companion controller and support OHCI and UHCI.

G'day,
sjames

-------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs
... ........ ..... ....                    230 peachtree st nw ste 2701
the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us 30303
      -since 1995                              http://www.linuxlabs.com
                                   office 404.577.7747 fax [phone]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004, Peter Lister wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-02-01 at 01:11, Peter Lister wrote:
> > Dumb question - how much work is it to add OHCI?
>
> Duh, sorry, meant EHCI. The USB 2.0 one.

[Steven James]

Greetings,

It would be handy to be able to rescue a machine with a USB NIC.

I'm not sure what it'll take for OHCI yet, but my new hardware has it, so
I'll fine out soon enough.

IIRC, OHCI does more in hardware, so it may actually be easier than uhci.

G'day,
sjames

-------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs
... ........ ..... ....                    230 peachtree st nw ste 2701
the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us 30303
      -since 1995                              http://www.linuxlabs.com
                                   office 404.577.7747 fax [phone]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004, Peter Lister wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-01-31 at 08:02, Steven James wrote:
> > It souuldn't be too painful to link it in to other loaders and call the
> > ll_read_block function.
> >
> > block_fill_inbuf.c best demonstrates the interface to the USB stack.
> > init_bytes() shows getting the bus enumerated and finding an appropriate
> > boot device and usb_read() shows grabbing the blocks.
> >
> > Really, it's just a matter of calling usb_poll(0 in a loop until you see a
> > device you want or it quits finding new devices. usb_poll just checks all
> > known hubs for connect events and enumerates the device that was
> > connected. It returns 1 if it processed an event, 0 for no events and -1
> > for an error (retryable).
>
> The Etherboot guys are champing at the bit for USB, and anything which
> advances the work is very useful. I'm sure that with this and the Linux
> usb ethernet dongle source, there'll be something soon.
>
> Dumb question - how much work is it to add OHCI?

[Takeshi Sone]

Steven, thank you for the great work.
I really want to incorporate your USB code to FILO.
However, I'm busy with real life for now and I can't seem to 
find time to work on it..

[Pedro M.]

Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Pedro M.  [040129 18:28]:
> > http://www.freewebs.com/tsj/bootingUSB_ldp_v0.1.htm
>
> Unfortunately this won't work unless we have some stripped down USB
> stack or get the kernel into flash...
>
> Best regards,
>   Stefan Reinauer

Antoher BIOS can. And to promote Linux ( http://flonix.tuxfamily.org ) 
is fundamental.

What can we do ?.

Regards.

[ron minnich]

well, if we can configure hypertransport we can probably configure usb :-)

ron