[LinuxBIOS] AMD board support

[Justin Cormack]

What has to be done to port to a new AMD board now? Its Nforce 4. Havent
used linuxbios for a while as had to use Intel boards.

Its Tyan S2865 http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tomcatk8e.html

lspci is
00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller
(rev a3)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0050 (rev a3)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97
Audio Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev a2)
00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller
(rev a3)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller
(rev a3)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
01:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host
Controller (rev 80)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721
Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 11)

[yhlu]

S2865 support athlon64 instead of Opteron.

athlon64 doesn't support ECC.

I have tried to comment out lines in raminit.c and could boot the
system with LinuxBIOS.

the problem are
1. it only supports one DIMM ...?
2. Etherboot support 5721 may still have problem, Tim already put sth
to support 5721 in Etherboot but have no time to verify that.

YH

On 28 Jul 2005 18:04:29 +0000, Justin Cormack  wrote:
> What has to be done to port to a new AMD board now? Its Nforce 4. Havent
> used linuxbios for a while as had to use Intel boards.
>
> Its Tyan S2865 http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tomcatk8e.html
>
> lspci is
> 00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller
> (rev a3)
> 00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0050 (rev a3)
> 00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
> 00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
> 00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a3)
> 00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97
> Audio Controller (rev a2)
> 00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev a2)
> 00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller
> (rev a3)
> 00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller
> (rev a3)
> 00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
> 00:0a.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
> 00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
> 00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
> 00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
> 00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
> 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
> HyperTransport Technology Configuration
> 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
> Address Map
> 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
> DRAM Controller
> 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
> Miscellaneous Control
> 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
> 01:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host
> Controller (rev 80)
> 04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721
> Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 11)
>
> LinuxBIOS mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Justin Cormack]

On 28 Jul 2005, at 18:43, yhlu wrote:
> S2865 support athlon64 instead of Opteron.
>
> athlon64 doesn't support ECC.
>
> I have tried to comment out lines in raminit.c and could boot the
> system with LinuxBIOS.
>
> the problem are
> it only supports one DIMM ...?
> Etherboot support 5721 may still have problem, Tim already put sth
>
> to support 5721 in Etherboot but have no time to verify that.

http://www.tyan.com/support/html/memory_s2865.html

It supports ECC. It seems to me that S394 and S340 are pretty much   
the same.

I have it running with ECC RAM now (as far as I remember - I am at  
home now)

It is dual channel with 4 DIMM sockets.

It doesnt support buufered RAM but does support ECC (not sure why...)

[Jeremy Jackson]

yhlu wrote:
> S2865 support athlon64 instead of Opteron.
>
> athlon64 doesn't support ECC.
>
> I have tried to comment out lines in raminit.c and could boot the
> system with LinuxBIOS.
>
> the problem are
> it only supports one DIMM ...?
> Etherboot support 5721 may still have problem, Tim already put sth
>
> to support 5721 in Etherboot but have no time to verify that.
>
> YH

I would be very interested to know if this board will become supported 
soon.    I know nVidia can be difficult to deal with.  In particular I 
would like to use this board with Linuxbios and boot from SATA.

I am also confused by the chipset name - nForce4 Ultra - is that the 
same as CK8-04?

Regards,

Jeremy

[yhlu]

It was there, and after comment out buffer checking in raminit.c, it
could work with one DIMM installed.

the ck804 pro should be superset of ultra.

YH

On 8/16/05, Jeremy Jackson  wrote:
> yhlu wrote:
> > S2865 support athlon64 instead of Opteron.
> >
> > athlon64 doesn't support ECC.
> >
> > I have tried to comment out lines in raminit.c and could boot the
> > system with LinuxBIOS.
> >
> > the problem are
> > it only supports one DIMM ...?
> > Etherboot support 5721 may still have problem, Tim already put sth
> >
> > to support 5721 in Etherboot but have no time to verify that.
> >
> > YH
>
> I would be very interested to know if this board will become supported
> soon.    I know nVidia can be difficult to deal with.  In particular I
> would like to use this board with Linuxbios and boot from SATA.
>
> I am also confused by the chipset name - nForce4 Ultra - is that the
> same as CK8-04?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jeremy

[Jeremy Jackson]

yhlu wrote:
> It was there, and after comment out buffer checking in raminit.c, it
> could work with one DIMM installed.
>
> the ck804 pro should be superset of ultra.
>
> YH

Ok, good to know.  I want to be perfectly clear that SATA is working to 
boot from Linuxbios, before I order a sample board.

Thanks,

Jeremy

[yhlu]

You need to talk to Tyan to see if they want to release the source
code for s2865 support.

YH

On 8/16/05, Jeremy Jackson  wrote:
> yhlu wrote:
> > It was there, and after comment out buffer checking in raminit.c, it
> > could work with one DIMM installed.
> >
> > the ck804 pro should be superset of ultra.
> >
> > YH
>
> Ok, good to know.  I want to be perfectly clear that SATA is working to
> boot from Linuxbios, before I order a sample board.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeremy

[Justin Cormack]

It would be nice if they did. In my case it would probably make the  
difference between buying Tyan vs buying Supermicro for most boards  
for the next few years at least. Probably only a few hundred boards.  
The reason is mainly not that it is an Athlon not Opteron board, just  
that it is the only ATX board that Tyan ships.

On 17 Aug 2005, at 00:39, yhlu wrote:
> You need to talk to Tyan to see if they want to release the source
> code for s2865 support.
>
> YH
>
> On 8/16/05, Jeremy Jackson  wrote:
> > yhlu wrote:
> > > It was there, and after comment out buffer checking in raminit.c, it
> > > could work with one DIMM installed.
> > >
> > > the ck804 pro should be superset of ultra.
> > >
> > > YH
> >
> > Ok, good to know.  I want to be perfectly clear that SATA is  
> > working to
> > boot from Linuxbios, before I order a sample board.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Jeremy

[Jeremy Jackson]

Ok, but when you say you commented out some things, which code was that 
based on?   Was it for a board that has been released?  (ie in linuxbios 
public repository?)

Regards,

Jeremy

yhlu wrote:
> You need to talk to Tyan to see if they want to release the source
> code for s2865 support.
>
> YH
>
> On 8/16/05, Jeremy Jackson  wrote:
> > yhlu wrote:
> > > It was there, and after comment out buffer checking in raminit.c, it
> > > could work with one DIMM installed.
> > >
> > > the ck804 pro should be superset of ultra.
> > >
> > > YH

[yhlu]

For every MB, there should be one dir in src/mainboard/$MBVENDOR/$MBMODEL
and targets/$MBvENDOR/$MBMODEL

there are some lines in src/northbridge/amd/amdk8/raminit.c about
buffer or ecc bit checking need to be commend out.

Just let you sales window talk to Tyan, they would like to help.

YH

On 8/17/05, Jeremy Jackson  wrote:
> Ok, but when you say you commented out some things, which code was that
> based on?   Was it for a board that has been released?  (ie in linuxbios
> public repository?)
>
> Regards,
>
> Jeremy
>
> yhlu wrote:
> > You need to talk to Tyan to see if they want to release the source
> > code for s2865 support.
> >
> > YH
> >
> > On 8/16/05, Jeremy Jackson  wrote:
> > > yhlu wrote:
> > > > It was there, and after comment out buffer checking in raminit.c, it
> > > > could work with one DIMM installed.
> > > >
> > > > the ck804 pro should be superset of ultra.
> > > >
> > > > YH