On 1/4/10 12:17 PM, Joao Mamede wrote:
/ Hello I want to use coreboot in an old laptop (in order to
/>/ replace/upgrade a fried graphics card). />/ Both the southern and northernbridges are suported />/ The laptop is the A8js from asus. />/ />/ Here's an lspci />/ 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and />/ 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) />/ 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface />/ Bridge (rev 02) /
/
/>/ I can't find a socketed bios in the motherboard...so I guess I have />/ one try. />/ Can anyone help me out in making a target build(I wouldn't bother you />/ and try to do it myself if I had more than one chance). />/ It's either make it work and make me happy, or put the laptop in the />/ garbage..independently of frying the bios or not. />/ Thank you / Chances are good to get coreboot running on this laptop, its components seem to be mostly supported by coreboot. However, the chance of getting everything working on the first try are zero. The chances to get the system at least to boot on the first try and always keep the system in a working, updatable state are almost zero, too. So if you attempt to port coreboot to this machine, you will need to create some kind of recovery mechanism. You could solder a socket to the mainboard, or a plug to reflash the machine externally.
However, to get started, I suggest that you find out what flash chip you have on the board, so you can determine what recovery mechanism is suitable. (The flashrom utility from www.flashrom.org will help you with that)
Also, a dump of superiotool -ed will help you a lot. Does the machine have a serial port?
Stefan
The machine has no serial port. I think it's a socketed bios(from the pics of the disassembly tech manual). However I have to disassemble everything in order to acess the BIOS Is there a way to plug a chip that has a wire coming to the outside to a machine that contains or the BIOS chip or and emulation of one? I'll do all the dumps, etc and post here again.
Hello Again, So the BIOs chip is not socketed. It's soldered into the motherboard. There is a sticker in the motherboard that has: 686 AMIBIOS NB 1999 BJ00 9702 So I guess next step will be to unsolder the Bios and solder a socket to plug in a BIOS and buy a BIOS external writer. Can I have recommendations on where to buy?(Europe zone would be preferable for me).
Thanks again João
Joao Mamede wrote:
On 1/4/10 12:17 PM, Joao Mamede wrote:
/ Hello I want to use coreboot in an old laptop (in order to
/>/ replace/upgrade a fried graphics card). />/ Both the southern and northernbridges are suported />/ The laptop is the A8js from asus. />/ />/ Here's an lspci />/ 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and />/ 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) />/ 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface />/ Bridge (rev 02) /
/
/>/ I can't find a socketed bios in the motherboard...so I guess I have />/ one try. />/ Can anyone help me out in making a target build(I wouldn't bother you />/ and try to do it myself if I had more than one chance). />/ It's either make it work and make me happy, or put the laptop in the />/ garbage..independently of frying the bios or not. />/ Thank you / Chances are good to get coreboot running on this laptop, its components seem to be mostly supported by coreboot. However, the chance of getting everything working on the first try are zero. The chances to get the system at least to boot on the first try and always keep the system in a working, updatable state are almost zero, too. So if you attempt to port coreboot to this machine, you will need to create some kind of recovery mechanism. You could solder a socket to the mainboard, or a plug to reflash the machine externally.
However, to get started, I suggest that you find out what flash chip you have on the board, so you can determine what recovery mechanism is suitable. (The flashrom utility from www.flashrom.org will help you with that)
Also, a dump of superiotool -ed will help you a lot. Does the machine have a serial port?
Stefan
The machine has no serial port. I think it's a socketed bios(from the pics of the disassembly tech manual). However I have to disassemble everything in order to acess the BIOS Is there a way to plug a chip that has a wire coming to the outside to a machine that contains or the BIOS chip or and emulation of one? I'll do all the dumps, etc and post here again.
Joao Mamede wrote:
a socket to plug in a BIOS and buy a BIOS external writer. Can I have recommendations on where to buy?
What's your budget?
farnell.com should have PLCC sockets and maybe even flash chips. bios-repair.co.uk has flash chips, and maybe PLCC sockets.
For programmer it would probably be simplest to use another mainboard which is compatible with flashrom.
Check which flash chip is in the system, if it's an SPI chip then your best bet is to order the sockets from bios-repair.co.uk instead, I haven't seen SO-8 sockets easily available anywhere else.
//Peter
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Joao Mamede -
Peter Stuge