help with win-xp and legacybios/coreboot

[Kevin O'Connor]

Hi,

I have successfully installed and booted win-xp with coreboot-v2 and
legacybios under qemu.  Unfortunately, when I try to install or boot
win-xp with coreboot-v2 and legacybios on my via epia-m the system
hangs.

At this point, I don't know if the problem is related to coreboot and
its epia-m support, or if it is related to legacybios.  I've confirmed
that the hang does not occur inside the bios.  The last thing the
install reports before hanging is "Setup is starting Windows".

It would be helpful if others could try installing / booting win-xp
on real hardware.  If you can do this, please follow the directions
at:

http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2008-June/036108.html

Thanks,
-Kevin

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi Kevin,

On 28.06.2008 19:45, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> I have successfully installed and booted win-xp with coreboot-v2 and
> legacybios under qemu.

Great!
> Unfortunately, when I try to install or boot
> win-xp with coreboot-v2 and legacybios on my via epia-m the system
> hangs.

Hm. Off the top of my head, I see a few things you could try in order of
increasing difficulty:
- Linux installation CD in VESA 640x480x8 mode (e.g. openSUSE install
DVD with graphical boot screen)
- XP installation CD with slipstreamed SP3
- Win2000 installation CD with slipstreamed SP4
- XP (64bit) installation CD with and without slipstreamed SP3
- Vista both 32bit and 64bit (IIRC Vista 64bit was running under
coreboot in Qemu last year)
- Compare factory BIOS memory maps with your memory maps
- Compare lspci (there have been interesting differences in the past)
- Compare IRQ setup (IIRC Windows expects all interrupts to be enabled,
Linux does not care)
- Switch off debugging (might upset Windows)
- Check SuperI/O differences, especially anything with interrupts and timers
- Make sure there is no MP table in memory
> At this point, I don't know if the problem is related to coreboot and
> its epia-m support, or if it is related to legacybios.  I've confirmed
> that the hang does not occur inside the bios.  The last thing the
> install reports before hanging is "Setup is starting Windows".

A few hopefully useful links:
*http://tinyurl.com/5dxvgr*
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B217073&x=9&y=17
http://pascalg.wordpress.com/2006/08/09/windowsxp-install-stalling-setup-is-...
http://weblog.saardrimer.com/index.php/setup-is-starting-windows_106/

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[Kevin O'Connor]

Hi,

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 04:16:05PM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> On 28.06.2008 19:45, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> > Unfortunately, when I try to install or boot
> > win-xp with coreboot-v2 and legacybios on my via epia-m the system
> > hangs.
>
> Hm. Off the top of my head, I see a few things you could try in order of
> increasing difficulty:

[...]

Wow - great list.  I did try a number of these things, but you have
some useful additions.

I'll continue to play with it.  However, if someone can try on a known
working board that would also help a lot.

Thanks for the help.
-Kevin

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 01.07.2008 01:53, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 04:16:05PM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > On 28.06.2008 19:45, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> > > Unfortunately, when I try to install or boot
> > > win-xp with coreboot-v2 and legacybios on my via epia-m the system
> > > hangs.
> >
> > Hm. Off the top of my head, I see a few things you could try in order of
> > increasing difficulty:
>
> [...]
>
> Wow - great list.  I did try a number of these things, but you have
> some useful additions.

Glad to help.
> I'll continue to play with it.  However, if someone can try on a known
> working board that would also help a lot.

Wait a second. I thought installing XP with factory BIOS on your machine
does work.

I'd try installing XP, but my only machine with enough space for XP
hangs during installation because of a broken BIOS.
> Thanks for the help.

You're welcome.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[Kevin O'Connor]

On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 02:59:25AM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> On 01.07.2008 01:53, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> > I'll continue to play with it.  However, if someone can try on a known
> > working board that would also help a lot.
>
> Wait a second. I thought installing XP with factory BIOS on your machine
> does work.

Yes, booting xp on my epia-m works fine with the original bios.  My
epia-m can be a bit flaky with irqs when booting with coreboot.  So,
if someone can try legacybios+coreboot on a machine where coreboot is
known to work well it would be a great help.

-Kevin

[Myles Watson]

On Sat, Jun 28, 2008 at 11:45 AM, Kevin O'Connor  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have successfully installed and booted win-xp with coreboot-v2 and
> legacybios under qemu.  Unfortunately, when I try to install or boot
> win-xp with coreboot-v2 and legacybios on my via epia-m the system
> hangs.
>
> At this point, I don't know if the problem is related to coreboot and
> its epia-m support, or if it is related to legacybios.  I've confirmed
> that the hang does not occur inside the bios.  The last thing the
> install reports before hanging is "Setup is starting Windows".
>
> It would be helpful if others could try installing / booting win-xp
> on real hardware.  If you can do this, please follow the directions
> at:
>
> http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2008-June/036108.html

I must be missing something, because my boot fails with this message
on my s2892:

Class Code mismatch ROM 00010600, dev 00010601
copying non-VGA ROM Image from 0xfd100000 to 0xd0000, 0x5400 bytes
entering emulator
halt_sys: file /home/xd1000/try/buildrom/buildrom-devel/work/coreboot/svn/src/de
vices/emulator/x86emu/ops.c, line 183
PCI: 05:01.0 init
Devices initialized
Writing IRQ routing tables to 0xdff0000...done.
Wrote the mp table end at: 0dff0410 - 0dff0640
move mptable from 0x20 to 0xfffffc00, size 0xdff03e0

I'll look into it more tomorrow, but if you already know what it is
that would be great.

BTW: when I was trying to get XP to boot before, I was having timing
problems.  Have you tested the timer tick with factory BIOS and
coreboot?

Thanks,
Myles

[Kevin O'Connor]

Hi Myles,

On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 04:36:29PM -0600, Myles Watson wrote:
> > It would be helpful if others could try installing / booting win-xp
> > on real hardware.  If you can do this, please follow the directions
> > at:
> >
> > http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2008-June/036108.html
>
> I must be missing something, because my boot fails with this message
> on my s2892:

[...]
> move mptable from 0x20 to 0xfffffc00, size 0xdff03e0

That message should never occur if one were to apply the patch in the
email from the url above.  Basically, the mptabling moving should have
gotten disabled by the '#if 0' change.
> BTW: when I was trying to get XP to boot before, I was having timing
> problems.  Have you tested the timer tick with factory BIOS and
> coreboot?

As far as I know it works - SeaBIOS will enable the timer during its
post stage.

-Kevin

[Myles Watson]

Kevin,
> > I must be missing something, because my boot fails with this message
> > on my s2892:
>
> [...]
> > move mptable from 0x20 to 0xfffffc00, size 0xdff03e0
>
> That message should never occur if one were to apply the patch in the
> email from the url above.  Basically, the mptabling moving should have
> gotten disabled by the '#if 0' change.

Yep, I bungled the patch.  I'm trying it again.
> > BTW: when I was trying to get XP to boot before, I was having timing
> > problems.  Have you tested the timer tick with factory BIOS and
> > coreboot?
>
> As far as I know it works - SeaBIOS will enable the timer during its
> post stage.

Great.  I'll let you know.

Thanks,
Myles