I have a general question of compatibility for the list.
I have a system that was developed by antex electronics. It is currently booting windows ce and has General Software's Embedded BIOS 4.3.
I have tried different linux flavors and get a kernel panic (EIP?) at boot ....
General Software pointed me to the mailing list due to the fact that I am a end user that they will not provide support to and Antex will not contact me.
The information on the board is as follows:
Geode GX1 300b-85-2.0 CS5530A-UCE (VS121AB / VSC) 2000 3.0 Super I/O PC97317 IBW/VUL (VS0030AP)
The BIOS says it is a 'Unicorn Evaluation Board' ...
The only motherboard markings are : F2443-4-1 Rev F Antex Electronics 2001
NSC DS14185 EIA/TIA-232 3 Driver x 5 Receiver (Serial) ...
2-megabit (256K x 8) OTP EPROM AT27C020 with the label AXBIOS_E on it (was)...
74ABT16244 16-Bit Buffer/Line Driver with 3-STATE Outputs
Conexant CX88168-11 Smartscm/56 (modem?)
Altera epm70325 with a sticker that says AX ISA_C on it. (another OTP EPROM??)
I tried to put a windows OS on it but it is painfully (useless) slow and this would make a great server as it is in a desktop component style case (think home stereo) ...
Some of this info might help and some of it might be TMI but
Any help would be great other wise it is going to get stuck into the closet with the rest of the projects that died...
Gavin
I think I just answered my own question...
The box has a AT27C020... http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc0570.pdf
Which is OTP (one time programmable) :(
And it does not look to me pin compatable with the other AMTEL supported chips in a PLCC (i think that is the correct acro.) package...
Any input?
Gavin
On 9/3/07, Gavin Groce unmanaged@gmail.com wrote:
I have a general question of compatibility for the list.
I have a system that was developed by antex electronics. It is currently booting windows ce and has General Software's Embedded BIOS 4.3.
I have tried different linux flavors and get a kernel panic (EIP?) at boot ....
General Software pointed me to the mailing list due to the fact that I am a end user that they will not provide support to and Antex will not contact me.
The information on the board is as follows:
Geode GX1 300b-85-2.0 CS5530A-UCE (VS121AB / VSC) 2000 3.0 Super I/O PC97317 IBW/VUL (VS0030AP)
The BIOS says it is a 'Unicorn Evaluation Board' ...
The only motherboard markings are : F2443-4-1 Rev F Antex Electronics 2001
NSC DS14185 EIA/TIA-232 3 Driver x 5 Receiver (Serial) ...
2-megabit (256K x 8) OTP EPROM AT27C020 with the label AXBIOS_E on it (was)...
74ABT16244 16-Bit Buffer/Line Driver with 3-STATE Outputs
Conexant CX88168-11 Smartscm/56 (modem?)
Altera epm70325 with a sticker that says AX ISA_C on it. (another OTP EPROM??)
I tried to put a windows OS on it but it is painfully (useless) slow and this would make a great server as it is in a desktop component style case (think home stereo) ...
Some of this info might help and some of it might be TMI but
Any help would be great other wise it is going to get stuck into the closet with the rest of the projects that died...
Gavin
On Mon, Sep 03, 2007 at 09:37:50PM -0500, Gavin Groce wrote:
The box has a AT27C020...
Which is OTP (one time programmable) :(
Yes - you'll need to get a flash chip to replace it.
And it does not look to me pin compatable with the other AMTEL supported chips in a PLCC (i think that is the correct acro.) package...
Please check out http://linuxbios.org/FAQ under 3.7 how to identify the flash chip package, and if the chip is socketed or not.
Worst case it's not socketed and then you would have to desolder the current chip from the board and instead solder on a socket for a flash chip.
Flash chips are easy enough to get hold of. It doesn't have to be the same make - there are lots of compatible chips from different vendors.
If the soldering is needed and you're up for it there's a fair chance you can get LB working on the board - but it does need some research and experimentation to find some specific settings for this particular board design that are usually different between any GX1 board - code supporting the hardware chips is already done though.
//Peter
On Tuesday 04 September 2007 04:37, Gavin Groce wrote:
I think I just answered my own question...
The box has a AT27C020... http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc0570.pdf
Which is OTP (one time programmable) :(
And it does not look to me pin compatable with the other AMTEL supported chips in a PLCC (i think that is the correct acro.) package...
Your device is pin compatible to all other 256kiB flash chips with PLCC32 housing. For example SST93SF020A or AM29F002 and many other can replace it. The only thing to check is, if your board can program this device in place (means if the developer routed the WE# signal to the device). Otherwise you need an external flash programmer.
Juergen
Hi,
On Tuesday 04 September 2007 04:19, Gavin Groce wrote:
[...]
Geode GX1 300b-85-2.0 CS5530A-UCE (VS121AB / VSC) 2000 3.0 Super I/O PC97317 IBW/VUL (VS0030AP)
[...]
I tried to put a windows OS on it but it is painfully (useless) slow and this would make a great server as it is in a desktop component style case (think home stereo) ...
Note: The GX1 CPU only supports audio with the help of SMM (system management mode). Without it (and AFAIK LB does not support SMM code) you can't use audio reliably.
Juergen
On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 10:07:15AM +0200, Juergen Beisert wrote:
Note: The GX1 CPU only supports audio with the help of SMM (system management mode). Without it (and AFAIK LB does not support SMM code) you can't use audio reliably.
The CS5530 companion which has the audio function is supported by at least one driver (for FreeBSD) which drives the audio hardware completely natively. No VSM needed. There was an effort to port it to Linux IIRC but I don't recall the outcome.
//Peter
-
Gavin Groce -
Juergen Beisert -
Peter Stuge