[LinuxBIOS] BIOS "Setup"?

[Samuel Thibault]

Hi,

That may be a FAQ, but I couldn't find a FAQ on the website.

If I understand correctly, LinuxBIOS "just" initializes the mainboard
and boots a payload, there is nothing like what people would usually
call "BIOS Setup", right?

Then, how can one configure the mainboard, for disabling the integrated
serial uart or the PCI IRQs for instances?  By setting parameters before
building a ROM image?

Samuel

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Samuel Thibault  [070321 01:53]:
> Hi,
>
> That may be a FAQ, but I couldn't find a FAQ on the website.
>
> If I understand correctly, LinuxBIOS "just" initializes the mainboard
> and boots a payload, there is nothing like what people would usually
> call "BIOS Setup", right?
>
> Then, how can one configure the mainboard, for disabling the integrated
> serial uart or the PCI IRQs for instances?  By setting parameters before
> building a ROM image?

Either Config.lb and Options.lb, or at runtime there is lxbios
(lxbios.sf.net) which is "bios setup" while linux is running.

[Uwe Hermann]

Hi,

On Wed, Mar 21, 2007 at 01:53:46AM +0100, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> That may be a FAQ, but I couldn't find a FAQ on the website.

Yes, we'll add that.
> If I understand correctly, LinuxBIOS "just" initializes the mainboard
> and boots a payload, there is nothing like what people would usually
> call "BIOS Setup", right?

Not yet, no. It might happen as part of Google Summer of Code, see
http://linuxbios.org/GSoC (no promises yet, though).

There's a small Linux tool called lxbios which allows you to change some
LinuxBIOS settings from a running Linux system, but nothing which you
can use _before_ actually booting a system (yet).

http://lxbios.sourceforge.net/
> Then, how can one configure the mainboard, for disabling the integrated
> serial uart or the PCI IRQs for instances?  By setting parameters before
> building a ROM image?

Basically, yes. Or (for some settings) lxbios.

Uwe.

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Uwe Hermann  [070321 02:33]:
> There's a small Linux tool called lxbios which allows you to change some
> LinuxBIOS settings from a running Linux system, but nothing which you
> can use _before_ actually booting a system (yet).
> http://lxbios.sourceforge.net/

If you pack linux into the bios as a bootloader (kexec/kboot), you can
pack lxbios in there, too. It's very small.
You need a 8MBit+ flash part though