coreboot on "acer aspire 1520"

[Paweł Stawicki]

Hi,
I want to try run coreboot on my "acer aspire 1520" laptop.
It has:
Northbridge: via k8n800
southbrige: vt8235
super i/o:   pc87392

Can I get some advise, where to start ?
which northbridge and super i/o are the nearest ?

Best Regards,
Paweł Stawicki

[Paweł Stawicki]

Hi, again

I'm still trying run coreboot on my laptop.

Because it has no COM port  I'm
trying run the debug logs on the IRDA output.

I was able to run the logs (through IRDA) but
only when I don't turn off the laptop.
(I can only reset the laptop - and  so run coreboot)

Now I have no idea what to do.

I guess that something is not initialized,
what my original bios or linux has initialized

But I have turned off all Irda and serial port
support in bios an linux and it still works
(booting coreboot through reset)

can someone help ??

Regards
Paweł

[Paweł Stawicki]

Hi, all again

I managed  to start coreboot with IrDA logs :-)

It looks like reading the superio datasheet
helps sometimes  :-)
especially when  there is a chapter called
"2.3.2 Chip Power-Up".

Regards
Paweł

[Paweł Stawicki]

Hi, Rudolf

I'm trying to run coreboot on my laptop which is based on the VIA K8N800
northbridge
I saw on corboots svn that you where involved in the implementation
of the VIA K8T890 chip which (I think) is very similar to my.

Maybe you know where  can I find the datasheets for this chips.
or other useful informations ?

Thanks,
Paweł

[Rudolf Marek]

Paweł Stawicki wrote:
> Hi, Rudolf
>
> I'm trying to run coreboot on my laptop which is based on the VIA K8N800 
> northbridge
> I saw on corboots svn that you where involved in the implementation
> of the VIA K8T890 chip which (I think) is very similar to my.
>
> Maybe you know where  can I find the datasheets for this chips.
> or other useful informations ?

Well I have a NDA with the VIA, and I got the K8T890 under an NDA.

Maybe you can post a lspci -xxx -vvv for the beginning to see what SB you have. 
I will check how the NB looks like, maybe it will be quite similar.

We could also ask Bruce for the datasheet but I think he will just tell me that 
it is too old chipset ;) Best it would be to work on VX855 or VX800 because it 
is still produced.

You will also need perhaps the service manual to laptop and list of GPIO for 
various things like EC etc. Also you will need to recover the bad flash so you 
will need most likely to solder the socket for the BIOS and also you will need 
to deal with the embedded controller.

Rudolf
> Thanks,
> Paweł

[Stefan Reinauer]

On 3/16/10 3:58 PM, Rudolf Marek wrote:
> Well I have a NDA with the VIA, and I got the K8T890 under an NDA.
>
> Maybe you can post a lspci -xxx -vvv for the beginning to see what SB
> you have. I will check how the NB looks like, maybe it will be quite
> similar.
>
> We could also ask Bruce for the datasheet but I think he will just
> tell me that it is too old chipset ;) Best it would be to work on
> VX855 or VX800 because it is still produced.

The K8N800 is listed by VIA as one of their three current AMD processor
chipsets. VX series is only good if you don't need performance.

Stefan