Re: [LinuxBIOS] ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Re: ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Support? - Re: ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Support? - newbie. (Uwe Hermann) Yes I want to help!

[Jonathan King]

> Hi,

On Sat, May 19, 2007 at 12:13:26AM -0500, Jonathan King wrote:
> Hello I just joined the list and I am truly excited to hear that Nvidia is
> > cooperating with the MCP55 chipset.  I have an ASUS M2N-E motherboard
>
> and
> > here are my stats.
>
> That's not supported yet, unfortunately. As it uses mostly already
> supported
> components (the MCP55 for example) it should be doable pretty quickly,
> though. Are you able and willing to test patches on your hardware if we
> create some?

Yes I am willing and able to help in any way needed!
> The BIOS is socketed.
>
> This is a good thing!

I just need to grab a PLCC32 puller and another 2+MB chip.  Sources on the
chip?  I will try to order one tomorrow.
> Please forgive me if I haven't
> > followed protocol here - newbie.  Are there pre-built packages/payloads
>
> for
> > me?  I want the full LinuxBIOS and plan to buy a larger EEPROM of at
>
> least
> > 2MB in size.
> >
> > Google has been of little help to me.  I am glad to see support for the
> > Gigabyte board and I am looking into possibly getting one later for
>
> another
> > machine.
> > Also, what about support for the G stepping AM2 CPU's?
>
> I don't know. Someone else has to answer this question.

I got your other response to this, thanks.

What Super I/O is on your board? (look for ITE, Winbond, or something
> similar, see http://linuxbios.org/Supported_Chipsets_and_Devices).

I have an ITE IT8716F-S Super I/O chip.  Looks like it is fully supported.

Do you have a null-modem cable for serial debugging output?

Yes, I have a null modem cable and a laptop that I can use to run any O/S
needed

Uwe.
>

I look forward to hearing back from you and having the chance to help on
such a great project as this one.  I will do whatever I can to help!  I have
very basic programming skills in C++ but am a little rusty and so could
probably not contribute to the code but testing I should be able to do no
problem.  I understand hardware / software pretty well and I am a long time
Linux user.

Thank you for your response and your time,

Jonathan King

[LinuxBIOS] ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Re: ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Support? - Re: ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Support? - newbie. (Uwe Hermann) Yes I want to help!

[Uwe Hermann]

On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 06:57:07PM -0500, Jonathan King wrote:
> Yes I am willing and able to help in any way needed!

OK, great!
> I just need to grab a PLCC32 puller and another 2+MB chip.  Sources on the
> chip?  I will try to order one tomorrow.

Most electronics stores should have some, a few are listed here:
http://linuxbios.org/FAQ#Where_can_I_buy_BIOS_chips_.28empty_or_pre-flashed....
> I have an ITE IT8716F-S Super I/O chip.  Looks like it is fully supported.
> > Do you have a null-modem cable for serial debugging output?
>
> Yes, I have a null modem cable and a laptop that I can use to run any O/S
> needed

OK, first step is trying to get serial output.

Please make sure you have:

- A Linux distribution installed on some hard drive (IDE, but SATA might
   work, too) on the M2N-E. A recent kernel would be good.

- GRUB configured to boot the kernel with the options
   'console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200' and attach your null-modem cable
   on COM1 on the M2N-E board and any COM port on another machine. This
   should get you serial debugging output using (e.g.) minicom on the
   second computer.

- A working flashrom setup to flash ROM images on the BIOS chip.
   What's the output of running 'flashrom' (without options) on the board?
   What's the output of 'flashrom -V'?

Please post some more information about the mainboard:

- lspci -n
 - lspci -vv
 - lspci -tv
 - lspnp -v
 - cat /proc/cpuinfo

As far as I can see this board is very similar to the GIGABYTE
GA-M57SLI-S4, so for now we'll just modify that one.

Please apply the attached patch (which doesn't really change very much).

Then build a FILO payload which is configured to display serial
debugging, and use the GRUB from your hard drive to boot the kernel.
Enable the maximum amount of debugging.
The result should be a /tmp/filo.elf file.

Then build the linuxbios.rom image by doing

$ cd targets
 $ ./buildtarget gigabyte/m57sli
 $ cd targets/gigabyte/m57sli/m57sli
 $ make

The resulting linuxbios.rom image should be 512 KB (if your current ROM
chip is of another size, please let us know; that would require some
changes in a Config.lb file).

Now flash the linuxbios.rom on some BIOS chip using flashrom and boot
with the newly flashed LinuxBIOS.

Please record all the serial output in a file and post it here...

Thanks, Uwe.

[LinuxBIOS] ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Re: ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Support? - Re: ASUS M2N-E (Non-SLI) Motherboard MCP55 - Support? - newbie. (Uwe Hermann) Yes I want to help!

[Peter Stuge]

On Fri, May 25, 2007 at 09:40:47PM +0200, Uwe Hermann wrote:
> > I just need to grab a PLCC32 puller and another 2+MB chip. 
> > Sources on the chip?  I will try to order one tomorrow.
>
> Most electronics stores should have some, a few are listed here:
> http://linuxbios.org/FAQ#Where_can_I_buy_BIOS_chips_.28empty_or_pre-flashed....

I tried rather hard to find 16Mbit or 8Mbit LPC or dual LPC/FWH
PLCC32 flash in stock anywhere in Europe for LinuxTag. I failed. :(

Full part numbers:
SST49LF160C-33-4C-NHE
SST49LF080A-33-4C-NHE
ST M50FLW080AK5G
ST M50FLW080BK5G

//Peter