Little Tiny LinuxBIOS

[Joshua Wise]

Hi all,

Okay, so I just got my grubby paws on an HP tablet - a tc1100, to be 
exact. Here are the relevant bits from lspci:

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller 
(rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM 
(ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
0000:02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T 
(rev 01)

I'd like to lop out the BIOS time of booting on here. I know that it's 
possible - they have their QuickLook deal (MS Outlook synchronization in 
BIOS - really boots NetBSD from a SD card) that brings the system up Way 
Fast(tm).

I'm thinking that this machine is probably a decent target for 
LinuxBIOSing, for a few reasons.

1) It has a bootblock to protect me from myself.
2) It already runs linux fairly well.
3) I have one.

My goal is to do this without blowing away the BIOS to the point of 
cracking the case open and fixing it. (otherwise, this project'll have 
to wait until it's out of warranty...) Has anyone pulled off such a feat?

joshua

[Ronald G. Minnich]

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005, Joshua Wise wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Okay, so I just got my grubby paws on an HP tablet - a tc1100, to be exact.
> Here are the relevant bits from lspci:
>
> 0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev
> 03)

this one is tough, as Intel is not releasing docs that can be used to 
write a BIOS.

And, if you look at TianoCore.org, the direction Intel wishes to take is 
toward MORE proprietary systems, not more open systems. Translation: do 
not expect docs soon, if ever.

however ...

we do know a bit about this chip. Anybody want to run the bios under 
testbios and report back what the chip settings are?

ron