Porting Linux BIOS

[Michael Robinson]

Hello,

How much modification is typically involved in porting LinuxBIOS to a 
currently unsupported motherboard?  I'd like to attempt (keyword) to do 
this on a motherboard not listed on your site.  The major modifications 
are supporting the chipset and the memory type if they're not already 
supported, correct?  Anyways, I'm going to attempt this and may (will) 
be asking for further help at later dates, LOL.

Thanks,
Michael Robinson
[e-mail]
www.fuzzymuzzle.com

[ron minnich]

it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
can see what is possible?

ron

[Michael Robinson]

Ron,

I'm not sure what mobo I'm going to use yet, before I buy one I want to 
make sure it's at least reasonably possible to get LinuxBIOS running on 
it.  I've heard that the Asus SiS mobos won't work because of the flash 
chip.  Is this just because of the pinout or is it because of actual 
software compatibility.  I can always solder my own socket onto the 
board if necessary.  I've been looking at the Asus boards and most of 
the compatible boards on your site seem to use the SiS chipset that many 
of the Asus's do.  Can you give me any insight on the chip compatibility 
problem?  Most of the SiS chips in the Asus boards seem very close in 
model number to the ones you guys have got working.

Thanks,
Michael Robinson
[e-mail]
www.fuzzymuzzle.com

ron minnich wrote:
> it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
> can see what is possible?
>
> ron

[ron minnich]

don't plan to solder flash parts and sockets on and off. For some parts it 
is almost impossible.

The issue with Asus is not the flash part anyway, it's the hidden bits 
that control important functions like SPD.

Any reason not to just go to tyan or cwlinux.com and buy a board with 
linuxbios installed?

ron

[Hendricks David W.]

Right now I'd have to say the best supported mainboards currently are VIA 
EPIA M2 and Opteron mainboards using the AMD8111 southbridge. Asus does weird 
things with their SMbus and hasn't been very cooperative in the past with 
documentation, so I would not recommend that you risk money on them.

Though if you have a high threshold for pain, you can try one of the newer 
VIA chipsets like the KT400 and hope they're generous enough with 
documentation to complete a port. Some other VIA stuff is supported, so 
that might help with a new port.

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
> Ron,
>
> I'm not sure what mobo I'm going to use yet, before I buy one I want to 
> make sure it's at least reasonably possible to get LinuxBIOS running on 
> it.  I've heard that the Asus SiS mobos won't work because of the flash 
> chip.  Is this just because of the pinout or is it because of actual 
> software compatibility.  I can always solder my own socket onto the 
> board if necessary.  I've been looking at the Asus boards and most of 
> the compatible boards on your site seem to use the SiS chipset that many 
> of the Asus's do.  Can you give me any insight on the chip compatibility 
> problem?  Most of the SiS chips in the Asus boards seem very close in 
> model number to the ones you guys have got working.
>
> Thanks,
> Michael Robinson
> [e-mail]
> www.fuzzymuzzle.com
>
> ron minnich wrote:
> > it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
> > can see what is possible?
> >
> > ron
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Michael Robinson]

David,

Are all Via EPIA motherboards fairly well supported or just the EPIA 
M2?  I would assume since the EPIA M2 uses the:

- VIA CLE266 North Bridge
- VIA VT8235 South Bridge

that any of there other EPIA motherboards that use this chipset should 
be fairly compatible.  Am I correct in this assumption or are there 
other important factors that can't be easily fixed?

Thanks,
Michael Robinson
[e-mail]
www.fuzzymuzzle.com

Hendricks David W. wrote:
> Right now I'd have to say the best supported mainboards currently are VIA 
> EPIA M2 and Opteron mainboards using the AMD8111 southbridge. Asus does weird 
> things with their SMbus and hasn't been very cooperative in the past with 
> documentation, so I would not recommend that you risk money on them.
>
> Though if you have a high threshold for pain, you can try one of the newer 
> VIA chipsets like the KT400 and hope they're generous enough with 
> documentation to complete a port. Some other VIA stuff is supported, so 
> that might help with a new port.
>
> On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
> > Ron,
> >
> > I'm not sure what mobo I'm going to use yet, before I buy one I want to 
> > make sure it's at least reasonably possible to get LinuxBIOS running on 
> > it.  I've heard that the Asus SiS mobos won't work because of the flash 
> > chip.  Is this just because of the pinout or is it because of actual 
> > software compatibility.  I can always solder my own socket onto the 
> > board if necessary.  I've been looking at the Asus boards and most of 
> > the compatible boards on your site seem to use the SiS chipset that many 
> > of the Asus's do.  Can you give me any insight on the chip compatibility 
> > problem?  Most of the SiS chips in the Asus boards seem very close in 
> > model number to the ones you guys have got working.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Michael Robinson
> > [e-mail]
> > www.fuzzymuzzle.com
> >
> > ron minnich wrote:
> > > it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
> > > can see what is possible?
> > >
> > > ron
> >
> > Linuxbios mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Hendricks David W.]

The EPIA M2 is the best one that I know of. Dave Ashley is probably the 
best person to ask about the EPIA platform, he's done extensive work on 
it.

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
> David,
>
> Are all Via EPIA motherboards fairly well supported or just the EPIA 
> M2?  I would assume since the EPIA M2 uses the:
> VIA CLE266 North Bridge
> VIA VT8235 South Bridge
>
> that any of there other EPIA motherboards that use this chipset should 
> be fairly compatible.  Am I correct in this assumption or are there 
> other important factors that can't be easily fixed?
>
> Thanks,
> Michael Robinson
> [e-mail]
> www.fuzzymuzzle.com
>
> Hendricks David W. wrote:
> > Right now I'd have to say the best supported mainboards currently are VIA 
> > EPIA M2 and Opteron mainboards using the AMD8111 southbridge. Asus does weird 
> > things with their SMbus and hasn't been very cooperative in the past with 
> > documentation, so I would not recommend that you risk money on them.
> >
> > Though if you have a high threshold for pain, you can try one of the newer 
> > VIA chipsets like the KT400 and hope they're generous enough with 
> > documentation to complete a port. Some other VIA stuff is supported, so 
> > that might help with a new port.
> >
> > On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
> > > Ron,
> > >
> > > I'm not sure what mobo I'm going to use yet, before I buy one I want to 
> > > make sure it's at least reasonably possible to get LinuxBIOS running on 
> > > it.  I've heard that the Asus SiS mobos won't work because of the flash 
> > > chip.  Is this just because of the pinout or is it because of actual 
> > > software compatibility.  I can always solder my own socket onto the 
> > > board if necessary.  I've been looking at the Asus boards and most of 
> > > the compatible boards on your site seem to use the SiS chipset that many 
> > > of the Asus's do.  Can you give me any insight on the chip compatibility 
> > > problem?  Most of the SiS chips in the Asus boards seem very close in 
> > > model number to the ones you guys have got working.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Michael Robinson
> > > [e-mail]
> > > www.fuzzymuzzle.com
> > >
> > > ron minnich wrote:
> > > > it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
> > > > can see what is possible?
> > > >
> > > > ron
> > >
> > > Linuxbios mailing list
> > > [e-mail]
> > > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Michael Robinson]

I guess I'll go with the MII then and buy the BIOS piggy back so I don't 
have to desolder the existing PLCC socket.  Is CPU compatibility an 
issue?  As long as I'm using an x86 processor the asm should be 
compatible.  Are there other small differences in processor 
initialization that could make them at this point incompatible with 
LinuxBIOS?  The reason I'm asking is the MII supports two CPUs, the Eden 
600 and the C3 10000 and I wasn't sure if they had any small 
initialization differences or if the CPU selection even mattered.  If it 
does matter I'll ask Dave Ashley what the differences are between the two.

Thanks,
Michael Robinson
[e-mail]
www.fuzzymuzzle.com

Hendricks David W. wrote:
> The EPIA M2 is the best one that I know of. Dave Ashley is probably the 
> best person to ask about the EPIA platform, he's done extensive work on 
> it.
>
> On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
> > David,
> >
> > Are all Via EPIA motherboards fairly well supported or just the EPIA 
> > M2?  I would assume since the EPIA M2 uses the:
> > VIA CLE266 North Bridge
> > VIA VT8235 South Bridge
> >
> > that any of there other EPIA motherboards that use this chipset should 
> > be fairly compatible.  Am I correct in this assumption or are there 
> > other important factors that can't be easily fixed?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Michael Robinson
> > [e-mail]
> > www.fuzzymuzzle.com
> >
> > Hendricks David W. wrote:
> > > Right now I'd have to say the best supported mainboards currently are VIA 
> > > EPIA M2 and Opteron mainboards using the AMD8111 southbridge. Asus does weird 
> > > things with their SMbus and hasn't been very cooperative in the past with 
> > > documentation, so I would not recommend that you risk money on them.
> > >
> > > Though if you have a high threshold for pain, you can try one of the newer 
> > > VIA chipsets like the KT400 and hope they're generous enough with 
> > > documentation to complete a port. Some other VIA stuff is supported, so 
> > > that might help with a new port.
> > >
> > > On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
> > > > Ron,
> > > >
> > > > I'm not sure what mobo I'm going to use yet, before I buy one I want to 
> > > > make sure it's at least reasonably possible to get LinuxBIOS running on 
> > > > it.  I've heard that the Asus SiS mobos won't work because of the flash 
> > > > chip.  Is this just because of the pinout or is it because of actual 
> > > > software compatibility.  I can always solder my own socket onto the 
> > > > board if necessary.  I've been looking at the Asus boards and most of 
> > > > the compatible boards on your site seem to use the SiS chipset that many 
> > > > of the Asus's do.  Can you give me any insight on the chip compatibility 
> > > > problem?  Most of the SiS chips in the Asus boards seem very close in 
> > > > model number to the ones you guys have got working.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Michael Robinson
> > > > [e-mail]
> > > > www.fuzzymuzzle.com
> > > >
> > > > ron minnich wrote:
> > > > > it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
> > > > > can see what is possible?
> > > > >
> > > > > ron
> > > >
> > > > Linuxbios mailing list
> > > > [e-mail]
> > > > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Michael Robinson]

Lucky for me the after further investigation the EPIA M2 seems to meet 
my requirements perfectly.  I was wondering though, the AMI BIOS that 
comes on the board is used to switch between the video output modes and 
many other hardware features.  Are these settings now configured through 
Linux then since LinuxBIOS does minimal hardware configuration?  Or are 
they still setup in the BIOS (LinuxBIOS), or are they not supported 
currently?

Thanks,
Michael Robinson
[e-mail]
www.fuzzymuzzle.com

Hendricks David W. wrote:
> Right now I'd have to say the best supported mainboards currently are VIA 
> EPIA M2 and Opteron mainboards using the AMD8111 southbridge. Asus does weird 
> things with their SMbus and hasn't been very cooperative in the past with 
> documentation, so I would not recommend that you risk money on them.
>
> Though if you have a high threshold for pain, you can try one of the newer 
> VIA chipsets like the KT400 and hope they're generous enough with 
> documentation to complete a port. Some other VIA stuff is supported, so 
> that might help with a new port.
>
> On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
> > Ron,
> >
> > I'm not sure what mobo I'm going to use yet, before I buy one I want to 
> > make sure it's at least reasonably possible to get LinuxBIOS running on 
> > it.  I've heard that the Asus SiS mobos won't work because of the flash 
> > chip.  Is this just because of the pinout or is it because of actual 
> > software compatibility.  I can always solder my own socket onto the 
> > board if necessary.  I've been looking at the Asus boards and most of 
> > the compatible boards on your site seem to use the SiS chipset that many 
> > of the Asus's do.  Can you give me any insight on the chip compatibility 
> > problem?  Most of the SiS chips in the Asus boards seem very close in 
> > model number to the ones you guys have got working.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Michael Robinson
> > [e-mail]
> > www.fuzzymuzzle.com
> >
> > ron minnich wrote:
> > > it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
> > > can see what is possible?
> > >
> > > ron
> >
> > Linuxbios mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[ron minnich]

the preference is for linux to do all this stuff.

linuxbios motto: 
"Let Linux Do It"

ron