coreboot support: difference between ASRock E350M1 and ASRock E350M1/USB3

[Paul Menzel]

Dear coreboot folks,

looking at the offers there are two models ASRock E350M1 [1] and ASRock
E350M1/USB3 [2] where the second one cost about 10 € more.

Does coreboot run on both boards?

OT: Does anyone know if there are different chips or plugs/ports used
for the ASRock E350M1/USB3 or is that a software/BIOS limitation?

Thanks,

Paul

[1] http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=E350M1
[2] http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=E350M1/USB3

[Marshall Buschman]

I own both boards - both do work, BUT there are still bugs:
USB3 and built-in NIC do not work on either by default.
Memory is only reported as roughly 512mb at this point.

You're welcome to help. :)

As far as your other question... I'm not sure what you mean...
USB3 is a physically different connector, with a different pinout 
entirely, although it does retain backward compatibility with USB2. See 
http://www.addonics.com/emerging_technologies/usb3_tutorial.asp

If you're referring to the bios chips themselves, they're DIP8s -- both 
the USB3 and the regular E350M1 use the same kind of chip, but the 
BIOSes themselves do differ.

Hopefully this helps.

Thanks!
-Marshall

On 6/16/2011 5:10 PM, Paul Menzel wrote:
> Dear coreboot folks,
>
> looking at the offers there are two models ASRock E350M1 [1] and ASRock
> E350M1/USB3 [2] where the second one cost about 10 € more.
>
> Does coreboot run on both boards?
>
> OT: Does anyone know if there are different chips or plugs/ports used
> for the ASRock E350M1/USB3 or is that a software/BIOS limitation?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul
>
> [1] http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=E350M1
> [2] http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=E350M1/USB3

coreboot support: difference between ASRock E350M1 and ASRock E350M1/USB3

[Scott Duplichan]

Marshall Buschman wrote:

]I own both boards - both do work, BUT there are still bugs:
]USB3 and built-in NIC do not work on either by default.
]Memory is only reported as roughly 512mb at this point.
]
]You're welcome to help. :)

Hello Marshall,

Thanks for reporting these problems. Incorrect memory size
should be easy to fix. Can you send an e820 listing for a 
problem memory configuration?

I started looking at the NIC problem. The first thing wrong
is that its bridge is not enabled in devicetree.cb. The bridge
is at device 0x15, function 1. Also, the correct pcie lane option
needs to be selected with: register "gpp_configuration" = "4".
Once that is fixed, it doesn't work because its sb800_enable()
code is not running early enough. This a message such as:
"sb800_enable() PCI: Static device PCI: 00:15.1 not found,
disabling it." As a result, no bus number is assigned. I manually
assigned a bus number and was able to see the NIC, so the PCIe
link is trained and working. I will try to complete the debug
during the next couple of days.

Thanks,
Scott

[Paul Menzel]

Dear Marshall,

Am Donnerstag, den 16.06.2011, 17:58 -0500 schrieb Marshall Buschman:
> I own both boards - both do work, BUT there are still bugs:
> USB3 and built-in NIC do not work on either by default.
> Memory is only reported as roughly 512mb at this point.

thank you for the status report.
> You're welcome to help. :)

I know and I would like to help. Unfortunately that would be limited to
testing once I decide to buy the board.
> As far as your other question... I'm not sure what you mean...
> USB3 is a physically different connector, with a different pinout 
> entirely, although it does retain backward compatibility with USB2. See 
> http://www.addonics.com/emerging_technologies/usb3_tutorial.asp

I am sorry, let me rephrase my question. The boards have almost the same
model number so are probably very similar. So I am wondering how the one
model can support USB3.
> If you're referring to the bios chips themselves, they're DIP8s -- both 
> the USB3 and the regular E350M1 use the same kind of chip, but the 
> BIOSes themselves do differ.

That is interesting and strange (for me).
> Hopefully this helps.

Yes, thank you very much for your answers.

Thanks,

Paul

[Thomas Gstädtner]

On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 15:28, Paul Menzel
 wrote:
> Dear Marshall,
>
> Am Donnerstag, den 16.06.2011, 17:58 -0500 schrieb Marshall Buschman:
> > I own both boards - both do work, BUT there are still bugs:
> > USB3 and built-in NIC do not work on either by default.
> > Memory is only reported as roughly 512mb at this point.
>
> thank you for the status report.
> > You're welcome to help. :)
>
> I know and I would like to help. Unfortunately that would be limited to
> testing once I decide to buy the board.
> > As far as your other question... I'm not sure what you mean...
> > USB3 is a physically different connector, with a different pinout
> > entirely, although it does retain backward compatibility with USB2. See
> > http://www.addonics.com/emerging_technologies/usb3_tutorial.asp
>
> I am sorry, let me rephrase my question. The boards have almost the same
> model number so are probably very similar. So I am wondering how the one
> model can support USB3.

The reason is, that USB3 is no chipset feature, it's an external
controller, probably attached over PCIe.
In case of the ASRock it's an EtronTech EJ168A (sits directly behind
the USB controller, the one with the rather large footprint).
The non-USB3 model is the very same mainboard, but they spared that controller.
> > If you're referring to the bios chips themselves, they're DIP8s -- both
> > the USB3 and the regular E350M1 use the same kind of chip, but the
> > BIOSes themselves do differ.
>
> That is interesting and strange (for me).
> > Hopefully this helps.
>
> Yes, thank you very much for your answers.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul