I was able to setup config to include VGA bios and it seems to work but it happens late in the flow, so a lot of printk messaages are not seen, they only become visable after calling dev_initialize().
2 questions: * How can I get it so early printk messages come up? * Shouldnt there be an option to hit f-10 or some other key to get into CMOS?
Dan Mezynski wrote:
I was able to setup config to include VGA bios and it seems to work but it happens late in the flow, so a lot of printk messaages are not seen, they only become visable after calling dev_initialize().
hm. what platform is this?
2 questions:
- How can I get it so early printk messages come up?
- Shouldnt there be an option to hit f-10 or some other key to get into
CMOS?
no. What we're doing on OLPC (and OLPC is the cutting edge) is you can get into an ASH prompt if you want, and use normal UNIX tools for that kind of thing.
ron
On 7/26/06, Dan Mezynski danmez@gmail.com wrote:
I was able to setup config to include VGA bios and it seems to work but it happens late in the flow, so a lot of printk messaages are not seen, they only become visable after calling dev_initialize().
2 questions:
- How can I get it so early printk messages come up?
How are you doing video init? If linuxbios is doing it then it should be done long before the kernel loads.
- Shouldnt there be an option to hit f-10 or some other key to get into
CMOS?
2 invalid assumptions. There may be no CMOS or keyboard.
On 7/27/06, Richard Smith smithbone@gmail.com wrote:
On 7/26/06, Dan Mezynski danmez@gmail.com wrote:
I was able to setup config to include VGA bios and it seems to work but
it
happens late in the flow, so a lot of printk messaages are not seen,
they
only become visable after calling dev_initialize().
2 questions:
- How can I get it so early printk messages come up?
How are you doing video init? If linuxbios is doing it then it should be done long before the kernel loads.
After groping around for awhile, with no text output from LB, I came upon the nice document on the website under "port guides"/"VGA support" which detailed the procedure for combining the quartet.rom file with a vga.romfile and this allowed me to see some text output from the LB printk_notice messages, but none of the printk_notice messages come before the call to dev_initialize() which is called late in the hardwaremain() routine. BTW there is a coment in the beginning of hardwaremain() that says:
/* displayinit MUST PRECEDE ALL PRINTK! */ console_init();
But this call does not seem to do all that's needed to get printk(printk_notice) messages to come to the console.
Note that I'm not yet getting Linux booted, I would love to get that far, it just gets to elfboot then says: Could not find a bouce buffer... Cannot Load ELF Image
- Shouldnt there be an option to hit f-10 or some other key to get into
CMOS?
2 invalid assumptions. There may be no CMOS or keyboard.
My goal was to play with the boot order, to boot from CD, to try to get Linux to boot from LB. I see that there is a reference to cmos.layout in src/config/Config.lb which shows option_table.c as dependent on cmos.layout, so if an acceptable way to set boot order etc is to hand edit the cmos.layout file then that's fine, I just need understand it better. This file has the following snipet: #start-bit length config config-ID name . . . 416 4 e 7 boot_first 420 4 e 7 boot_second 424 4 e 7 boot_third But I'm not sure what to do here, any suggestions? Should I edit this file? How do I make the CD or floppy the first boot? Is there documentation on this?
Note that the mainboard/.../Options.lb file has HAVE_OPTION_TABLE=1 so I assume this means it's using the cmos.layout file. Is this true?
--
Richard A. Smith
* Dan Mezynski danmez@gmail.com [060727 23:51]:
Note that I'm not yet getting Linux booted, I would love to get that far, it just gets to elfboot then says: Could not find a bouce buffer... Cannot Load ELF Image
Sounds like you are running out of HEAP.
Ron wrote to this problem in his article:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8310
The real problem is LinuxBIOS thinks there is no memory. Remember that in the beginning we set up the CPU with no functions to be called? It turns out we do need to have some functions called, because part of what the functions have to do is indicate how much memory there is. We can look to another Northbridge chip for inspiration. It is pretty close to the SC520 and avoids the complications of the K8 Northbridge, which are very complex.
Regards, Stefan
After groping around for awhile, with no text output from LB, I came upon the nice document on the website under "port guides"/"VGA support" which detailed the procedure for combining the quartet.rom file with a vga.rom file and this allowed me to see some text output from the LB printk_notice messages, but none of the printk_notice messages come before the call to dev_initialize() which is called late in the hardwaremain() routine. BTW there is a coment in the beginning of hardwaremain() that says:
/* displayinit MUST PRECEDE ALL PRINTK! */ console_init();
Ah.. You are talking linuxbios printk. Sorry I thought you were talking kernel printk. The reference to early printk confused me.
Are you getting messges on the serial port? Its not clear to me.
But this call does not seem to do all that's needed to get printk(printk_notice) messages to come to the console.
You are talking video console here not serial console right?
My goal was to play with the boot order, to boot from CD, to try to get Linux to boot from LB. I see that there is a reference to cmos.layout in src/config/Config.lb which shows option_table.c as dependent on cmos.layout, so if an acceptable way to set boot order etc is to hand edit the cmos.layout file then that's fine, I just need understand it better. This file has the following snipet: #start-bit length config config-ID name
Yes. Typically everything in linuxbios is pre-set in the config files(s).
416 4 e 7 boot_first 420 4 e 7 boot_second 424 4 e 7 boot_third But I'm not sure what to do here, any suggestions? Should I edit this file? How do I make the CD or floppy the first boot? Is there documentation on this?
Doubtfull. Docs are scarce round these parts. The place to look would be in the FILO code. Stefan (I think it was Stefan) reciently added the capability to have some GRUBlike options on booting.
Sorry I can't be more descriptive but I've not played with it yet.
Note that the mainboard/.../Options.lb file has HAVE_OPTION_TABLE=1 so I assume this means it's using the cmos.layout file. Is this true?
Yes. However, we don't do much with that table. grepping the source for HAVE_OPTION_TABLE shows its used in mc146818rtc.c and by the Intel 82801ca southbridge code for checking if the previous boot failed and falling back to the good image.
So unless FILO is using those options then I don't think they do anything.
* Richard Smith smithbone@gmail.com [060728 01:42]:
416 4 e 7 boot_first 420 4 e 7 boot_second 424 4 e 7 boot_third But I'm not sure what to do here, any suggestions? Should I edit this file? How do I make the CD or floppy the first boot? Is there documentation on this?
Doubtfull. Docs are scarce round these parts. The place to look would be in the FILO code. Stefan (I think it was Stefan) reciently added the capability to have some GRUBlike options on booting.
yep. that was me.
Sorry I can't be more descriptive but I've not played with it yet.
[..]
So unless FILO is using those options then I don't think they do anything.
FILO does not use them. I thought to remember Etherboot does (as it allows several targets in one a la tg3--ide_disk.zelf) but I might be wrong.
cd booting is one of the necessary features for FILO, especially parsing isolinux.cfg files but it needs a little bit restructuring and I never got around to do it yet. If someone wants to have a look, please do!
Maybe parsing CMOS variables would go well with that.
Stefan Reinauer wrote:
Maybe parsing CMOS variables would go well with that.
now that we have linux in flash, we're going to have cmos in /sys
ron
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Dan Mezynski -
Richard Smith -
Ronald G Minnich -
Stefan Reinauer