problems with M2V-MX SE + VGA

[Nathan Owens]

Hello Everyone,

I'm trying to compile Coreboot+SeaBIOS+VGA on an ASUS M2V-MX SE, using 
the VGA BIOS I extracted from the vendor BIOS. The result is that I can 
get to the bootloader menu (GRUB2, Debian Squeeze), but after 5-7 
seconds the video dies and or turns to random junk on the screen. Only 
on one occasion did it get past trying to start GDM (GNOME Display 
Manager). On that occasion I had deselected "set up bridges on path to 
VGA adapter" in kconfig. The video was very low resolution (about 
600X400) and it allowed me to log in to a desktop, but after the usual 
5-7 seconds the video turned to random junk.

I have been working on this since the beginning of May and have tried 
many, many combinations of settings in kconfig, including of course the 
recommended settings from the SeaBIOS page.

Here are a few of the things I've tried:

I'm reasonably sure I have a good VGA BIOS image, since the one I 
extracted matches bit for bit another one provided to me by Ruik.

I've compiled my own SeaBIOS and tried the pre-compiled one provided on 
the SeaBIOS page.

I've compiled and tried FILO as well, but more or less the same thing 
happens.

The motherboard and video work just fine with the vendor BIOS.

I also tried installing a video card (Radeon X300SE) in the PCI-e 16x 
slot, but Coreboot doesn't even work when I do that. I've tried many 
combinations of kconfig settings for this, but no luck. This card works 
with the vendor BIOS.

Here are couple of questions I have:

Is anyone having similar problems with this board?

I'd like to send some debugging info to the list (i.e, the boot log), 
but I'm not quite sure how to obtain this. Can someone point me to some 
documentation for obtaining the boot log from this board. I assume it's 
going to require some hardware.

Does anyone have any suggestions for kconfig settings that I should use?

Thanks,
Nate

[Rudolf Marek]

Hi,

I can only say it always worked for me ;) Have you enabled the VGA BIOS hooks in 
SeaBIOS? Try with less RAM. I think I use 512MB, you can send me (in private 
please) your binary and I can flash it on Monday and see if I have same 
problems. I think it looks like something is wrong with video "bitrate" setup or 
something overlaps the gfx memory.

You can also try image from:

http://www.coreboot.org/ASUS_M2V-MX_SE

Thanks,
Rudolf

[Andrew Morgan]

Just a thought, have you tried with no VGA BIOS? You won't get any 
screen output until X loads, but after that point it should work fine, 
while in X.
On a plug-in card that's how it works but I don't know if the onboard 
chip will be enabled by default, enabled by Coreboot or disabled because 
the VGA BIOS isn't run.
I don't know exactly what this might prove but it is something to try 
anyway.