Suggested mechanism of burning a LinuxBIOS on FLASH ROMS

[Deepak Kotian]

Hi,

This may be a very basic simple question, but I do not know a very good answer/solution
    to do this.

If I want to burn LinuxBIOS, I can use the burn_mtd script , it may write it
    successfully as well, but if linuxbios is not correctly built. I cannot get the 
    any O.S started on this machine, which means I would need to replace the
    BIOS FLASH ROM with a one with proper BIOS and bring up the machine.
    Is there a way I can re-program the old BIOS on to the corrupted FLASH ROMS.
    Please note,I do not have a PLC or any kind of FLASH programmer with me. Can
    I do without it.

If there are any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks and Regards
Deepak

"Deepak Kotian"  writes:
> Hi,
> This may be a very basic simple question, but I do not know a very good
>
> answer/solution
> to do this.
>
> If I want to burn LinuxBIOS, I can use the burn_mtd script , it may write it
>
> successfully as well, but if linuxbios is not correctly built. I cannot get
>
> the
> any O.S started on this machine, which means I would need to replace the
> BIOS FLASH ROM with a one with proper BIOS and bring up the machine.
> Is there a way I can re-program the old BIOS on to the corrupted FLASH ROMS.
>
> Please note,I do not have a PLC or any kind of FLASH programmer with me. Can
>
> I do without it.

Usually it is recommeded for bootstraping and development that you either
have a spare rom chip, which you can hot swap in to flash, or that you have
an external burner.

Eric

[Deepak Kotian]

Thanks Eric.
I have a spare FLASH ROM.
Could you please elaborate on the process of "hot swap", is it that I
can replace the FLASH ROM with the corrupted one with
the backup flash ROM, then once it boots up, I can just replace the
corrupted FLASH ROM while the O.S. is up and burn the
backed up bios from the harddisk onto the corrupted FLAH ROMS.
Is this correct and feasible, please elaborate..

----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric W. Biederman" 
To: "Deepak Kotian" 
Cc: 
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 1:00 AM
Subject: Re: Suggested mechanism of burning a LinuxBIOS on FLASH ROMS
> "Deepak Kotian"  writes:
> > Hi,
> > This may be a very basic simple question, but I do not know a very

good
> > answer/solution
> > to do this.
> >
> > If I want to burn LinuxBIOS, I can use the burn_mtd script , it may

write it
> > successfully as well, but if linuxbios is not correctly built. I

cannot get
> > the
> > any O.S started on this machine, which means I would need to replace

the
> > BIOS FLASH ROM with a one with proper BIOS and bring up the machine.
> > Is there a way I can re-program the old BIOS on to the corrupted

FLASH ROMS.
> > Please note,I do not have a PLC or any kind of FLASH programmer with

me. Can
> > I do without it.
>
> Usually it is recommeded for bootstraping and development that you either
> have a spare rom chip, which you can hot swap in to flash, or that you

have
> an external burner.
>
> Eric

[Deepak Kotian]

Hi ,

Are there any more suggestions or easier ways to do the burning process
so that I avoid any kind of Flash programmer or emulator. Basically which
would save time during the development process. Buying an emulator or
flash programmer would be the last thing for me.
I guess, The below concept is not very feasible.

Please let me know your views on the same.

Thanks and Regards
Deepak

----- Original Message -----
From: "Deepak Kotian" 
To: "Eric W. Biederman" 
Cc: 
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 1:07 AM
Subject: Re: Suggested mechanism of burning a LinuxBIOS on FLASH ROMS
> Thanks Eric.
> I have a spare FLASH ROM.
> Could you please elaborate on the process of "hot swap", is it that I
> can replace the FLASH ROM with the corrupted one with
> the backup flash ROM, then once it boots up, I can just replace the
> corrupted FLASH ROM while the O.S. is up and burn the
> backed up bios from the harddisk onto the corrupted FLAH ROMS.
> Is this correct and feasible, please elaborate..
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric W. Biederman" 
> To: "Deepak Kotian" 
> Cc: 
> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 1:00 AM
> Subject: Re: Suggested mechanism of burning a LinuxBIOS on FLASH ROMS
> > "Deepak Kotian"  writes:
> > > Hi,
> > > This may be a very basic simple question, but I do not know a very
>
> good
> > > answer/solution
> > > to do this.
> > >
> > > If I want to burn LinuxBIOS, I can use the burn_mtd script , it

may
> write it
> > > successfully as well, but if linuxbios is not correctly built. I
>
> cannot get
> > > the
> > > any O.S started on this machine, which means I would need to

replace
> the
> > > BIOS FLASH ROM with a one with proper BIOS and bring up the

machine.
> > > Is there a way I can re-program the old BIOS on to the corrupted
>
> FLASH ROMS.
> > > Please note,I do not have a PLC or any kind of FLASH programmer

with
> me. Can
> > > I do without it.
> >
> > Usually it is recommeded for bootstraping and development that you

either
> > have a spare rom chip, which you can hot swap in to flash, or that you
>
> have
> > an external burner.
> >
> > Eric
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[ron minnich]

I can rotate flash parts in seconds on my geode nodes, so I don't see any 
problem with just flashing the part in the motherboard.

ron

[Deepak Kotian]

Thanks for the information.
Sorry, Could you please elaborate on "geode nodes" , howto set it
up,etc.

Thanks and Regards
Deepak

----- Original Message -----
From: "ron minnich" 
To: "Deepak Kotian" 
Cc: 
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: Suggested mechanism of burning a LinuxBIOS on FLASH ROMS
> I can rotate flash parts in seconds on my geode nodes, so I don't see any
> problem with just flashing the part in the motherboard.
>
> ron

[Richard Smith]

Deepak Kotian wrote:
> so that I avoid any kind of Flash programmer or emulator. Basically which
> would save time during the development process. Buying an emulator or
> flash programmer would be the last thing for me.

If you are really wanting to save time then an emulator is by _far_ one 
of the best investments you could possibly make.  The speedup in flash 
programming time alone will probally pay back what you spend.

[Andrew Ip]

Deepak,
> Are there any more suggestions or easier ways to do the burning process
> so that I avoid any kind of Flash programmer or emulator. Basically which
> would save time during the development process. Buying an emulator or
> flash programmer would be the last thing for me.
> I guess, The below concept is not very feasible.

BIOS Savior is a pretty good alternative.

-Andrew

[Richard Smith]

Deepak Kotian wrote:
> any O.S started on this machine, which means I would need to replace the
> BIOS FLASH ROM with a one with proper BIOS and bring up the machine.
> Is there a way I can re-program the old BIOS on to the corrupted FLASH ROMS.
> Please note,I do not have a PLC or any kind of FLASH programmer with me. Can
> I do without it.
>
> If there are any suggestions, please let me know.

Deepak,

Something you might also consider is an ROM Emulator.  One that will do 
a larger flash is still expensive but not as expensive as a good 
flash/eeprom programmer.
With a ROM emulator you remove the original BIOS chip and plug in the 
emulator.  Then you download you code into the emulator.  The target 
never knows the difference.  This also saves a lot of time in the 
code-test-recode cycle as the emulator is usually much faster than 
re-flashing a chip.

Of course if your chip is soldered on the board it's not really an option.

I've done a good bit of my developemnt with a 1-Mbit ROM emulator from 
tech-tools called the EconoROM and a DIP to 32pin PLCC adapter.  1Mbit 
gets you 128k of space which will hold Linuxbios fine.

The emulator + adapter would probally run you $400-$500.

[Jeremy Jackson]

There is work being done to allow the EEPROM socket of certain network
cards to be used as a flash programmer.  Also see the devbios project.

Regards,

Jeremy

On Wed, 2003-04-09 at 14:52, Deepak Kotian wrote:
> Hi,
> This may be a very basic simple question, but I do not know a very
>
> good answer/solution
>     to do this.
> If I want to burn LinuxBIOS, I can use the burn_mtd script , it
>
> may write it
>     successfully as well, but if linuxbios is not correctly built. I
> cannot get the 
>     any O.S started on this machine, which means I would need to
> replace the
>     BIOS FLASH ROM with a one with proper BIOS and bring up the
> machine.
>     Is there a way I can re-program the old BIOS on to the corrupted
> FLASH ROMS.
>     Please note,I do not have a PLC or any kind of FLASH programmer
> with me. Can
>     I do without it.
> If there are any suggestions, please let me know.
>
> Thanks and Regards
> Deepak