Dell latitude c610

[CybFr]

Hi,

I'd like to re-open a tread from Michal Janke about supporting Dell latitude 
C610 and its SMSC LPC47N252 SuperIO.

- I've found the closest chip from SMSC was FDC37N972, supported by 
superiotool so I added corresponding entries in smsc.c.

- for  FDC, UARTS, KBD, RTC, everything seems quite common so I added it in 
/superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c.
(the big difference betweenn supported smsc chips an LPC47N252 is the 
EC-8051 core... )

What could be the next step ?

Thanks for advices


-- 
CybFr

[Uwe Hermann]

Hi,

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 12:33:14PM +0200, CybFr wrote:
> I'd like to re-open a tread from Michal Janke about supporting Dell latitude 
> C610 and its SMSC LPC47N252 SuperIO.
>
> - I've found the closest chip from SMSC was FDC37N972, supported by 
> superiotool so I added corresponding entries in smsc.c.
>
> - for  FDC, UARTS, KBD, RTC, everything seems quite common so I added it in 
> /superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c.
> (the big difference betweenn supported smsc chips an LPC47N252 is the 
> EC-8051 core... )
>
> What could be the next step ?

Well, that's the million dollar question. We don't yet support _any_
laptop in coreboot exactly because of the EC problems (well, among other
problems).

Luckily, the LPC47N252 datasheet seems to contain some amount of info
about the EC, so maybe it's doable. However, we don't know too much
about this stuff at this point. Chipset is 830MP which should be doable,
so all in all this might be a reasonably well-suited laptop if you want
to invest some time and energy into coreboot on this laptop.

I'm also trying to do something similar with an ancient 440BX laptop
here, see http://www.coreboot.org/Dell_Latitude_CPi_A366XT, but I
haven't gotten very far, yet.

First thing you should do is to get a known-good backup image of your
current BIOS, flash that on a different chip and see if the laptop still
boots with that. Until this works, I wouldn't recommend to proceed.

Is this a PLCC chip, and is it in a socket or soldered onto the board?
If soldered, do you have equipment and skills to desolder it and put on
a socket? See http://www.coreboot.org/Soldering_a_socket_on_your_board
for PLCC sockets, for other types of chips it may be a bit harder.

Can you make high-res pictures of the whole laptop board (front and back
side etc, especially of the Super I/O / EC? We can put those in the wiki
also if you want to release them under a freeish license (CC, public
domain, etc).

The next step would probably be to find out where the EC code lives in
the flash ROM chip, make a coreboot.rom which leaves that area empty
and then 'dd' the EC blob over the empty area. Flash that, attach a POST
card and/or null-modem cable and see what happens...

Anyway, if you have any superiotool or superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c
patches which are generic and could be reused for other stuff, please post
them with a Signed-off-by so we can commit them, see
http://www.coreboot.org/Development_Guidelines#Sign-off_Procedure


Cheers, Uwe.
-- 
http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

[Joseph Smith]

On Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:10:16 +0200, Uwe Hermann <[e-mail]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 12:33:14PM +0200, CybFr wrote:
> > I'd like to re-open a tread from Michal Janke about supporting Dell
> > latitude
> > C610 and its SMSC LPC47N252 SuperIO.
> >
> > - I've found the closest chip from SMSC was FDC37N972, supported by
> > superiotool so I added corresponding entries in smsc.c.
> >
> > - for  FDC, UARTS, KBD, RTC, everything seems quite common so I added it
> > in
> > /superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c.
> > (the big difference betweenn supported smsc chips an LPC47N252 is the
> > EC-8051 core... )
> >
> > What could be the next step ?
>
> Well, that's the million dollar question. We don't yet support _any_
> laptop in coreboot exactly because of the EC problems (well, among other
> problems).
>
> Luckily, the LPC47N252 datasheet seems to contain some amount of info
> about the EC, so maybe it's doable. However, we don't know too much
> about this stuff at this point. Chipset is 830MP which should be doable,
> so all in all this might be a reasonably well-suited laptop if you want
> to invest some time and energy into coreboot on this laptop.
>
> I'm also trying to do something similar with an ancient 440BX laptop
> here, see http://www.coreboot.org/Dell_Latitude_CPi_A366XT, but I
> haven't gotten very far, yet.
>
> First thing you should do is to get a known-good backup image of your
> current BIOS, flash that on a different chip and see if the laptop still
> boots with that. Until this works, I wouldn't recommend to proceed.
>
> Is this a PLCC chip, and is it in a socket or soldered onto the board?
> If soldered, do you have equipment and skills to desolder it and put on
> a socket? See http://www.coreboot.org/Soldering_a_socket_on_your_board
> for PLCC sockets, for other types of chips it may be a bit harder.
>
> Can you make high-res pictures of the whole laptop board (front and back
> side etc, especially of the Super I/O / EC? We can put those in the wiki
> also if you want to release them under a freeish license (CC, public
> domain, etc).
>
> The next step would probably be to find out where the EC code lives in
> the flash ROM chip, make a coreboot.rom which leaves that area empty
> and then 'dd' the EC blob over the empty area. Flash that, attach a POST
> card and/or null-modem cable and see what happens...
>
> Anyway, if you have any superiotool or superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c
> patches which are generic and could be reused for other stuff, please
> post
> them with a Signed-off-by so we can commit them, see
> http://www.coreboot.org/Development_Guidelines#Sign-off_Procedure

I would also like to add, I very glad to help you with the i830 part.

-- 
Thanks,
Joseph Smith
Set-Top-Linux
www.settoplinux.org

[CybFr]

Le vendredi 26 juin 2009 21:10:16, Uwe Hermann a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 12:33:14PM +0200, CybFr wrote:
> > I'd like to re-open a tread from Michal Janke about supporting Dell
> > latitude C610 and its SMSC LPC47N252 SuperIO.
> >
> > - I've found the closest chip from SMSC was FDC37N972, supported by
> > superiotool so I added corresponding entries in smsc.c.
> >
> > - for  FDC, UARTS, KBD, RTC, everything seems quite common so I added it
> > in /superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c.
> > (the big difference betweenn supported smsc chips an LPC47N252 is the
> > EC-8051 core... )
> >
> > What could be the next step ?
>
> Well, that's the million dollar question. We don't yet support _any_
> laptop in coreboot exactly because of the EC problems (well, among other
> problems).
>
> Luckily, the LPC47N252 datasheet seems to contain some amount of info
> about the EC, so maybe it's doable. However, we don't know too much
> about this stuff at this point. Chipset is 830MP which should be doable,
> so all in all this might be a reasonably well-suited laptop if you want
> to invest some time and energy into coreboot on this laptop.

I have both
> I'm also trying to do something similar with an ancient 440BX laptop
> here, see http://www.coreboot.org/Dell_Latitude_CPi_A366XT, but I
> haven't gotten very far, yet.
>
> First thing you should do is to get a known-good backup image of your
> current BIOS, flash that on a different chip and see if the laptop still
> boots with that. Until this works, I wouldn't recommend to proceed.
>
> Is this a PLCC chip, and is it in a socket or soldered onto the board?
> If soldered, do you have equipment and skills to desolder it and put on
> a socket? See http://www.coreboot.org/Soldering_a_socket_on_your_board
> for PLCC sockets, for other types of chips it may be a bit harder.

It's a soldered PLCC, I think I can manage to socket it
> Can you make high-res pictures of the whole laptop board (front and back
> side etc, especially of the Super I/O / EC? We can put those in the wiki
> also if you want to release them under a freeish license (CC, public
> domain, etc).

I'll begin with that, just after my one week holydays.
> The next step would probably be to find out where the EC code lives in
> the flash ROM chip, make a coreboot.rom which leaves that area empty
> and then 'dd' the EC blob over the empty area. Flash that, attach a POST
> card and/or null-modem cable and see what happens...
>
> Anyway, if you have any superiotool or superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c
> patches which are generic and could be reused for other stuff, please post
> them with a Signed-off-by so we can commit them, see
> http://www.coreboot.org/Development_Guidelines#Sign-off_Procedure

Done for superiotool, for superio.c, I need to check if what I guessed is 
exact (LPC47N252 is exactly the same as other smsc chips for serials io)

Thanks a lot for support.

-- 
FR

[CybFr]

Le vendredi 26 juin 2009 21:10:16, Uwe Hermann a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 12:33:14PM +0200, CybFr wrote:
> > I'd like to re-open a tread from Michal Janke about supporting Dell
> > latitude C610 and its SMSC LPC47N252 SuperIO.
> >
> > - I've found the closest chip from SMSC was FDC37N972, supported by
> > superiotool so I added corresponding entries in smsc.c.
> >
> > - for  FDC, UARTS, KBD, RTC, everything seems quite common so I added it
> > in /superio/smsc/smsssuperio/superio.c.
> > (the big difference betweenn supported smsc chips an LPC47N252 is the
> > EC-8051 core... )
> >
> > What could be the next step ?
>
> The next step would probably be to find out where the EC code lives in
> the flash ROM chip, make a coreboot.rom which leaves that area empty
> and then 'dd' the EC blob over the empty area. Flash that, attach a POST
> card and/or null-modem cable and see what happens...

Waiting for chips, sockets and a replacement mothercard (just in case), I try 
to find the EC code both from a dump of th flash rom and from the Dell bios file. 
But from the LPC47N252 datasheet I understand that it is supposed to execute 
its firmware directly from its own flash (which doesn't exist on FDC37N958FR). 

If I'm right, the bad point would be that I have no chance to get a blob from 
FWH but the good point could be that we can forget about EC code (unless we 
want to update it).

Am I right ???



PS: Uwe, I don't know if you received my mail with pictures (sent last monday) 
BTW I put them there http://www.miradou.com/spip/spip.php?article14

-- 
CybFr

[Peter Stuge]

CybFr wrote:
> Waiting for chips, sockets and a replacement mothercard

Note that SST 49LF004 is not a parallel flash chip, but rather an FWH
type chip.

What replacement chip did you order? If same part number it's of
course compatible. :)


//Peter

[CybFr]

Le vendredi 10 juillet 2009 15:21:50, Peter Stuge a écrit :
> CybFr wrote:
> > Waiting for chips, sockets and a replacement mothercard
>
> Note that SST 49LF004 is not a parallel flash chip, but rather an FWH
> type chip.

You're right, it has a FWH interface for in-system operations and it has 
parallal programming capability.
> What replacement chip did you order? If same part number it's of
> course compatible. :)

The only one I found is an AM29F040 given as read compatible (by my local 
reseller) but looking at datasheets, I'm very sceptic...

Does anybody know a source fot SST49LF004A ?


-- 
FR

[Peter Stuge]

CybFr wrote:
> > > Waiting for chips, sockets and a replacement mothercard
> >
> > Note that SST 49LF004 is not a parallel flash chip, but rather an
> > FWH type chip.
>
> You're right, it has a FWH interface for in-system operations and it
> has parallal programming capability.

Yeah, the A/A thing. That's will rarely if ever work in-system
though.
> > What replacement chip did you order? If same part number it's of
> > course compatible. :)
>
> The only one I found is an AM29F040 given as read compatible (by my
> local reseller) but looking at datasheets, I'm very sceptic...

Sorry, that isn't compatible at all.
> Does anybody know a source fot SST49LF004A ?

Am a little web challenged right now, but it should be possible to
find that or a compatible chip. Look for any SST49LF00xx chip. 008B
will work fine. You can also look for Winbond W39VxxxFA.. chips, or
ST M50W-something which are dual LPC/FWH.

I am pretty sure farnell.com has some compatible chip at a fair
price.


//Peter

[CybFr]

Le samedi 11 juillet 2009 00:50:19, Peter Stuge a écrit :
> CybFr wrote:
> > > > Waiting for chips, sockets and a replacement mothercard
> > >
> > > Note that SST 49LF004 is not a parallel flash chip, but rather an
> > > FWH type chip.
> >
> > You're right, it has a FWH interface for in-system operations and it
> > has parallal programming capability.
>
> Yeah, the A/A thing. That's will rarely if ever work in-system
> though.
> > > What replacement chip did you order? If same part number it's of
> > > course compatible. :)
> >
> > The only one I found is an AM29F040 given as read compatible (by my
> > local reseller) but looking at datasheets, I'm very sceptic...
>
> Sorry, that isn't compatible at all.
> > Does anybody know a source fot SST49LF004A ?
>
> Am a little web challenged right now, but it should be possible to
> find that or a compatible chip. Look for any SST49LF00xx chip. 008B
> will work fine. You can also look for Winbond W39VxxxFA.. chips, or
> ST M50W-something which are dual LPC/FWH.
>
> I am pretty sure farnell.com has some compatible chip at a fair
> price.

Not found ...
> //Peter

[Uwe Hermann]

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:30:40AM +0200, CybFr wrote:
> PS: Uwe, I don't know if you received my mail with pictures (sent last monday) 
> BTW I put them there http://www.miradou.com/spip/spip.php?article14

Yep, got the mail, will upload stuff today, was a bit busy until now.


Uwe.
-- 
http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

[Uwe Hermann]

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 03:46:56PM +0200, Uwe Hermann wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 10:30:40AM +0200, CybFr wrote:
> > PS: Uwe, I don't know if you received my mail with pictures (sent last monday) 
> > BTW I put them there http://www.miradou.com/spip/spip.php?article14
>
> Yep, got the mail, will upload stuff today, was a bit busy until now.

Done.

http://www.coreboot.org/Dell_Latitude_C610


Uwe.
-- 
http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org

[Joseph Smith]

> PS: Uwe, I don't know if you received my mail with pictures (sent last
> monday) 
> BTW I put them there http://www.miradou.com/spip/spip.php?article14

Nice pics :-)

Right now the i830 is only setup for onboard graphics not AGP. 
Let me know when your ready and I would be glad to help you get it working.

-- 
Thanks,
Joseph Smith
Set-Top-Linux
www.settoplinux.org

[CybFr]

Le vendredi 10 juillet 2009 15:51:11, Joseph Smith a écrit :
> > PS: Uwe, I don't know if you received my mail with pictures (sent last
> > monday)
> > BTW I put them there http://www.miradou.com/spip/spip.php?article14
>
> Nice pics :-)

Thanks
> Right now the i830 is only setup for onboard graphics not AGP.
> Let me know when your ready and I would be glad to help you get it working.

I think I'll have my bios socketed on wednesday, in between I try to build my 
arch coreboot. I think I'll need your help.

Thank you. 

-- 
FR

[Ryan McLean]

CybFr wrote:
> Le vendredi 10 juillet 2009 15:51:11, Joseph Smith a écrit :
> > > PS: Uwe, I don't know if you received my mail with pictures (sent last
> > > monday)
> > > BTW I put them there http://www.miradou.com/spip/spip.php?article14
> >
> > Nice pics :-)
>
> Thanks
> > Right now the i830 is only setup for onboard graphics not AGP.
> > Let me know when your ready and I would be glad to help you get it working.
>
> I think I'll have my bios socketed on wednesday, in between I try to build my 
> arch coreboot. I think I'll need your help.
>
> Thank you.

I have a Latitude c400 that I can take apart if needed.

[Joseph Smith]

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:40:58 +0100, Ryan McLean <[e-mail]>
wrote:
> CybFr wrote:
> > Le vendredi 10 juillet 2009 15:51:11, Joseph Smith a écrit :
> > > > PS: Uwe, I don't know if you received my mail with pictures (sent last
> > > > monday)
> > > > BTW I put them there http://www.miradou.com/spip/spip.php?article14
> > >
> > > Nice pics :-)
> >
> > Thanks
> > > Right now the i830 is only setup for onboard graphics not AGP.
> > > Let me know when your ready and I would be glad to help you get it
> > > working.
> >
> > I think I'll have my bios socketed on wednesday, in between I try to
> > build my 
> > arch coreboot. I think I'll need your help.
> >
> > Thank you.
>
> I have a Latitude c400 that I can take apart if needed.

Ah, the C400 is a little different. It uses onboard i830 graphics where the
C610 uses external AGP graphics. I would give my left arm to see coreboot
running on both of these units :-)

-- 
Thanks,
Joseph Smith
Set-Top-Linux
www.settoplinux.org