As per the coreboot FAQ [1], am I writing to ask for help with my system.
It is a Gigabyte BRIX compact PC GB-XM14-1037. They don't provide a lot of detailed information on the product page: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4606#ov The high level tech specs say: 3rd generation Intel® Celeron® 1037U 1.8GHz Chipset Intel® NM70
I've attached an lspci -tvnnn output to this email.
Superiotool (run from today's git) found a ITE IT8728F; the full output is attached.
A flashrom (run from today's trunk) output of: flashrom -p internal -V indicates that it's one of MX25L6405(D), MX25L6406E/MX25L6436E, MX25L6445
Full output of flashrom is also attached.
A picture of the BIOS chip is attached; the fuzzy reading would suggest it's a MX25L6406E.
Side note: does it make sense to amend the FAQ to suggest the '-p internal'?
I'm also trying to be available on IRC as nick jwhite if that's easier.
Guidance is appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeremy
[1] http://www.coreboot.org/FAQ#Will_coreboot_work_on_my_machine.3F
No.
Unless you have strong x86 firmware development background you can spend n+5 years learning about the field, trying to port coreboot, failing, developing some support tools, trying to port coreboot again and finally maybe succeeding.
//Peter
On 12/06/2013 05:21 PM, Peter Stuge wrote:
No.
Unless you have strong x86 firmware development background you can spend n+5 years learning about the field, trying to port coreboot, failing, developing some support tools, trying to port coreboot again and finally maybe succeeding.
That was a startling response.
I suspect that your #1 user facing FAQ: http://www.coreboot.org/FAQ#Will_coreboot_work_on_my_machine.3F
is horribly misleading. It suggests sunshine and hope.
If I were to change the second paragraph as follows:
If your board is not already supported, it will likely take you years of work to port coreboot to operate correctly on it.
If you do not see it in the above sources, please send the following to the mailing list:
And then change the final paragraph to read: Usually in less than a day, someone will respond on the mailing list, most often with bad news. However, it is possible that your board is supported, or that support is under development, so it won't hurt to ask.
Would that be more accurate?
Cheers,
Jeremy
Am Freitag, den 06.12.2013, 20:05 -0600 schrieb Jeremy White:
If I were to change the second paragraph as follows:
If your board is not already supported, it will likely take you years of work to port coreboot to operate correctly on it.
"unless you have experience with firmware level C development and good knowledge of the x86 architecture."
With the chipset supported, experience and a bit of luck, a port can happen in a week (but these constraints are pretty nasty in themselves). Our problem is that there is no simple answer. I guess Peter prefers caution (to put it mildly), because a more nuanced answer is usually interpreted way too optimistically.
And then change the final paragraph to read: Usually in less than a day, someone will respond on the mailing list, most often with bad news. However, it is possible that your board is supported, or that support is under development, so it won't hurt to ask.
"most often with bad news" is a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.
To look a bit closer at the device you proposed: The processor and chipset might actually be supported in coreboot, when using binary only components, at least their families are. The bad thing is that we even couldn't work around minor issues because the initialization code is binary only, and the datasheets we can access are also spotty. Intel isn't exactly cooperative in the firmware space, and so that's all we can work with these days. You'd have better luck with AMD setups. It's still hard, but at least we have the code and datasheets.
If the BRIX uses some embedded controller, then all bets are off, since it might just work, or it might require lots of code talking to an unknown interface. That's a piece of information we can usually only get from mainboard pictures, since these chips rarely show up in (consumer facing) data sheets.
Patrick
On Sa, 2013-12-07 at 09:54 +0100, Patrick Georgi wrote:
Am Freitag, den 06.12.2013, 20:05 -0600 schrieb Jeremy White:
If I were to change the second paragraph as follows:
If your board is not already supported, it will likely take you years of work to port coreboot to operate correctly on it.
"unless you have experience with firmware level C development and good knowledge of the x86 architecture."
"But then you probably wouldn't read this FAQ but the code to figure what the support status is ;)"
cheers, Gerd
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Gerd Hoffmann -
Jeremy White -
Patrick Georgi -
Peter Stuge