Dell PE2850 with coreboot.

[Michal Widlok]

Hello,
I'm new to this lis and to coreboot, so please forgive me dumb
questions for a while :-). I would like to learn some more about it
and maybe install it on my Dell 2850. I've red then there is a WIP for
coreboot on dell 1850 - this one is similar to mine. Where can I get
some more information about this work? Is there any tutorial or other
info that explains how to install coreboot on dells?

Best Regards,
Michael W.

[Vincent Legoll]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 8:17 PM, Michal Widlok  wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm new to this lis and to coreboot, so please forgive me dumb
> questions for a while :-). I would like to learn some more about it
> and maybe install it on my Dell 2850. I've red then there is a WIP for
> coreboot on dell 1850 - this one is similar to mine. Where can I get
> some more information about this work? Is there any tutorial or other
> info that explains how to install coreboot on dells?

First, you should ensure you have a way to recover from problems:

Is your flash chip soldered or socketed on the motherboard ?
If not, any failure (bad flashing or wrong coreboot) and you've
got an expensive doorstop.
If yes, do you have at least one spare compatible chip with an
original bios flashed onto, to recover from failures ?

Then you're fairly safe to try, test, or hack on coreboot.

A serial console (to another host) setup and working is good
to have, because VGA may not work at first.

[Michal Widlok]

Thanks Vincent,
> First, you should ensure you have a way to recover from problems:
>
> Is your flash chip soldered or socketed on the motherboard ?
> If not, any failure (bad flashing or wrong coreboot) and you've
> got an expensive doorstop.
> If yes, do you have at least one spare compatible chip with an
> original bios flashed onto, to recover from failures ?

Flash is soldered, however I'm prepared to desolder it and install a
socket. I also can copy original BIOS to other chip to have a spare.
Fortunately I have required equipment here :-).
> Then you're fairly safe to try, test, or hack on coreboot.
>
> A serial console (to another host) setup and working is good
> to have, because VGA may not work at first.

I also have spare host to create serial console.
However I really would like to talk to with a person who already tried
this on Dell servers. I don't feel good enough in linux/C/PCs to be
the first one who will install coreboot on a rack server. I did not
think about coreboot before, but some time ago I saw a WIP for dell
1850, and this triggerd me to post to the list.

Best Regards,
Michael W.

[Vincent Legoll]

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 2:02 PM, Michal Widlok  wrote:
> Flash is soldered, however I'm prepared to desolder it and install a
> socket. I also can copy original BIOS to other chip to have a spare.
> Fortunately I have required equipment here :-).

That's good, in my (very small) experience with coreboot, you have to
go back and forth between legacy bios and coreboot.
> However I really would like to talk to with a person who already tried
> this on Dell servers. I don't feel good enough in linux/C/PCs to be
> the first one who will install coreboot on a rack server. I did not
> think about coreboot before, but some time ago I saw a WIP for dell
> 1850, and this triggerd me to post to the list.

If the motherboard components are listed as supported by coreboot,
testing is easy, especially if a similar motherboard is already working.

Depending on the similarity level you may just try a coreboot image for
the other mobo and see how far it goes.