hello all,
for the Dutch Linux Magazine (http://www.linuxmag.nl/) I'm writing an article about open source hardware and LinuxBIOS is one of the projects I will mention. I have a question which does not seem to be answered in the FAQ.
Do I really need to remove the normal BIOS from a machine, insert a ZIF socket, etc.? I read an article (British Linux Magazine) which suggests that you always have to, but when I read the LinuxBIOS pages I start to wonder...
If it's not the case, any chance that LinuxBIOS will work for a Dell Optiplex GX1 system (Intel 440BX PIIX4e chipset)? I already took a look and you can't remove the BIOS, which I'd like to have replaced, because it freaks me out and has wasted hours of precious time.
armijn
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, Armijn Hemel wrote:
for the Dutch Linux Magazine (http://www.linuxmag.nl/) I'm writing an article about open source hardware and LinuxBIOS is one of the projects I will mention. I have a question which does not seem to be answered in the FAQ.
no, we reprogram machines all the time without yanking the flash or inserting ZIF. We just reprogrammed linuxbios on a 1024-node cluster, for example, and we did not yank any parts. BUT, you'd better have a working linuxbios for that system! You have to test it on a development system.
Do I really need to remove the normal BIOS from a machine, insert a ZIF socket, etc.?
No, but the FLASH process will replace that BIOS with linuxbios.
Sorry about your Dell, but Dell has been very unwilling to help, so I don't think it will work.
ron
On Thu, Jan 22, 2004 at 09:30:19AM -0700, ron minnich wrote:
for the Dutch Linux Magazine (http://www.linuxmag.nl/) I'm writing an article about open source hardware and LinuxBIOS is one of the projects I will mention. I have a question which does not seem to be answered in the FAQ.
[cut]
Do I really need to remove the normal BIOS from a machine, insert a ZIF socket, etc.?
No, but the FLASH process will replace that BIOS with linuxbios.
Ah cool. There are some things that are not really clear to me. Can other operating systems ('doze, FreeBSD) be booted with the LinuxBIOS? I read something about SEBOS on the project page, but not about LinuxBIOS being able to do it. So can it? A simple `yes' or `no' will be sufficient :)
thanks,
armijn
Yes. IIRC, FreeBSD and Plan9 can be booted. Adam Sulmicki's ADLO (Adhesive loader) has been used to boot Windows 2000, but I'm not sure if anyone's gotten it to work with Windows XP as of yet.
On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Armijn Hemel wrote:
On Thu, Jan 22, 2004 at 09:30:19AM -0700, ron minnich wrote:
for the Dutch Linux Magazine (http://www.linuxmag.nl/) I'm writing an article about open source hardware and LinuxBIOS is one of the projects I will mention. I have a question which does not seem to be answered in the FAQ.
[cut]
Do I really need to remove the normal BIOS from a machine, insert a ZIF socket, etc.?
No, but the FLASH process will replace that BIOS with linuxbios.
Ah cool. There are some things that are not really clear to me. Can other operating systems ('doze, FreeBSD) be booted with the LinuxBIOS? I read something about SEBOS on the project page, but not about LinuxBIOS being able to do it. So can it? A simple `yes' or `no' will be sufficient :)
thanks,
armijn
Armijn Hemel wrote:
Do I really need to remove the normal BIOS from a machine, insert a ZIF socket, etc.? I read an article (British Linux Magazine) which suggests that you always have to, but when I read the LinuxBIOS pages I start to wonder...
If it's not the case, any chance that LinuxBIOS will work for a Dell Optiplex GX1 system (Intel 440BX PIIX4e chipset)? I already took a look and you can't remove the BIOS, which I'd like to have replaced, because it freaks me out and has wasted hours of precious time.
Since your chips are soldered to the pcb things are going to be a little more difficult. As if you flash in something that dosen't work then your board is toast. Do you know if your stock bios has a "recovery" method? If it does then you can use that to flash in a new copy of the bios if you get something that dosen't boot.
The 440BX is pretty much fully supported. The freebios (as opposed to the new freebios2) tree will set up and enable everything except the power management system. Unless this is a laptop you shouldn't need the power managment stuff.
This assumes that Dell does not do something special to enable the SPD signals to the RAM. Setup is not fully automatic though and parts of the code will have to be customized to your system.
Usually the only way to really find this stuff out is to boot LinuxBIOS and see what happens. Thus the danger of winding up with a paper weight.
You need to know things such as how your PCI IRQs are routed, and other stuff. I tried to keep all the custom options of our board specific to the "bitworks/IMS" config but I would not be suprised if there was something lurking in the main tree that only worked on an IMS system. I added lots of code.
Armijn Hemel armijn@uulug.nl writes:
hello all,
for the Dutch Linux Magazine (http://www.linuxmag.nl/) I'm writing an article about open source hardware and LinuxBIOS is one of the projects I will mention. I have a question which does not seem to be answered in the FAQ.
Do I really need to remove the normal BIOS from a machine, insert a ZIF socket, etc.? I read an article (British Linux Magazine) which suggests that you always have to, but when I read the LinuxBIOS pages I start to wonder...
If it's not the case, any chance that LinuxBIOS will work for a Dell Optiplex GX1 system (Intel 440BX PIIX4e chipset)? I already took a look and you can't remove the BIOS, which I'd like to have replaced, because it freaks me out and has wasted hours of precious time.
There are two important cases. 1) Development machines. 2) Production machines.
On production machines you can have things soldered on with no problem.
On a development machine you want some insurance against misflashing the BIOS.
There is some safety with linuxbios on development machines as it is typically configured to have two copies of the firmware on the ROM chip.
As for getting a socket on a board without one for people who have the skill removing a rom chip and soldering in a socket is fairly doable.
The minimum requirements for developing LinuxBIOS are: 1) a method for recovering from a bad flash (usually a socketed rom chip) 2) a serial console. 3) Documentation... 4) Time
With all of those you can probably do a complete LinuxBIOS port.
Eric
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Armijn Hemel -
ebiederman＠lnxi.com -
Hendricks David W. -
Richard Smith -
ron minnich