A quick question...

[Mike McWhorter]

I checked the LinuxBIOS status page to see if my motherboard is 
supported, but I found it to be a little confusing.  I'm using an older 
Dell Optiplex and (based on the lspci output) I believe it uses the 
Intel 440BX chipset.   Does anyone know if this board is supported?

Thanks,
- Mike

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host 
bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP 
bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
0000:00:0e.0 Multimedia audio controller: Aureal Semiconductor Vortex 1 
(rev 02)
0000:00:0f.0 PCI bridge: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21152 
(rev 03)
0000:00:11.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX 
[Cyclone] (rev 24)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro 
AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c)

[Richard Smith]

Mike McWhorter wrote:
> I checked the LinuxBIOS status page to see if my motherboard is 
> supported, but I found it to be a little confusing.  I'm using an older 
> Dell Optiplex and (based on the lspci output) I believe it uses the 
> Intel 440BX chipset.   Does anyone know if this board is supported?

Wow.  You are the 3rd person in 2 days to ask about 440bx.  A year of 
nothing and then pow. Things come in 3's I guess.

Yes. 440bx is supported.  Currently AGP may or may not work.  The 
default routing of Legacy VGA stuff is controlled by a strap setting on 
the Nortbridge so its just possible that if the strap setting is right 
that AGP might be up enough for the emulator to bring up a card.

Our board does not have AGP so I don't know if its setup right (if at all)

Start with mainboard/bitworks/ims and go from there.

Also see my next post on possible memory issues.

Change in flash chip kills my linuxbios.

[Joey Nelson]

I've had linux bios running on a Fabiatech FB2510 for some time.  The most
recent batch of boards have switched from an SST 39SF020A flash, to a
Winbond W29C020C.  Both are 265Kx8 flash roms.

My image no longer works with the Winbond.  I've tested with an old SST
flash on the new boards and everything works smashing.  But with the Winbond
I get nothing; no serial output or anything.

I've verified that the images are identical using a chip programmer.

Any ideas on what might cause this?  Any easy fixes?

Thanks,

Joey Nelson

Change in flash chip kills my linuxbios.

[Richard Smith]

Joey Nelson wrote:
> I've verified that the images are identical using a chip programmer.
>
> Any ideas on what might cause this?  Any easy fixes?

Subtle timeing problems?  Whats the speed rating of both parts?

How many address lines does the board really use?  Its possible that if 
some of the address lines were floating that it might work with one part 
but not the other.

How big is your LB image.  Try makeing mutiple copies of the image in 
the rom.  Then it won't matter if the upper address lines float the 
wrong way.

Change in flash chip kills my linuxbios.

[Joey Nelson]

I forgot to mention, the computer is supplied with award bios on the
flashes, and the new Winbond flashes work fine with the included bios.
> Subtle timeing problems?  Whats the speed rating of both parts?

This is possible.  The SST was a 70ns part and the winbond a 90ns part.  
The PC104 computer is a FB2510, a basic GEODE GX1 with CS5530A.

I am actually getting serial output (accidentally had it disabled before).

It dies at:
Jumping to LinuxBIOS.

Everything up to that point is identical between the SST and Winbond parts.
Only the SST continues on for the rest of the boot process.

I've been pouring over the source code, and the datasheets for the GX1 and
CS5530.  But haven't seen any red flags yet.

I have a logic analyzer that I can hook up to the isa bus to ensure that no
timing is being violated for the 90ns parts.  But I'd rather not have to go
through that exercise.

I'd love any additional hints on where to look.
> How many address lines does the board really use?  Its 
> possible that if some of the address lines were floating that 
> it might work with one part but not the other.

I checked the socket against the PC/104 header and found that all the
address lines are connected.

Thanks for the input thus far.

Joey