OpenBIOS March 1999

openbios@openbios.org

20 participants
23 discussions

Re: [OpenBIOS] Re: uniFLASH, EEPROM vs. Flash
by alex dinovitser 24 Mar '99

24 Mar '99

Thank you James for your information, I have had a little bit of a dabble with linux, but I don't find such user-friendly applications like under Window$. I can't even get GIMP to work for some reason. > > I am interested in this as I would like to port my work to GNU > > eventually. I am currently using Delphi. > > Hmmm, you might be more interested in tcl/tk. Fortunately, Cygwin also > contains it. If you want to try tcl/tk get the excellent 'tcltutor' > program. Thanks for that idea, I will try tcltutor. Any good websites for learning tcl/tk?? I was initially considering porting the code to GCC or something, and then re-write the user interface from scratch. If Tcl/tk can make it easier, that would be great. ---snip---- > > For a total novice, get Slackware, it's much nicer for new users than > Red Hat. I see people trying Red Hat, hating it, then trying Slackware > and loving it. Can you briefly tell me why??? What are the key differences? I have tried Slackware (InfoMagic) back in late 1995, but didn't find it very satisfying. Have they improved that much? Why doesn't someone write windows95 clone for Linux, from installation, to the user interface? Is it that hard to do? User friendliness is just about the only thing Micro$oft have got right I think, and that contribution should not be discarded, but copied and further improved by Linux. regards, == ------------------------------------------------------------------ Alex Dinovitser PhD Student ph: +61 8 8302 1775 Transport Systems Centre fax: +61 8 8302 1880 City East Campus University of South Australia Adelaide 5000 _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo(a)freiburg.linux.de with "unsubscribe openbios" in the body of the message

4 3

Can M$-VC compile BIOS C-code?
by Dave 23 Mar '99

23 Mar '99

Sorry if I am repeating myself here. I am re-posting this to the list because I am not sure it made it out there the first time I posted it. It seems that there was not much activity here for a few weeks. I am not sure if the list was down or everyone was just too busy with real life :) I am thinking about trying to flesh out some of my BIOS/BootProm ideas. I would like to do so in C using Micro$ofts Visual Studio (mainly because I have it and am familiar with it). Can M$-VC 5.0 (or M$-VC 6.0) be used to develop PROM based x86 code? I have been told that it can. Something about setting some switches in the compiler. But I need to know more about _how_ it is done. There are lots of details that I need to know about. Like setting program/data address origins, creating the binary file and converting it to HEX or another format that can be burned into PROM. If you have experience doing embedded or BIOS work on x86 systems using the Micro$oft development environment I would really appreciate some pointers. TIA, Dave

4 4

Re: uniFLASH, EEPROM vs. Flash
by James Oakley 23 Mar '99

23 Mar '99

alex dinovitser wrote: > > I compiled the same code (a program I wrote) in both compilers and > > the difference was absolutely amazing in both binary size and speed. > > > > AND IT'S THE SAME CODE! > > Could you elaborate? > you were comparing GC++ (?) with VC++ and what was the actual > difference in .exe code size?? It was a simple program I wrote to communicate with a device I had made (for data acquisition). Not only was the GCC executable much faster (especially on initial loading) but it was 1 tenth the size as well. > I am interested in this as I would like to port my work to GNU > eventually. I am currently using Delphi. Hmmm, you might be more interested in tcl/tk. Fortunately, Cygwin also contains it. If you want to try tcl/tk get the excellent 'tcltutor' program. > Yes I tried that too. Is it a good way to 'break' into linux for a > total novice? To be honest, I doubt it. I like it because I'm a unix guy who hates dealing with windows, and avoids it at all costs, even though I have to use it at work. For a total novice, get Slackware, it's much nicer for new users than Red Hat. I see people trying Red Hat, hating it, then trying Slackware and loving it. -- James Oakley jfunk(a)roadrunner.nf.net - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo(a)freiburg.linux.de with "unsubscribe openbios" in the body of the message

1 0

Mailing list..
by Stefan Reinauer 19 Mar '99

19 Mar '99

Hi... after majordomo simply ignored all of my mailing list settings I am quite sure I found the mistake now. As soon as our sysadmin gets the time, everything will work ok, have a reply-to and [OpenBIOS] added to the subject. Btw.. I am at the Cebit from tomorrow until the end :)) If one of you gets there, it would be cool to see anyone of you if you are there, too.. I am at Compaq, demonstrating Alpha Linux, Hall 1, 4H2. best regards, Stefan -- SuSE GmbH Can you afford *NOT* Schanzäckerstr. 10 to use Linux? D-90443 Nürnberg Germany AlphaPowered

1 0

AW: connection of the flash-devices
by Stephan Mueller 18 Mar '99

18 Mar '99

> >:) > might i get the address of your webpage. i'm new. You're talking about the openBIOS-Page? www.openbios.org :) > > william > Ciao, Stephan [SpaceNet-Systems]

1 0

Re: uniFLASH, EEPROM vs. Flash
by James Oakley 18 Mar '99

18 Mar '99

alex dinovitser wrote: > There exists a program to translate Pascal to ANSI C source code (but > not the other way around) > I think its GPLed and works under Linux. Yeah, p2c. It's not that simple however, there are probably major architechural idiosyncrasies in the code. It is a start, however. > I'm an MSufferer I feel your pain. I have to use that stuff at work. "So here's visual C++..." One trip to sourceware.cygnus.com later... I compiled the same code (a program I wrote) in both compilers and the difference was absolutely amazing in both binary size and speed. AND IT'S THE SAME CODE! I also like having bash for windows, makes me feel at home. -- James Oakley jfunk(a)roadrunner.nf.net

1 0

Anybody still here?
by James Oakley 18 Mar '99

18 Mar '99

I haven't seen any new messages in a while, it just stopped. Is there a list of what's being worked on and by whom yet? I have mainboards from Soyo, DFI, Mycomp, and Eurone all with flash on them that I can work on. I today contacted Soyo asking where I could find Eteq (chipset on some of their MBs, including the one I have) and if there is anything I should know outside of what information they might give me (if they bother, I hope ATI is the last "Diamond"). So anyway, I hopefully declare myself working on Eteq chipsets primarily, and whatever else I can find, time permitting. Oh yeah, has anyone checked out Corel's new Netwinder computers? They look really great, no chance in the home market though, of course they know that. They're selling them at www.corelcomputer.com and I was looking at the www.netwinder.org site today and apparently the BIOS in them has a small Linux kernel in there. It's a 1MB flash. Neat. James Oakley

3 2

Re: Anybody still here?
by James Oakley 18 Mar '99

18 Mar '99

Pill Ingo wrote: > This is very easy ETEQ chipsets are relabelled VIA > chipsets, in older versions also the VENDOR strings etc identified the > chips as VIA - Products > , i dont know whether ETEQ did change these strings, but the chips > themselves are still VIA-chipsets. > ( due to licence contracts ) > example : VIA VPX = ETEQ EQ82C661X PCI Really? How about say, a 82c6638/6629 AGP chipset? Where would one go find out which chipset matches which? I guess 'll be working on VIA chipsets, that's a relief, Eteq is a hard to find company. Relabelled, well I'll be.. I was looking at an interesting spec today, the BIOS Boot spec. It appears to push BIOS functionality similar to what has been suggested here, such as letting the user pick which device to boot from if a certain key is hit during the boot process. It also allows a non-bootable or non-functioning device to tell the bios that it has failed to boot by calling int 18h, returning control to the bios so that it can attempt a boot of the next available device. It also suggests that BIOS designers should think of any device as capable of booting from parallel, serial, USB, etc. All in all an interesting read. It can be gotten from http://www.pheonix.com/products/specs.html There's also some other neat documents there. James Oakley

2 1

AW: connection of the flash-devices
by Stephan Mueller 17 Mar '99

17 Mar '99

> > I've got an experimention-Board (prototype-board) to put devices > > directly in a socket and build connections. I'll try to build a flash-switch > > myself. If i'll be successfull i'll put the wire-diagram on my page. :) > What sort of board, out of curiosity? Breadboard, wire-wrap or other? > I'm using a wire-wrap for now, as breadboard types can get flaky at high > speeds. i don't know how this type is called. You've got hundreds of sockets and can put in whatever you like including wires and so on. > I'll start in on a post card, but I think I'll try to design it for > upgradeability (ie. header for alphanumeric LCD for "intelligent POST" > that can display errors in human-readable form. It can also be used > after boot for system stats, etc.. like the Matrix Orbital ones). > > Then maybe we can integrate. > > Oh yeah, one thing to watch out for is motherboards that have PLCC > package flash on them, it could get expensive to get a plug for them. > Try to avoid them if you want to implement this dual-flash idea. I've organized 2 of these boards (called PA2012). I used them to hot-flash my father's P2-Board. Hard to change the flashs if the Board is "on-Line". :) Ciao, Stephan [SpaceNet-Systems]

1 0

Re: POST Probes -> Was -> Re: Here's a plan
by Phil King 17 Mar '99

17 Mar '99

>> MicroPose (MicroProse?) - do the Micro2000, which is a rather useful >> POST probe..... >> >> It's not cheap, but well worth it for the usefulness, it is listening >> address configurable, and will provide extra diagnostics like Osc check, >> clock check tri state logic probe, and of course all the voltages.... > >We *could* make our own. A POST card is an ultra-simple device, It >simply latches data from a specific port reserved for POST (I forget >which one off-hand though) and displays it via either a bank of 8 LEDs >in binary or two 7-segment LED displays in hex. ... If you're looking for a basic functionality POST card, I did a quickie web search and came up with several. Check out: http://megacode.com/index.htm http://www.datadepo.com/mpost.htm http://www.micro2000.com/postprobe.htm http://www.quicktech.com/qppcplus.htm They vary wildly in price, but I found a local distributor for the megacode ISA-Bus only product and went out this afternoon to pick one up for US$30 (+ $2.45 local sales tax.). A lot less painful than rolling my own... And the standard POST port is apparently 0x80. Cheers! Phil King pking(a)netschools.net

9 14