OpenBIOS May 2005

openbios@openbios.org

8 participants
5 discussions

newbie
by Douglas Frank 06 Aug '05

06 Aug '05

Greetings all, I've just subscribed. I've been googling around for quite a while now, looking for an interesting project that isn't already almost done, and that isn't essentially closed to significant contributions from people outside whatever organization sponsors the project. That leaves out a lot of otherwise interesting projects-- such as the kernel trace work at opersys.com, or Fedora, or the crash-dump project (lkcd) just for a few examples. I confess I'm not just interested in "open source" for any altruistic reason-- I'm really looking for a way to establish credentials in the OS "community" (a much-overused word). I bet such be will be increasingly important in future years. A little context: I'm using Fedora (FC3) here at work (nobody seems to mind that I can't read half of HP's internal web pages, which mostly only work right with IE; and I *certainly* don't mind! :-) I naturally poked around Redhat's site looking for Fedora work, but all they really offer is a bugzilla listing. 98% of reported FC bugs are either with badly outdated releases, or expansion hardware I don't have. However there *does* seem to be an issue with FC3 and the 2.6.11 kernel-- with several reports of solid system hangs/lockups, where the computer essentially freezes in place. Now on an Alpha, all you'd have to do is hit the halt button, type "cra" at the ">>>" prompt, and reboot; once in multiuser you'll have a crash dump waiting for your debugging pleasure. But I've never seen the PC that had a halt button that didn't instantly put you in POST, which kinda limits the chances of copying memory to the swap partition. So at least on the PC architecture, there doesn't seem to be a reliable way to do a postmortem on a wedged kernel. Obviously, the BIOS is a problem. Which leads me to you. What needs doing? thanks! -- Douglas Frank HP Co. ZKO 110 Spit Brook Rd. The older I get, 603-884-0501 Nashua, NH USA 03062 the better I was.

5 6

on omnibook xe3
by pi 24 May '05

24 May '05

hello list, i want to reflash my omnibook xe3 (PhoenixBios) i never flashed bioses before and don't want to lose the machine so some questions i) is there the possibilety to copy the current "image" ii) if the flash failes is there any way to get the machine running again iii) how much time will this take me? (middle range linuxguy / programmer -- since debian 1.3.6) thanks a lot pi

2 1

RE: [OpenBIOS] problem with strings
by shon＠soc-soft.com 12 May '05

12 May '05

Forth word "begin-package" takes three strings as input begin-package ( arg-str arg-len reg-str reg-len dev-str dev-len -- ) With the current implementation, arg-str will be overwritten. So I think number of pockets should be increased to three. Regards, Shon -----Original Message----- From: Stefan Reinauer [mailto:stepan@openbios.org] Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 1:12 PM To: openbios(a)lists.openbios.org Subject: Re: [OpenBIOS] problem with strings * shon(a)soc-soft.com <shon(a)soc-soft.com> [050512 09:10]: > 0 > ok > 0 > " hi" " hello" " bye" " welcome" ok > 8 > .s <8> 4005810c 2 4005800c 5 4005810c 3 4005800c 7 > ok > 8 > > > Above the strings " hi" and " bye" are stored at the same > address(0x4005810c) and also " hello" and " welcome" are stored at the > same address(0x4005800c).This means that the first two strings " hi" and > " hello" are overwritten and therefore lost. Strings defined using ' s" > ' also show the same behavior. The words reading strings from the interpreter into memory are using a "pockets" implementation with two alternating string buffers. This means if you want to put more than two strings on the stack without touching them in between you need to create a copy of those strings. Think of it as a temporary string buffer. > Is this an intended behavior? Please verify the same.Q It is indeed intended, since many forth engines do this the same way. If it is not sufficient, you can raise the number of pockets in forth/bootstrap/bootstrap.fs. Go look for: \ pockets implementation for 7.3.4.1 If you have some reasonable sample code that needs more pockets rather than becoming overly complex, we can raise the number of pockets in the official tree. Regards, Stefan -- OpenBIOS http://openbios.org/ Mailinglist: http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo Free your System - May the Forth be with you The information contained in this e-mail message and in any annexure is confidential to the recipient and may contain privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete the message along with any annexure. You should not disclose, copy or otherwise use the information contained in the message or any annexure. Any views expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual sender except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of SoCrates Software India Pvt Ltd., Bangalore. -- OpenBIOS http://openbios.org/ Mailinglist: http://lists.openbios.org/ Free your System - May the Forth be with you

1 0

problem with strings
by shon＠soc-soft.com 12 May '05

12 May '05

Hi I have noticed an abnormal behavior in the string handling. Below is the snapshot of the same. 0 > ok 0 > " hi" " hello" " bye" " welcome" ok 8 > .s <8> 4005810c 2 4005800c 5 4005810c 3 4005800c 7 ok 8 > Above the strings " hi" and " bye" are stored at the same address(0x4005810c) and also " hello" and " welcome" are stored at the same address(0x4005800c).This means that the first two strings " hi" and " hello" are overwritten and therefore lost. Strings defined using ' s" ' also show the same behavior. Is this an intended behavior? Please verify the same. Shon The information contained in this e-mail message and in any annexure is confidential to the recipient and may contain privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete the message along with any annexure. You should not disclose, copy or otherwise use the information contained in the message or any annexure. Any views expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual sender except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of SoCrates Software India Pvt Ltd., Bangalore.

2 1

Using OpenBios to boot Mac OS on CHRP?
by H S 05 May '05

05 May '05

Hello everyone, I have an RS/6000 7025-F50. It is a CHRP machine from late �98 and it has an awesome open firmware implementation. It even has a great GUI for the usual system configuration. The only thing it seems to be missing is an xcoff-loader package. Thus I am unable to load Apple�s Mac OS X bootloader, BootX. I researched for a time the possibility of an elf version of BootX, but it was beyond me and I could not find anyone interested in helping me. There is not much PowerPC development over at Open Darwin since most people already using PowerPC machines are using Macs, and Apple has already taken care of everything for them. Well I have been following the work with PearPC to bring it OpenBios support, and I got to thinking would it be possible to load OpenBios from my open firmware, which then could load BootX? Something like Open firmware --> OpenBios --> BootX. Plus, my Open firmware has limited Mac-Parts and Mac-Files packages similar to Old World Macs, so it can�t browse HFS+ partitions, which is necessary to locate BootX. OpenBios could kill 2 birds with one stone; locate the bootloader and load it. Without kernel extensions for my hardware, I am not sure how far along it would get. With RTAS maybe it could boot in some sort of �safe mode� with minimal support? Well, even if it kernel panics I would still consider it a victory to see the grey Apple as BootX loads. You can find some information on the F50 at a little site I made about it. http://www.geocities.com/hokutogreatbear/index.htm Hopefully this makes sense to someone! Thanks, Hanns __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Make Yahoo! your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

1 0