success on l440gx+ ram

[Ronald G. Minnich]

I forgot to put a 0x17 in reg 0x76 after the mode set command. Sheesh.

dram is now working fine. I am actually in protected mode in the 32-bit
openbios startup, getting ready to gunzip linux and jump to it.

Now the trick is to figure out why I have no display :-)

All I want for now is a vga-compatible thing, very limited in scope. So I
want the absolute minimum hardware only. Any hints would be welcome.

ron

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[Boaz Harrosh]

rrrrrrrr
Real mode, look for VGA BIOS, and call it. I know that some of the cards
turn on their clocks only at the VGA BIOS routines OS Driver is not enough.
You could do that Protected mode look like Real-Mode mapping or the virtual
86 mode call VGA BIOS and back.
    If you wait 1-2 month I will have my hands on VGA BIOS code of one of
the boards (Intel). We need to buy it for one of our projects here.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronald G. Minnich" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 00 4:18 AM
Subject: [OpenBIOS] success on l440gx+ ram
> I forgot to put a 0x17 in reg 0x76 after the mode set command. Sheesh.
>
> dram is now working fine. I am actually in protected mode in the 32-bit
> openbios startup, getting ready to gunzip linux and jump to it.
>
> Now the trick is to figure out why I have no display :-)
>
> All I want for now is a vga-compatible thing, very limited in scope. So I
> want the absolute minimum hardware only. Any hints would be welcome.
>
> ron
>
> To unsubscribe: send mail to [e-mail]
> with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message

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[David Christensen]

Are you using an ISA VGA adapter or a PCI/AGP video adapter?  The ISA
adapter would be easier, setting up real mode and make a FAR CALL to the
OPROM at address 0x000C0003.  (Make sure your stack pointers are setup.)
PCI is a lot more complicated.  Probe the VGA BARs and assign the required
I/O and memory resources.  Probe the PCI expansion ROM BAR and enable it at
a convenient memory location.  Next you'll need to access the PAM registers
in the 440GX and setup a read/write memory region starting at 0x000C0000, at
least as long as the expansion OPROM.  Copy the OPROM down into the
read/write shadow memory.  Turn off the expansion ROM, setup for real mode,
then make a FAR CALL to the OPROM just like the ISA VGA case.  When the VGA
OPROM returns check the size of the OPROM and set the PAM registers in the
440GX to read-only mode.  Now you should have video.  Easy as pie.

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of
Ronald G. Minnich
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 6:18 PM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [OpenBIOS] success on l440gx+ ram

I forgot to put a 0x17 in reg 0x76 after the mode set command. Sheesh.

dram is now working fine. I am actually in protected mode in the 32-bit
openbios startup, getting ready to gunzip linux and jump to it.

Now the trick is to figure out why I have no display :-)

All I want for now is a vga-compatible thing, very limited in scope. So I
want the absolute minimum hardware only. Any hints would be welcome.

ron

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with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message

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[David Christensen]

After rereading this I realized I forgot a few things.  Before you can
search for the VGA you'll need the traverse the PCI bus hierarchy and setup
the primary, secondary, and subordinate bus numbers in the PCI bridge
registers.  Next you'll need to scan through all of the PCI devices, looking
for the VGA controller.  Once you've programmed the I/O and memory
requirements for the PCI VGA then you'll need to check if there are any PCI
bridges that need to have an aperture opened up to allow access that memory
and I/O you just enabled.  Also, if the card has an IRQ you'll need to know
how the interrupt is routed to it and program the PCI IRQ in the PIIX4.
Also, don't forget to enable the I/O and memory addresses in the PCI command
register.

Hopefully a lot of this is already taken care of in OpenBIOS (especially the
PCI bus enumeration).

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of
David Christensen
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 10:21 PM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: RE: [OpenBIOS] success on l440gx+ ram

Are you using an ISA VGA adapter or a PCI/AGP video adapter?  The ISA
adapter would be easier, setting up real mode and make a FAR CALL to the
OPROM at address 0x000C0003.  (Make sure your stack pointers are setup.)
PCI is a lot more complicated.  Probe the VGA BARs and assign the required
I/O and memory resources.  Probe the PCI expansion ROM BAR and enable it at
a convenient memory location.  Next you'll need to access the PAM registers
in the 440GX and setup a read/write memory region starting at 0x000C0000, at
least as long as the expansion OPROM.  Copy the OPROM down into the
read/write shadow memory.  Turn off the expansion ROM, setup for real mode,
then make a FAR CALL to the OPROM just like the ISA VGA case.  When the VGA
OPROM returns check the size of the OPROM and set the PAM registers in the
440GX to read-only mode.  Now you should have video.  Easy as pie.

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of
Ronald G. Minnich
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 6:18 PM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [OpenBIOS] success on l440gx+ ram

I forgot to put a 0x17 in reg 0x76 after the mode set command. Sheesh.

dram is now working fine. I am actually in protected mode in the 32-bit
openbios startup, getting ready to gunzip linux and jump to it.

Now the trick is to figure out why I have no display :-)

All I want for now is a vga-compatible thing, very limited in scope. So I
want the absolute minimum hardware only. Any hints would be welcome.

ron

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[Chris Maresca]

Why not just output to a serial port for the momment?  That might be
easier and a very good option for the long term....

Then again, I know nothing about hardware.

Chris.

-- linux, up 52 days, because it can.

On Tue, 15 Feb 2000, David Christensen wrote:
> Are you using an ISA VGA adapter or a PCI/AGP video adapter?  The ISA
> adapter would be easier, setting up real mode and make a FAR CALL to the
> OPROM at address 0x000C0003.  (Make sure your stack pointers are setup.)
> PCI is a lot more complicated.  Probe the VGA BARs and assign the required
> I/O and memory resources.  Probe the PCI expansion ROM BAR and enable it at
> a convenient memory location.  Next you'll need to access the PAM registers
> in the 440GX and setup a read/write memory region starting at 0x000C0000, at
> least as long as the expansion OPROM.  Copy the OPROM down into the
> read/write shadow memory.  Turn off the expansion ROM, setup for real mode,
> then make a FAR CALL to the OPROM just like the ISA VGA case.  When the VGA
> OPROM returns check the size of the OPROM and set the PAM registers in the
> 440GX to read-only mode.  Now you should have video.  Easy as pie.
>
> Dave
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail]
> [mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of
> Ronald G. Minnich
> Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 6:18 PM
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: [OpenBIOS] success on l440gx+ ram
>
> I forgot to put a 0x17 in reg 0x76 after the mode set command. Sheesh.
>
> dram is now working fine. I am actually in protected mode in the 32-bit
> openbios startup, getting ready to gunzip linux and jump to it.
>
> Now the trick is to figure out why I have no display :-)
>
> All I want for now is a vga-compatible thing, very limited in scope. So I
> want the absolute minimum hardware only. Any hints would be welcome.
>
> ron
>
> To unsubscribe: send mail to [e-mail]
> with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message
>
> To unsubscribe: send mail to [e-mail]
> with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message

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[Ronald G. Minnich]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Boaz Harrosh wrote:
> rrrrrrrr
> Real mode, look for VGA BIOS, and call it. I know that some of the cards

hmm, this is not good, as I have no VGA bios at this point. It's gone :-)

ron

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[James]

> hmm, this is not good, as I have no VGA bios at this point. It's gone :-)

???  Are you sure you have no VGA BIOS?  We ought to call the VGA BIOS
before doing anything else to get the video up.
    - James

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[Ronald G. Minnich]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, James wrote:
> ???  Are you sure you have no VGA BIOS?  We ought to call the VGA BIOS
> before doing anything else to get the video up.

no, no, no. no VGA bios. I can't waste the space on that 16-bit stuff. I'm
already using up a lot of the flash on linux at this point. Also I want
proprietary, closed stuff out of there.

Using the VGA bios would be harder than it sounds ...

ron

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[Matthew Sullivan]

"Ronald G. Minnich" wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, James wrote:
> > ???  Are you sure you have no VGA BIOS?  We ought to call the VGA BIOS
> > before doing anything else to get the video up.
>
> no, no, no. no VGA bios. I can't waste the space on that 16-bit stuff. I'm
> already using up a lot of the flash on linux at this point. Also I want
> proprietary, closed stuff out of there.
>
> Using the VGA bios would be harder than it sounds ...

It shouldn't be all you should do on boot is use the init code in the VGA BIOS, this will initialise the card and allow you to use it... After that you don't need to return to the VGA unless you want to use the 16bit stuff....  You will find that the init code with just start the card and return control to you.  Remember though if it is a Colour VGA you will find it at 0C0000, however if it is a MDA card it won't be there..... Another point worth thinking about is that other types of card have various 'boot' ROMs (ie expansion ROMs) you _need_ to init these - some will take boot, some will be SCSI which will initialise the bus and detect what is attached etc...

...more later...

Matthew

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