Questions about LinuxBIOS

David Hendricks sc at flagen.com
Thu Nov 13 03:00:01 CET 2003


On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:12:13 +1000
Adam Nielsen <a.nielsen at optushome.com.au> wrote:
> Since none of the boards have on-board networking, I'd really like to use 
> LinuxBIOS to enable them to boot Linux over the network with a standard PCI 
> network card - it seems possible, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere that 
> gives a definite 'yes' to this with standard PC hardware.

Yes. A variety of NICs can be used with Etherboot as your payload. Get etherboot, go into the src directory, make allelfs, and use the appropriate elf or bzipped elf (zelf) as your LinuxBIOS payload.

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:12:13 +1000
Adam Nielsen <a.nielsen at optushome.com.au> wrote:
> Once LinuxBIOS is compiled and ready to go, Is it possible to flash it into 
> the board's existing BIOS?  (Without any hardware modifications, ZIF sockets, 
> etc.)

Yes, but you'll lose your original BIOS. And since nothing is quite foolproof, it would be unwise to risk permanently losing your original BIOS. Unless you have another mainboard with a compatible ROM socket that you can use to recover your old BIOS in case LinuxBIOS fails, I would highly recommend that you get a BIOS Savior or a backup flash part before proceding.

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:12:13 +1000
Adam Nielsen <a.nielsen at optushome.com.au> wrote:
> One of the motherboards has a recovery jumper which can be used to reflash the 
> BIOS if there was a problem during a flash operation, do you think this could 
> be used as a backup option in case something goes wrong with LinuxBIOS?  
> (yes, I'm aware of all the dangers etc., but the boards only cost me $1 each 
> so I'm not too worried if I render them unusable, it'll just be a bit of a 
> waste...)

No, the recovery jumper will program some factory presets into a factory BIOS. It does not act as a recovery BIOS. 

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:12:13 +1000
Adam Nielsen <a.nielsen at optushome.com.au> wrote:
> The reason I ask is that the flash chip on one of the boards is soldered on 
> and physically very small.

Oh, then disregard what I said about getting a backup. Unless you switch projects and get a board with a removable ROM, of course :)

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:12:13 +1000
Adam Nielsen <a.nielsen at optushome.com.au> wrote:
> I did get hold of a BIOS upgrade for it though, 
> and the BIOS code itself appears to be supplied as four 64K files - is this 
> large enough?

LinuxBIOS will usually fit in a quarter meg ROM. 

Can you provide some more details about this specific board? Knowing the north/south bridge chipset would be most helpful in case Ron has easy answers for you.



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