Porting Linux BIOS

Michael Robinson mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
Thu Jun 24 10:53:01 CEST 2004


I guess I'll go with the MII then and buy the BIOS piggy back so I don't 
have to desolder the existing PLCC socket.  Is CPU compatibility an 
issue?  As long as I'm using an x86 processor the asm should be 
compatible.  Are there other small differences in processor 
initialization that could make them at this point incompatible with 
LinuxBIOS?  The reason I'm asking is the MII supports two CPUs, the Eden 
600 and the C3 10000 and I wasn't sure if they had any small 
initialization differences or if the CPU selection even mattered.  If it 
does matter I'll ask Dave Ashley what the differences are between the two.

Thanks,
Michael Robinson
mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
www.fuzzymuzzle.com

Hendricks David W. wrote:

>The EPIA M2 is the best one that I know of. Dave Ashley is probably the 
>best person to ask about the EPIA platform, he's done extensive work on 
>it.
>
>On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
>
>  
>
>>David,
>>
>>Are all Via EPIA motherboards fairly well supported or just the EPIA 
>>M2?  I would assume since the EPIA M2 uses the:
>>
>>- VIA CLE266 North Bridge
>>- VIA VT8235 South Bridge
>>
>>that any of there other EPIA motherboards that use this chipset should 
>>be fairly compatible.  Am I correct in this assumption or are there 
>>other important factors that can't be easily fixed?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Michael Robinson
>>mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
>>www.fuzzymuzzle.com
>>
>>
>>Hendricks David W. wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Right now I'd have to say the best supported mainboards currently are VIA 
>>>EPIA M2 and Opteron mainboards using the AMD8111 southbridge. Asus does weird 
>>>things with their SMbus and hasn't been very cooperative in the past with 
>>>documentation, so I would not recommend that you risk money on them.
>>>
>>>Though if you have a high threshold for pain, you can try one of the newer 
>>>VIA chipsets like the KT400 and hope they're generous enough with 
>>>documentation to complete a port. Some other VIA stuff is supported, so 
>>>that might help with a new port.
>>>
>>>On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
>>>
>>> 
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Ron,
>>>>
>>>>I'm not sure what mobo I'm going to use yet, before I buy one I want to 
>>>>make sure it's at least reasonably possible to get LinuxBIOS running on 
>>>>it.  I've heard that the Asus SiS mobos won't work because of the flash 
>>>>chip.  Is this just because of the pinout or is it because of actual 
>>>>software compatibility.  I can always solder my own socket onto the 
>>>>board if necessary.  I've been looking at the Asus boards and most of 
>>>>the compatible boards on your site seem to use the SiS chipset that many 
>>>>of the Asus's do.  Can you give me any insight on the chip compatibility 
>>>>problem?  Most of the SiS chips in the Asus boards seem very close in 
>>>>model number to the ones you guys have got working.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Michael Robinson
>>>>mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
>>>>www.fuzzymuzzle.com
>>>>
>>>>ron minnich wrote:
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>it depends on the chipset type. Can you give us some lspci output and we 
>>>>>can see what is possible?
>>>>>
>>>>>ron
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>     
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>Linuxbios mailing list
>>>>Linuxbios at clustermatic.org
>>>>http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>
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