some questions about nForce and LinuxBIOS

[Kory Herzinger]

I am working on my senior project in college, and have run into a slight issue with how long it takes for my BIOS to POST. I would like LinuxBIOS to boot my system into a minimal Linux kernel in as little amount of time as necessary, and then have that kernel boot into a Linux system I've already built and configured on the hard drive. From doing some research on your project I've found that this goes by the catchy name of LOBOS :-) From the kernel that the LinuxBIOS will boot, I don't need network, sound, or video support. I'd like to leave it up to the existing Linux installation on my hard drive to bring up these devices for me. Here's the specs on the board I am using:

Northbridge: NForce2 Crush 18G IGP chipset
Southbridge: MCP chipset / High-speed interface to the MCP
OnBoard GFX: NVidia GeForce4 MX

The board has support for TV composite signal-out which I will be using once the system is up and running, but since nVidia doesn't release specs or source for their hardware, I obviously can't use it during the BIOS phase. So I guess the real questions are:

1) Is it possible to build a LinuxBIOS that will run on my system?
2) If so, since the support for network, sound, and audio devices will not be present in the BIOS, can I still bring them up in my Linux kernel using the proprietary drivers distributed by nVidia?
3) If the above two scenarios are possible, could I throw my linux system currently on the hard drive into a NVRAM device and boot it from there to further reduce boot time?

I appreciate your help with this. If you are interested in my senior project, there is information on my project website: www.novagameconsole.com

Anything you can offer is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

			
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