[LinuxBIOS] Latest on via epia-m for LinuxBIOS v2?

Peter Stuge peter at stuge.se
Tue Aug 28 02:22:41 CEST 2007


On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 11:34:21PM +0100, Matthew Bloch wrote:
> Okay so now I'll try to flash the new one:
> 
> mnas:~/LinuxBIOSv2/targets/via/epia-m/epia-m# flashrom linuxbios.rom

Add -w to actually write.

We should add a message to flashrom in case no action option is
specified. (-v, -r or -w)


On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 07:31:12PM -0500, Corey Osgood wrote:
> > Do you have a working Config.lb I could look at?
> 
> Sorry, no. It was for a pcchips board with the same chipset that I
> never got going. I don't think I have the code any more.

I'm afraid I've lost my working configs too.


> > I cut & pasted this program:
> >   http://linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2004-March/007257.html
> 
> Good find! This should get into flashrom.

flashrom does support the board, just needs -w. :)


On Tue, Aug 28, 2007 at 01:11:36AM +0100, Matthew Bloch wrote:
> I like the coloured handles.  Well that does leave only one option
> for recovery which is the spare board & hot plug.

You can hot swap flash chips on your one EPIA-M board too - you don't
really need a second board, just more flash chips, as long as you
have a backup of the factory BIOS..


> Went ahead and flashed

..well, ok. :)


> wiki page, replaced my 256MB stick with 512MB and after a few
> seconds of hard drive clicking it came up on the network!  Hooray!
> So from a cold boot, the board is now available on the network in
> about 30s - lame of course, I need to dig out a flash drive to fix
> that :)  I'm sure there's room for improvement

Yep, I've gotten a 600MHz EPIA-MII to 10-or-so seconds with a fairly
fat kernel. (A bunch of extra drivers that need time to init.)


> but I should at least dig out a serial cable before I try to
> optimise this too much more.

Yes, definately. And if you're going to profile the boot by
timestamping serial output - make sure you don't use a buffering
terminal emulator such as minicom.

Instead I suggest xc or picocom.


//Peter




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