[coreboot] lifebook b-2175 working with coreboot?

[Uwe Hermann]

Hi,

On Sun, Apr 06, 2008 at 06:35:26PM +0200, Countzero786 at gmx.de wrote:
> I'd like to know if there's a chance I can get coreboot to run on an old Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook B-2175 I own.
> As it uses the Intel 440mx chipset, here are links to the (complete I think?) official documentation:
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/designex/273504.htm
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/specupdt/245051.htm
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/440MX-66DSPub.htm
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/embedded/docs/440mx.htm

Yep, documentation is available and it _could_ be done (chipset is very
similar to 440BX and 82371EB), but...

The main problem will be that in order to do this, you'll have to have a
socketed BIOS chip (i.e. one which is not soldered onto the mainboard,
but rather in a socket, so it can be removed/replaced without soldering).

Have you opened and checked if that's the case on this laptop? I had a
very similar device and there the flash ROM was soldered, and _very_ hard
to access physically.

(don't attempt to open your laptop unless you know what you're doing)


> ./flashrom
> --------------------
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> No coreboot table found.
> Found chipset "Intel 440MX", enabling flash write... OK.
> MBM29F400TC found at physical address 0xfff80000.
> Flash part is MBM29F400TC (512 KB).
> No operations were specified.

Looks, ok, same chip as on my laptop. Detecting and reading the chip
worked for me, but I didn't attempt writing (as I have no means of
recovery in case it fails).

You shouldn't try it either, you won't be able to reflash another BIOS
easily (boot floppy disks won't help at all, btw).


> ./superiotool -d
> --------------------
> superiotool r3194
> Found SMSC FDC37N769 (id=0x28, rev=0x01) at 0x3f0
> Register dump:
> idx 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07  08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17  18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f  20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27  28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f
> val 20 90 00 f4 00 00 ff 00  00 00 40 00 0e 28 01 00  00 00 00 00 02 00 00 03  00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00
> def 28 9c 88 70 00 00 ff 00  00 00 00 00 02 28 NA 00  00 80 RR RR NA NA NA 03  RR RR RR RR RR RR 80 00  3c RR RR 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 RR 00 00 03 00 00

Not a problem, the Super I/O support is doable.


Uwe.
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