[coreboot] Asus M2V-MX problems

[Rudolf Marek]

> I also got that error while trying to program the latest factory BIOS file using
> flashrom; flashrom was able to erase and program the new chip with no problems.
> My original problem of creating a proper image for this board still remains.
> Superiotool found ITE IT8716F (id=0x8716, rev=0x1) at 0x2e. Any help would be
> appreciated.

Hi sorry for delay. Please run it with -d please.

Thanks
Rudolf



>
> On 1/31/2012 4:36 PM, Rudolf Marek wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>> I was hoping to use the board above to experiment with Coreboot. The board has
>>> the same northbridge as the Asus M2V-MX SE (VIA K8M890) and the same southbridge
>>> as the Asus M2V (VIA 8237A). Both of those chipsets are fully supported.
>>> Thinking that maybe I can at least get the board to boot ASAP, I built Coreboot
>>> for the Asus M2V board to get the southbridge functionality. I also didn't use
>>> the M2V-MX SE profile because it has the SPI chip, while the M2V-MX board has a
>>> PLCC-32 chip.
>>
>> OK
>>
>>
>>> The board booted fine, except I have no video, serial port or ability to write
>>> to the BIOS chip.
>>
>> No video -> you need to include the extracted VGA bios from original BIOS. No
>> serial port looks like wrong superio setup. No ability to write to the chip
>> sounds interesting ? What do you mean by that. Flashrom cannot no-long
>> overwrite the chip content? Maybe just some GPIO needs to be raised. Do you
>> have more PLCC chips or other boards so you can hotswap them?
>>
>>> I know the board booted fine because I was able to SSH into
>>> the box using a PCI network card. Considering that both the M2V and M2V-MX have
>>> the same southbridge chip, I don't understand why there was not serial port or
>>> write access to the BIOS chip. Can someone shed some light on that for me,
>>> please.
>>
>> Yep see above. I would suggest to run the superiotool (see utils dir) and
>> check what kind of superio is really there. Or even better provide
>> ./superiotool -d dump best with original bios running if possible.
>>
>> Then you just need to change few lines and you should get serial back. I can
>> even help with that but we need to know not only the chip there but also how
>> the chip is configured.
>>
>> For the VGA you need to use bios_extract and extract the VGA bios from orig
>> bios image and tell coreboot via menu to include that (you need just pci ID
>> lspci -n will tell)
>>
>>> My other problem is I would like to create a build profile for the M2V-MX using
>>> the code from the M2V for the southbridge and the code from the M2V-MX SE for
>>> the northbridge. Is that a good idea or would I have to do some other things?
>>> I learned C programming in 1993 and used it only until 1998; I am a little
>>> rusty.
>>
>> Well C is simple you will got it back soon.
>>
>>> My ability to make sense of low-level chipset stuff is also very
>>> narrow.
>>
>> If you ask good questions you will get answers.
>>
>>> However, I am a fast learner and I am desperate to get something
>>> accomplished for a homebrew thin client project that I have spent way too much
>>> time working on.
>>>
>>> My goal is to extend the life of boards that people send in for recycling by
>>> turning them into more reliable diskless information terminals.
>>
>> A nice coreboot use!
>>
>> Thanks
>> Rudolf
>