[coreboot] Upstream coreboot/SeaBIOS on google/ninja -- no emmc, video

Mon May 16 17:45:39 CEST 2016

Hello Matt,

I would like to thank you for the reply. I learned something out of it,
indeed. So far, I need to think more on your answers, since immediately I
do not have any thoughts (I am blank). Old dummy cat... Need some time. :-)

But I can answer on the last one comment... This one:

> I'm not quite sure what you're saying here.  If you mean that I did not
have coreboot perform the video init, then
> I did try it both ways.  On all the other boxes (ie, no built-in display)
I've upstreamed, it's not been necessary to
> have coreboot run the vbios, only SeaBIOS.

Here is what you perfectly explained, and I did not know (at least, I know
now): I suggested to you to use vBIOS with Coreboot, and make vBIOS init
there, but you denied my thoughts, saying that you just need to integrate
vBIOS into SeaBIOS (excuse me for my ignorance, I did not know that).

In other words, SeaBIOS is one, enough to do vBIOS init, so vBIOS INT 0x15
and VBT will be passed accordingly to Linux. Am I right in my thoughts?

Why it does not work, namely:

> For the video output, the same vgabios file is being used as stock CrOS,
and same SeaBIOS payload.  The i915
> kernel driver reports that no displays are connected, and there are some
errors in the drm module just prior.  I
> tested with a few different flavors of linux as well as Windows 10, to be
certain it wasn't driver-related.

Again... I need to think about this. I will come to you back!

Thank you,
Zoran

On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 4:17 PM, Matt DeVillier <matt.devillier at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Zoran,
>
> appreciate the offer, and I'll try to clarify things:
>
> On 5/16/2016 5:07 AM, Zoran Stojsavljevic wrote:
>
>> Hello Matt,
>>
>> I'll try to help you... Please, do understand that I did not get well
>> what really you are trying to do. Let us do one step at the time.
>>
> I'm trying to get the board google/ninja (a Baytrail-based Chromebox)
> working with upstream coreboot.  Original google source here:
>
> https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/coreboot/+/firmware-ninja-5216.383.B
> I've already upstreamed several other google boards so I'm familiar with
> the process :)
>
>>
>> This step: 2) video output works properly for SeaBIOS and grub/syslinux,
>> but output is disabled once the OS / kernel driver loads.
>> _______
>>
>> What I am getting from this email is the following (correct me if I am
>> wrong): BYT-FSP -> Coreboot -> (payload) SeaBIOS -> grub (2.0???) -> Linux
>> kernel 3/4.x.y (?).
>>
> I'm not using FSP, using soc/intel/baytrail (not fsp_baytrail) since the
> board was not originally set up to do so, and would require a bit of
> reworking (without any obvious benefit).  So coreboot->SeaBIOS (running
> vbios)->grub/syslinux->linux kernel 3/4.x
>
>>
>> Now. If you use as payload SeaBIOS, my best understanding is that you'll
>> use CSM (Compatibility Support Mode). So, in other words, you'll use (if
>> you will?) in Coreboot vBIOS (not GOP driver). Now, furthermore, you MUST
>> use vBIOS, since you are using SeaBIOS. And Linux will use vBIOS (not GOP
>> driver), since you'll pass INT 0x15 mechanisms for Linux GFX (using
>> mandatory vBIOS passed from Coreboot), enforced from SeaBIOS - CSM?!
>>
> CSM mode is only needed when Tianocore is the primary payload, since
> SeaBIOS is primary it is simply set up as a coreboot payload.  I plan to
> use Tiancore + SeaBIOS/CSM eventually, but wanted SeaBIOS alone working
> first (since that's all my firmware releases to date have been).  coreboot
> isn't running the vbios, just SeaBIOS (though I tried it both ways, with
> coreboot running the vbios first; there was no change).
>
>>
>> The question here is the following: why, for the change, you do not use
>> as payload TianoCore? This one is UEFI compatible, and very well suits UEFI
>> compliant Linux? In other words, you will use Linux as UEFI
>> compliant/compatible OS. Compliant to Tiano Core, which brings to you UEFI
>> features (initialized by default with Linux). Simply and plain... And see
>> what will happen?
>>
> I actually did try Tianocore as the primary payload and had the exact same
> issues, so I went back to SeaBIOS since I know that works in conjunction
> with the factory firmware.
>
>>
>> Final line: I suspect, you did not built-in in Coreboot vBIOS package and
>> vBIOS init (just serial output), which is, using SeaBIOS payload (CSM
>> mechanism), I guess, mandatory (for Linux to overtake/inherit legacy, to
>> work with GFX).
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Zoran
>>
> I'm not quite sure what you're saying here.  If you mean that I did not
> have coreboot perform the video init, then I did try it both ways.  On all
> the other boxes (ie, no built-in display) I've upstreamed, it's not been
> necessary to have coreboot run the vbios, only SeaBIOS.
>
> thanks,
> Matt
>
>>
>> On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 12:19 AM, Matt DeVillier <
>> matt.devillier at gmail.com <mailto:matt.devillier at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Greetings all!  Currently I'm working on getting upstream coreboot
>>     + SeaBIOS working on a Baytrail-based ChromeOS device (NINJA /
>>     AOpen Chromebox commerical).  After resolving some config issues
>>     which prevented the board from booting, I'm left with two issues
>>     on which I'm stuck:
>>
>>     1) the internal emmc / sdhci controller fails to initialize, and
>>     is unavailable for boot or OS installation
>>     2) video output works properly for SeaBIOS and grub/syslinux, but
>>     output is disabled once the OS / kernel driver loads
>>
>>     For the emmc, cbmem shows that the sdhci controller is timing out
>>     after setting the initial frequency, somewhere after line 410 of
>>     seabios/src/hw/sdcard.c.  Since the same exact SeaBIOS payload
>>     works properly with the stock ChromeOS firmware (in both the
>>     RW_LEGACY and BOOT_STUB slots), I suspect that the issue is with
>>     coreboot, but the SoC init is pretty much identical between
>>     upstream and NINJA's CrOS branch (save for a few base addresses
>>     and offset calculations), so not sure where to start looking.
>>  I've also tried putting the sdhci controller back into PCI mode
>>     (vs ACPI) which had no effect.
>>
>>     For the video output, the same vgabios file is being used as stock
>>     CrOS, and same SeaBIOS payload.  The i915 kernel driver reports
>>     that no displays are connected, and there are some errors in the
>>     drm module just prior.  I tested with a few different flavors of
>>     linux as well as Windows 10, to be certain it wasn't driver-related.
>>
>>     Attached are the cbmem and kernel logs from both working (stock
>>     CroS firmware + upstream SeaBIOS/BOOT_STUB) and non-working
>>     (upstream coreboot+SeaBIOS) cases.
>>
>>     As the board hasn't been officially upstreamed yet (something I
>>     will do once these issues are resolved), source can be found in my
>>     github repo here (it's just 3 commits on top of the current master
>>     branch): https://github.com/MattDevo/coreboot/tree/ninja_upstream
>>
>>     Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction here :)
>>
>>     cheers,
>>     Matt
>>
>>     --
>>     coreboot mailing list: coreboot at coreboot.org
>>     <mailto:coreboot at coreboot.org>
>>     https://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
>>
>>
>>
>
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