Coreboot and SeaBIOS

[danfoshizzle]

Haha not a race? nobody told me that have not had a chance to play yet though, will probably be tomorrow or the next day!

[inaxeon]

I'm expecting Dan will have Win7 or 8 running pretty soon, not that it's a race or anything. ;P

Unfortunately there's a wee bit more boring stuff to get through before we're going to see Win7+ run on one of these...

[danfoshizzle]

I'm expecting Dan will have Win7 or 8 running pretty soon, not that it's a race or anything. ;P

Unfortunately there's a wee bit more boring stuff to get through before we're going to see Win7+ run on one of these...

Yeah I realise that, still great work though!

[mickchip]

Hi everyone not been on for a while
Anyway just to answer one of the questions, I have the pata port connected to a super-talent 16gb 1.3" ssd.
It obviously isn't recognised by the EFI bios, but when you have loaded windows via usb and open explorer there it is.
I have tried loading efi drivers for ide from the shell but could not get any to work
Inaxeon I wouldn't mind having a go with your alpha on the pata port.

By the way I have Win7 booting off USB on my Benq S6 as the internal SSD is only 2gb, I used nt6 fast installer

[inaxeon]

Inaxeon I wouldn't mind having a go with your alpha on the pata port.

I have PM'd you a link to it. The PATA port is actually the most reliable boot interface from SeaBIOS right now, but I'm not guaranteeing that it's going to work for you. I've tested it using a ZIF to SATA adapter I constructed, that at least, works pretty good.

I've actually got one of those SSDs on the way too (bought one off eBay). so if it doesn't work, I'll make it work.

EDIT: It just arrived and I've booted the 'operating system to own them all' from it (Nothing much else works yet ).

I suspect you won't have any problems with it

[mickchip]

Thanks for PM with the link, have flashed a spare bios chip and stuck msdos on the pata and hey presto I have a c:\> prompt.
I've noticed that if you put an XP disc in the usb cd drive you get the (setup is inspecting your computer) then usb seems to turn off.
Similar thing seems to happen with netbook remix cd. Also tried gparted cd which went the furthest and then errored out.
This is really great, but not sure I can be much help the last programming I did was on 6502 & Z80 processors.

[inaxeon]

This is really great, but not sure I can be much help the last programming I did was on 6502 & Z80 processors.

It's a shame you didn't program the XT/8086 - 16-bit programming skills have been invaluable on this project

[danfoshizzle]

Tried playing with this today, but am having trouble flashing the new bios, what steps are you guys taking to get the new bios flashed?

[inaxeon]

I'm using a gang programmer so I'm not much help. mickchip - care to chip in? Did you use the built in OS?

This page basically describes the process I would have thought: http://www.jogglerwiki.com/wiki/Boot_Logo

Code: Select all

$ modprobe fh
$ dd if=/mnt/coreboot.rom of=/dev/fh count=1 bs=1024k

I am literally just guessing here. I should probably fire up the built in OS and try this at some point.

[danfoshizzle]

Cheers will give it a try in a bit! (late night tonight weather is too warm for sleep lol)

[pete]

inaxeon,

Can I give your base a try here?

[BuZz]

http://www.jogglerwiki.com/wiki/Recover ... ricked_EFI

count=1 bs=1024k is needed to write it all at once in one go. Don't think it worked without that when I tried.

[mickchip]

Yes thats how I did it, loaded the o2 os put coreboot.rom on a stick and plugged in.
Then using windows on my pc, opened a command prompt and typed telnet 192.168.1.9 (my jogglers address), used letmein for login

$ modprobe fh
$ dd if=/mnt/coreboot.rom of=/dev/fh count=1 bs=1024k

I have a hole cut in the back of my test joggler, which makes it easy to hot swap bios chips.

[lamb.chop]

What a fantatsic mix of old & new, loving this, keep up the excellent work!

[inaxeon]

I have a hole cut in the back of my test joggler, which makes it easy to hot swap bios chips.

That is a great idea! Once I get this ACPI stuff sorted, I'm thinking I might write one of those "Press F7 to update the BIOS" thingys going forward, rather than trying to emulate the interrupt calls DOS flashing utils make.

[Mevi]

The bricked efi was going to be the method I used, so good to know that works. Going to the seaside today with the kids, so I'll get it flashed tonight if all goes to plan.

Mick, was it you that had tried all those BIOS from other poulsbo machines?

[inaxeon]

The bricked efi was going to be the method I used, so good to know that works. Going to the seaside today with the kids, so I'll get it flashed tonight if all goes to plan.

Definitely works. I also just hacked a large hole in the back of one of my Jogglers, It's a little tricky to get the chip in and out when fully assembled though. Also nice to know, if you put the chip in backwards, it doesn't blow it up

[mickchip]

To insert and remove the bios ic's I use a pencil with a bit of bluetack on the flat end, works great.
Oh and yes it was me that tried all those bios's 17 in all, so I'm quite used to changing chips.

[pete]

Is there a source out there for the hot swap chips (bios ICs)?

And curious if there is a source for some "motherboards" parts cache?

This all reminds me of a forum I used to frequent a few years back.

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/Ult ... raBoard.pl

[inaxeon]

Is there a source out there for the hot swap chips (bios ICs)?

If in the UK, This guy (Brian) is a cornucopia of everything BIOS related: http://bios-repair.co.uk/

The FWH supplied with the Joggler (SST 49LF008A) is pretty commonly available from the usuals, Farnell, Digikey, Mouser

Personally I don't use the SST 49LF008A because it only supports 'slow program' mode. A better alternative is ST M50FW080 which has +VPP 'fast program' mode but it's a long discontinued part, so getting them would require using the IC trading platforms i.e. SeekIC. I might buy some more if I break my current ones.