Linuxbios Project

LinuxBios Project

Last Edited on 2007.05.28

Roger
roger<at>eskimo.com

2007.05.28 - DFI P2XBL now boots past Filo now! However, this board seems to have some issues with RAM timing compared to the Tyan 440BX boards (S1832/S1846). (I need to comment out init_timer() function within src/boot/hardwaremain.c for DFI P2BXL.) As of today, the Tyan S1846 (as well as my S1832) should now boot into Filo. I have yet to build a ROM image for my S1832 board, but will soon build one. DFI P2BXL rom images are built and available below.

2007.05.13 - DFI P2XBL now boots copying over the tyan/s1846/auto.c into asus/p2b/auto.c -- but is finicky about DRAM Banks used as well as SDRAM. Using SPD values within i440bx/raminit.c needs work.

2007.04.29 - Tyan S1832DL now boots all the way to elfboot. (Fails at trying to find payload filo.elf :-/ Possibly the last stumbling block.)

2007.04.27 - Easy success with Tyan S1832DL. (Booting up until PCI init using S1846 profile.)

2007.01.29 - Successfully loaded a Linuxbios image using Filo for the payloader under the Qemu emulator. (Seeing extremely quick less then 2 second load times with Linuxbios.)

Personal Goals

Provide corrections for Qemu usage so users will have a much easier time trying-out Linuxbios
Install Linuxbios on my 440BX (Intel Corporation 82371AB) Motherboard
Maybe my Dell Inspiron 8100 Laptop (PLCC Flash part)?
Provide more documentation on my experience.

Past Hinderances

Difficult to understand due to a lack of documentation. (Recently, there have been a few really good articles published explaining Linuxbios boot process & structure. Also, plans for a "kbuild" structure for building LinuxBios -- will add a "make menuconfig" or "make xconfig" which is commonly seen with the Linux kernel configuration process.)
Code requires several modules to be compiled seperately without any errors. (No simple ./configure && make install.)
Usually requires some level of knowledge of C and ASM.
Bandaids. For firstaid after you acquire serious third degree burns on your finger tips by putting your flash parts in backwards. Ouchy. :-/ (How do I know this??)

My Hardware

M-System's DiskOnChip Millennium Modules (MD2802) (Not being used)
Atmel AT29C020 Flash Modules
32 Pin Ziff Sockets
Two Bios Savior RD1-2M
PCI Siliconkit Bios Postcard (with remote display)
Two DB9 Serial Cables with a Null Adapter (For grabbing ttyS0 console output with ckermit)
Wirewraps & Hook-up wire (for creating an extension to ease the removal of my flash parts)
Three 440BX Motherboards (Tyan S1832DL SMP 2x750P3 1GB box, and two others listed below)

Current Status

440BX is still no working with LinuxBiox V2 and in the process of porting to the Tyan S1846 profile. (Uwe is aggresively tackling this along with several other LinuxBIOS developers within the past weeks. Uwe has added several patches for Tyan 1846 motherboard support and notes the 440BX northbridge is still not functioning as of April 3, 2007.) As of April 29,2007 - We are able to boot up until elfboot. This is almost a completely bootable system. Seems raminint.c needs help -- see Reference Seciton below - "How to Decipher raminit.c".
I'm currently monitoring activity on the LinuxBios mailing list for "440" activity. Best I can do with my free time. :-)
BIG FAT WARNING! Trying my posted linuxbios.rom's are at your risk! Currently, you won't get any output unless you have a serial console setup using a DB9 cable and/or a bios postcard. I will reduce this warning to a "not-as-fat warning" once I'm able to be some sort of media allowing a reflash with the original bios without any extra ordinary backup processes.

ROM Builds

Tyan S1832DL - Can build using the Tyan S1846 LinuxBIOSv2 profile or use one of my prebuilt roms. To flash, simply use util/flashrom from within the SVN LinuxBIOSv2 tree. (Posting a ROM configured to boot all the way up until elfboot. Haven't test it yet though. Spent all day testing, I forgot to post verified one. Also posting a session.log files too.)
DFI P2XBL - Status is similar to the above tyan/S1846 profile using the tyans/s1846/auto.c. Fill only DIMM BANK0 with SDRAM. This board seems tempermental with also the type of SDRAM. I'm using quality PC133 in my S1832DL (above) in all banks without detection problems. Trying to use the asus/p2b/auto.c seems to always hang. I've tried removing and adding lines using the tyan/s1846/auto.c as a guide, but I think this *always hang no matter what* is being caused by a "#include" ordering within the asus/p2b/auto.c file. The *real* base for all these problems is supposedly not using the SPD values of the DRAM modules within i440bx/raminit.c. According to my research, this gets down to researching the Intel i440bx northbridge specifications pdf file (easily found on the web) and making sure the Northbridge is configured accordinly.
Procomp B680/B683 - This is a spare 440BX board I'm not currently using with the W83977TF-AW SuperIO. This should just work with the LinuxBIOSv2 Tyan S1846 target as it. (No Prebuilt ROM images yet.)
QEMU - As I now have LinuxBios running, I think I need to compile in a vgabios which should resolve the hang from allowing Qemu to load further. (See the screenshots below). I'm guessing, one could compile in the default Qemu vgabios or, what I'm thinking, I could grab my own vgabios and compile it into your LinuxBios (See References section concerng LinuxBIOS VGA Support.). (I have on prebuilt ROM, but it's really useless unless you manually patch QEMU.) From word on the LinuxBIOS mailing list, LinuxBIOSv3 will have Qemu support.

References

Screenshots and Log File

Here's screenshots of the boot process trying to boot an El Torito bootable LiveCD from my CD-ROM drives using LinuxBios with QEMU. I've also included a text log file of the process.

I think the next step for getting Qemu running with LinuxBios is to compile in the VGA bios used by Qemu. I still need to further troubleshoot my boot method to see if this is the next step. (More log files are provided individual project folders within the ROM Builds section.)

LinuxbiosLog.txt