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Ronald G Minnich | 1 Nov 2002 06:34

Re: Getting kernels to boot other kernels?

On Thu, 31 Oct 2002, Kevin Hester wrote:

> I recall reading a white paper about Linuxbios and patches so that the kernel
> can boot other kernels?  Does anyone know where this code is?  I've poked
> around with no luck.

just go with kexec, it's the standard now for 2.5. There are other
packages but my inclination is to go with whatever comes with the base
kernel.

> For our application, I'd like to place a minimal kernel into the FLASH with
> the BIOS.  That kernel would either use IP or IDE to read in the 'real'
> kernel.

that's how we do it here. Works quite nicely.

> I considered chaining into Etherboot, but I need to boot from IDE drives in
> addition to Ethernet.  The Etherboot CAN_BOOT_DISK flag seems to require IDE
> read funtionality in the BIOS (a no-no with linuxbios?).

No, there is an ide driver in etherboot. But you get no filesystems.

There is a point of disagreement in this community: is linux too heavy to
be a boot loader, but is its complexity needed; is etherboot a nice and
light and fast bootloader, but is it too simplistic. That is the
disagreement described in its broadest form.

For now, here at lanl, we come down on the side of using Linux wherever
possible and we have been happy with that decision. Just yesterday I had a
problem with etherboot that was solved by using Linux as the bootloader
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James Alton | 1 Nov 2002 10:14

m758lmr+ motherboard

Hello,

I'm using the pcchips m758lmr+ motherboard. I have browsed through the
CVS code, and I see that it loads up support for the SiS630s chipset.
Also, on the board though, there is a IT8705F (from ITE) which acts as a
superio and thermal/voltage stats. (The IT8705F has some of the simple 
functionality of the board inside of it.) Is there some reason why the
ITE directory does not contain code for the IT8705F although it has
another ITE chip in there? I'm browsing the IT8705F specs right now it
seems pretty thorough about how to control it. TODO list?

- James Alton
- jalton <at> olsh.cx

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James Alton | 1 Nov 2002 10:18

m758lmr+

Whoops.

Please disregard the last message I sent about the ITE IT8705F. I just
realized the SiS950 is the same thing and it is right there in the CVS.

- James Alton
- jalton <at> olsh.cx

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James Alton | 1 Nov 2002 10:24

m758lmr+

About that last email I sent regarding the IT8705F and the SiS950,
someone should add a directory freebios/src/superio/ITE/it8705f with a
README explaining that the chipset is supported by
freebios/src/superio/sis/950  (They are an identical chip, the SiS950 is
actually a IT8705F clone.)

This would help future people from being confused.

- James Alton
- jalton <at> olsh.cx

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Yves Godin | 1 Nov 2002 13:19
Favicon

Maximum flash size with a vt8231

Hi,
	Can anyone tell me what is the maximum flash size supported by the vt8231 ?

Thnaks !

Yves

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Eric W. Biederman | 1 Nov 2002 15:03

Re: Getting kernels to boot other kernels?

Ronald G Minnich <rminnich <at> lanl.gov> writes:

> On Thu, 31 Oct 2002, Kevin Hester wrote:
> 
> > I recall reading a white paper about Linuxbios and patches so that the kernel
> > can boot other kernels?  Does anyone know where this code is?  I've poked
> > around with no luck.
> 
> just go with kexec, it's the standard now for 2.5. There are other
> packages but my inclination is to go with whatever comes with the base
> kernel.

Ron that logic unfortunately does not work.  So far Linus has just
ignored kexec.   kexec is the only one available for 2.5.x though.

> > For our application, I'd like to place a minimal kernel into the FLASH with
> > the BIOS.  That kernel would either use IP or IDE to read in the 'real'
> > kernel.
> 
> that's how we do it here. Works quite nicely.
> 
> > I considered chaining into Etherboot, but I need to boot from IDE drives in
> > addition to Ethernet.  The Etherboot CAN_BOOT_DISK flag seems to require IDE
> > read funtionality in the BIOS (a no-no with linuxbios?).
> 
> No, there is an ide driver in etherboot. But you get no filesystems.
> 
> There is a point of disagreement in this community: is linux too heavy to
> be a boot loader, but is its complexity needed; is etherboot a nice and
> light and fast bootloader, but is it too simplistic. That is the
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Andrew Ip | 1 Nov 2002 16:03
Favicon

e7500 flash


	I have a e7500 with 82801CA.  Before running the lastest flash_rom, I
run 'setpci -d 8086:2480 4e.b=1' to enable bios write.  Although flash_rom sees
the flash, it fails to erase.  Any idea?  Or is there other way to flash it?

-Andrew

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Tel:    (852) 2542 2046
Fax:    (852) 2542 2036
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Unit 202B 2/F Lai Cheong Factory Building,
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steven james | 1 Nov 2002 04:11

Re: e7500 flash

Greetings,

Which board are you using? The setpci enebles writes in the chipset, but
the 82801ca has erase/write protect pins as well that are usually wired to
a GPIO line from the superio or to a jumper.

G'day,
sjames

On Fri, 1 Nov 2002, Andrew Ip wrote:

> 
> 	I have a e7500 with 82801CA.  Before running the lastest flash_rom, I
> run 'setpci -d 8086:2480 4e.b=1' to enable bios write.  Although flash_rom sees
> the flash, it fails to erase.  Any idea?  Or is there other way to flash it?
> 
> -Andrew
> 
> 

--

-- 
-------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs
... ........ ..... ....                     230 peachtree st nw ste 701
the original linux labs                             atlanta.ga.us 30303
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                                   office 404.577.7747 fax 404.577.7743
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Kevin Hester | 1 Nov 2002 17:48

Re: Maximum flash size with a vt8231

4MB (as in bytes, not bits ;-))

If you are using an off the shelf motherboard, it is unlikely all of these 
address bits are pulled out to a socket. 

On Friday 01 November 2002 04:19, Yves Godin wrote:
> Hi,
> 	Can anyone tell me what is the maximum flash size supported by the vt8231
> ?
>
> Thnaks !
>
> Yves
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxbios mailing list
> Linuxbios <at> clustermatic.org
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
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Ronald G. Minnich | 1 Nov 2002 18:36

Re: Maximum flash size with a vt8231

On Fri, 1 Nov 2002, Kevin Hester wrote:

> 4MB (as in bytes, not bits ;-))
> 
> If you are using an off the shelf motherboard, it is unlikely all of these 
> address bits are pulled out to a socket. 

On the motherboards we have only 18 bits came out, and I had to wire in 
bit 19 myself. DoC fixed that problem, but on the PLCC there is a problem.

ron

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Gmane