Easy projects: Difference between revisions

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If you're a coreboot or flashrom newbie, this page is for you.
If you're a coreboot or flashrom newbie, this page is for you.


=[[flashrom]]=
== coreboot ==
A tool to read/write coreboot/BIOS images from/to flash chips.


==Add timing info to flash chip definitions==
Go through the list of flash chips in flashchips.c inside the flashrom source. For each chip (except SPI chips), read through the data sheets and add a comment to the flash chip definition which contains the timing information in microseconds(!) for the probe sequence.


This will make probing a lot more reliable.
=== AMD 740G information gathering ===


Every annotated chip helps.
(This project description is not finished yet)


==Add the bus type to flash chip definitions==
If you have a board with AMD 740G chipset, please run (as root)
Go through the list of flash chips in flashchips.c inside the flashrom source. Look for chip definitions which have .bustype = CHIP_BUSTYPE_NONSPI and look at their data sheets. Read the data sheets and try to figure out the flash bus they use (Parallel/LPC/FWH/SPI). Change the bustype field to CHIP_BUSTYPE_PARALLEL etc. and post a patch to the list.


This will make probing faster and more reliable.
$ '''flashrom -V'''
$ '''lspci -nnvvvxxxx'''
$ '''superiotool -deV'''
$ '''dmidecode'''


Even a single updated chip helps.
and mail the output to the [[Mailinglist|coreboot mailing list]] together with the exact model number/name of your board.


[[Flashrom#Communication_bus_protocol]] has a writeup on how to figure out the bus type.
This helps us evaluate which boards are good targets for coreboot.


==Add new flash chip definitions==
Here are some boards:
We have a few dozen chip IDs listed in flash.h, but not in flashchips.c. Find them, dig up the data sheets and add chip definitions for them to flashchips.c. You can use similar flash chips as a guideline.


This will reduce the number of undetected chips.
* http://www.czechcomputer.cz/cat_tree.jsp?bpath=Z%C3%A1kladn%C3%AD+desky\Socket+AM2%2B\AMD+740G


Every added chip broadens flashrom support.
=== Formatting and whitespace cleanup ===


==Test flashrom==
We try to maintain the code in the [[Development_Guidelines#Coding_Style Linux style]], but occasionally white-space and other formatting issues find their way into the project. Formatting and white-space changes should be done in small groups as a separate patch from code changes. Be careful running indent/lindent. The results are not always the right thing to do and require review.
If you have a desktop (no laptops/notebooks/netbooks), please run
flashrom
and check if it finds your flash chip. If it does and any of the operations are listed as unsupported, we'd like to hear about it. If your flash chip is not found, we'd like to hear about it as well.


In both cases, please send the output of
Ideally a check/test should be integrated into the build system pointing out these issues already when committing or testing the commit. Such tests probably already exist in other projects and just need to be copied.
flashrom -V
to the coreboot mailing list (preferred) or to flashrom@coreboot.org


=coreboot=
== Payloads ==
I'll skip explaining what coreboot is. The whole wiki is about this topic and I can't summarize it in one sentence.


==coreboot v2==
coreboot can use a number of different [[Payloads|payloads]].
The workhorse version of coreboot. Lots of supported boards, but difficult to work with.


TODO: Add easy tasks here.
=== Add/test new supported payloads ===


==coreboot v3==
* Test syslinux (probably requires [[SeaBIOS]] in addition, needs to be checked).
The next generation version of coreboot. Few supported boards, still in the design testing phase, easy to work with.
* Port [[GPXE]] to "native" coreboot (it works fine together with [[SeaBIOS]] though).


TODO: Add easy tasks here.
== flashrom ==
 
The [http://www.flashrom.org flashrom] tool can read/write coreboot/BIOS images from/to flash chips.
 
* See [http://flashrom.org/Easy_projects flashrom's Easy Projects] list for details.
 
== Other ==
 
* Add [http://tracker.coreboot.org/trac/coreboot/ticket/95 support for using coreboot in VirtualBox].

Revision as of 21:25, 15 April 2013

You probably came here trying to find a small (minutes to hours) and easy task where you can get your hands dirty and get results immediately.

If you're a coreboot or flashrom newbie, this page is for you.

coreboot

AMD 740G information gathering

(This project description is not finished yet)

If you have a board with AMD 740G chipset, please run (as root)

$ flashrom -V
$ lspci -nnvvvxxxx
$ superiotool -deV
$ dmidecode

and mail the output to the coreboot mailing list together with the exact model number/name of your board.

This helps us evaluate which boards are good targets for coreboot.

Here are some boards:

Formatting and whitespace cleanup

We try to maintain the code in the Development_Guidelines#Coding_Style Linux style, but occasionally white-space and other formatting issues find their way into the project. Formatting and white-space changes should be done in small groups as a separate patch from code changes. Be careful running indent/lindent. The results are not always the right thing to do and require review.

Ideally a check/test should be integrated into the build system pointing out these issues already when committing or testing the commit. Such tests probably already exist in other projects and just need to be copied.

Payloads

coreboot can use a number of different payloads.

Add/test new supported payloads

  • Test syslinux (probably requires SeaBIOS in addition, needs to be checked).
  • Port GPXE to "native" coreboot (it works fine together with SeaBIOS though).

flashrom

The flashrom tool can read/write coreboot/BIOS images from/to flash chips.

Other