MSI MS-7260

The MSI MS-7260 (K9N Neo), revision 1.0

This page describes how to use LinuxBIOS on the MSI MS-7260 (K9N Neo) mainboard. It is maintained by Uwe Hermann.

The mainboard

Some more information on the board is available in the mailing list archives.

So far we have verified that revision 1.0 of the mainboard has a socketed PLCC32 ROM chip (512KB).

If you have any other revision of the board, please contact us on the mailing list and let us know if it has a socketed (and PLCC-type) ROM chip.

Status

Device/functionality	Status	Comments
CPU
CPU works	OK	I'm using an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3600+, both cores work fine.
L1 cache enabled	Unknown
L2 cache enabled	Unknown
L3 cache enabled	Unknown
Multiple CPU support	Unknown
Multi-core support	Unknown
Hardware virtualization	Unknown
RAM
EDO	N/A
SDRAM	N/A
SO-DIMM	Unknown
DDR	N/A
DDR2	OK	It seems some combinations of DIMMs and RAM slots don't work. Using only one DIMM (in slot 1) works for me.
DDR3	Unknown
Dual channel support	Unknown
ECC support	Unknown
On-board Hardware
On-board IDE 3.5"	OK
On-board IDE 2.5"	N/A
On-board SATA	OK	Tested with a 40 GB SATA disk, connected to the "SATA1" connector of the board (there are four). Works with hde2:/vmlinuz initrd=/initrd.img root=/dev/sda2 in FILO (my Linux partition is /dev/sda2). Mounting the drive also works fine when you don't boot from SATA (e.g. from IDE or via etherboot).
On-board SCSI	Unknown
On-board USB	OK	Tested: USB thumb drive, USB keyboard, USB webcam, USB DVB-T adapter.
On-board VGA	N/A
On-board ethernet	OK
On-board audio	OK
On-board modem	Unknown
On-board FireWire	Unknown
On-board smartcard reader	N/A
On-board CompactFlash	N/A
On-board PCMCIA	N/A
Add-on slots/cards
ISA add-on cards	N/A
Audio/Modem-Riser (AMR/CNR) cards	Unknown
PCI add-on cards	OK	There were some problems with PCI add-on cards, but they're fixed as of svn revision 2807. Tested using a PCI VGA add-on card, X11 works fine.
Mini-PCI add-on cards	Unknown
PCI-X add-on cards	Unknown
AGP graphics cards	N/A
PCI Express x1 add-on cards	Untested
PCI Express x2 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x4 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x8 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x16 add-on cards	Untested
PCI Express x32 add-on cards	N/A
HTX add-on cards	N/A
Legacy / Super I/O
Floppy	Untested
Serial port 1 (COM1)	OK
Serial port 2 (COM2)	N/A
Parallel port	Untested
PS/2 keyboard	Untested
PS/2 mouse	Untested
Game port	Unknown
Infrared	Unknown
PC speaker	Unknown
DiskOnChip	N/A
Miscellaneous
Sensors / fan control	OK	The k8temp module loads fine, the sensors tool outputs the CPU temperature (both cores in my case) correctly.
Hardware watchdog	Unknown
SMBus	Unknown
CAN bus	N/A
CPU frequency scaling	OK	Probably won't work as long as there's no ACPI implementation for this board(?)
Other powersaving features	Unknown
ACPI	No
Reboot	Unknown
Poweroff	Unknown
Suspend	Unknown
Nonstandard LEDs	Unknown
High precision event timers (HPET)	Unknown
Random number generator (RNG)	Unknown
Wake on modem ring	Unknown
Wake on LAN	Unknown
Wake on keyboard	Unknown
Wake on mouse	Unknown
Flashrom	OK	Currently Flashrom works fine with LinuxBIOS, but it does not yet work with the proprietary BIOS.

Building LinuxBIOS

Build a LinuxBIOS payload, e.g. FILO, and copy the resulting file to /tmp/filo.elf.

$ cp payload.file /tmp/filo.elf

Checkout LinuxBIOS:

$ svn co svn://linuxbios.org/repos/trunk/LinuxBIOSv2

Build the LinuxBIOS image, containing the payload.

$ cd LinuxBIOSv2/targets
$ ./buildtarget msi/ms7260
$ cd msi/ms7260/ms7260
$ make

Write the LinuxBIOS image onto your ROM chip using flashrom:

$ flashrom -wv linuxbios.rom

WARNING: This will overwrite your current BIOS! Make sure you know what you're doing! You should have a way to revert back to the original BIOS in case anything goes wrong. It's a good idea to have a spare ROM chip which contains the original proprietary BIOS. Read the FAQ for more information. If in doubt, contact the mailing list.

Note: At the moment flashrom does not work in the MS-7260 (when booted using the original BIOS). Thus, I'm flashing the ROM chip in a different mainboard where flashrom works. However, flashrom works just fine once the MS-7260 is booted using LinuxBIOS.

TODO

• Test the devices marked as "Untested" in the above status table.
• Fix flashrom to also work when the board is booted using the proprietary BIOS.

This work is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or any later version. This work is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.