VIA EPIA-MII - Revision history

Stepan at 07:02, 7 April 2009

2009-04-07T07:02:46Z

Mjt: /* Boot from onboard Compact Flash */

2009-04-06T17:37:54Z

‎Boot from onboard Compact Flash

Mjt: /* Boot from onboard Compact Flash */

2009-04-06T17:37:05Z

‎Boot from onboard Compact Flash

Mjt: /* Boot from onboard Compact Flash */

2009-04-06T17:28:13Z

‎Boot from onboard Compact Flash

Mjt: /* Boot from Onboard Compact Flash (MII only) */

2009-04-06T17:08:42Z

‎Boot from Onboard Compact Flash (MII only)

Mjt: /* Boot from Onboard Compact Flash (MII only) */

2009-04-06T17:06:46Z

‎Boot from Onboard Compact Flash (MII only)

Hailfinger: /* Step 4 */ Point people to the current FILO location

2009-04-02T22:06:12Z

‎Step 4: Point people to the current FILO location

Uwe: VIA EPIA-MII Build Tutorial moved to VIA EPIA-MII

2008-11-16T15:04:46Z

VIA EPIA-MII Build Tutorial moved to VIA EPIA-MII

Bari at 06:07, 30 May 2008

2008-05-30T06:07:27Z

Show changes

Bari: /* Status */

2008-05-30T05:48:24Z

‎Status

Show changes

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 |IDE_CF_status = N/A
 |IDE_CF_comments =
-|IDE_25_status =
+|IDE_25_status = N/A
 |CDROM_DVD_status = OK
 |CDROM_DVD_comments =
@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 |Onboard_ethernet_status = OK
 |Onboard_audio_status = ?
-|Onboard_modem_status = ?
+|Onboard_modem_status = N/A
 |Onboard_firewire_status = N/A
 |Smartcard_status = N/A
 |Onboard_CF_status = OK
 |Onboard_PCMCIA_status = OK
 |ISA_cards_status = N/A
@@ Line 73: / Line 74: @@
 |IR_status = Not tested
 |Speaker_status = OK
-|DiskOnChip_status = NA
+|DiskOnChip_status = N/A
 |Sensors_status = Not tested

@@ Line 618: / Line 618: @@
 your needs:
-'''XXX: Can anyone confirm this working?'''
+'''XXX: Can anyone confirm the IDE method working?'''
 * Standard IDE disk support. Just let the standard IDE detection code in Linux pick up the CF as a standard device. This has the advantage of being quick and easy to get going. However if you then start up pcmcia utils to deal with the pcmcia slot, you will run into difficulties as the pcmcia-utils package resets the CF slot. There might be options you can use to instruct pcmcia-utils to ignore the CF slot entirely, but I haven't found them yet.

@@ Line 621: / Line 621: @@
 * Standard IDE disk support. Just let the standard IDE detection code in Linux pick up the CF as a standard device. This has the advantage of being quick and easy to get going. However if you then start up pcmcia utils to deal with the pcmcia slot, you will run into difficulties as the pcmcia-utils package resets the CF slot. There might be options you can use to instruct pcmcia-utils to ignore the CF slot entirely, but I haven't found them yet.
-* PCMCIA-UTILS support. Firstly you have to tell the standard IDE detection code NOT to look for the third IDE controller, do so with a linux command line option of 'ide2=noprobe'. Next you need to set up an initrd. The pcmcia-utils HOWTO describes how to do this with 'pcinitrd'. In addition you have to add the program 'resetcf' from freebios2/util directory to the initrd, and make sure it is called just before the socket driver is loaded in the linuxrc file. This step is necessary because the yenta socket driver does not correctly clear down the state of the CF socket as left by freebios2 (detail - yenta socket driver never clears the io offset used by freebios2 to make the CF look like /dev/hde - I guess it normally relies on the power on default being zero!!!). My linux command line in filo looks like:
+* PCMCIA-UTILS support.
   AUTOBOOT_FILE = "hde:/vmlinuz initrd=hde:/initrd.gz root=/dev/hde console=tty0 ide2=noprobe"
 == Legacy VGA BIOS ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:28, 6 April 2009
Line 618:		Line 618:
	your needs:		your needs:

		+	'''XXX: Can anyone confirm this working?'''
	* Standard IDE disk support. Just let the standard IDE detection code in Linux pick up the CF as a standard device. This has the advantage of being quick and easy to get going. However if you then start up pcmcia utils to deal with the pcmcia slot, you will run into difficulties as the pcmcia-utils package resets the CF slot. There might be options you can use to instruct pcmcia-utils to ignore the CF slot entirely, but I haven't found them yet.		* Standard IDE disk support. Just let the standard IDE detection code in Linux pick up the CF as a standard device. This has the advantage of being quick and easy to get going. However if you then start up pcmcia utils to deal with the pcmcia slot, you will run into difficulties as the pcmcia-utils package resets the CF slot. There might be options you can use to instruct pcmcia-utils to ignore the CF slot entirely, but I haven't found them yet.

@@ Line 446: / Line 446: @@
 The first step is to get Filo or whatever payload you are using to recognise and use this device.
-Modern versions have a menuconfig option for it, but for older ones, the below should apply:
+'''Modern versions have a menuconfig option for it, but for older ones, the below should apply:'''
 In order that the pcmcia subsystem of the Linux kernel can correctly configure the device later on in the boot process the CF is set up with its I/O registers in a contiguous block of 16 bytes at 0x1e0 through 0x1ef. Unfortunately this is not a standard IDE address which is why we need to 'fix' filo to use it.

@@ Line 445: / Line 445: @@
 The first step is to get Filo or whatever payload you are using to recognise and use this device.
 In order that the pcmcia subsystem of the Linux kernel can correctly configure the device later on in the boot process the CF is set up with its I/O registers in a contiguous block of 16 bytes at 0x1e0 through 0x1ef. Unfortunately this is not a standard IDE address which is why we need to 'fix' filo to use it.
@@ Line 481: / Line 483: @@
 The CF socket on your MII is hardwired to the PCMCIA controller and for all intents and purposes it is a PCMCIA device. This means that once Linux boots it will be under the control of the pcmcia manager. Now according to the pcmcia-utils documentation, the pcmcia manager is intended to control and configure devices on an already running system. Yet if we need the CF to be the root device, it needs to be mounted very early on in the boot sequence, before the stage where pcmcia devices would normally be configured. The answer is to use an initrd file to get the pcmcia manager running early for the CF. If you are unfamiliar with initrd then 'man initrd' will give you more background.
+Look at your distro's documentation on how to create an initrd image, ''mkinitramfs'' should
-The easiest way to create an initrd is to use the script 'mkcfinitrd' which is at the bottom of this howto. This is a tailored version of the 'pcinitrd' script from the pcmcia-utils package.
+do the trick. You can also hack your existing initrd, as nearly all distros use them anyway.
-Make sure that 'ash' is available on your system as this is the tiny shell programme used during the initrd phase of booting.
+More on that below.
 It is worth mounting the initrd generated, and looking over it to make sure that it contains all of the modules necessary to load and initialise the CF. It does not need drivers for whatever you use in the pcmcia socket, as that can be initialised later on in the boot process as before.
@@ Line 489: / Line 491: @@
 Finally gzip the file created, and move it alongside your kernel.
-Next adjust your FILO command line to pick things up from the CF. My linux command line in filo looks like:
+Next adjust your FILO command line to pick things up from the CF.
   AUTOBOOT_FILE = "hde:/vmlinuz initrd=hde:/initrd.gz root=/dev/hde console=tty0 ide4=noprobe"
-The ide4=noprobe option is required to stop the kernel from probing the address used by the CF. As this address is half that used as the standard address for a fifth (i.e. ide4) controller, the kernel hangs whilst trying to initialise this device if this option is not given.
+The ide4=noprobe option was/is required to stop the kernel from probing the address used by the CF. As this address is half that used as the standard address for a fifth (i.e. ide4) controller, the kernel hangs whilst trying to initialise this device if this option is not given.
 Finally make sure that you have copied the necessary files onto your CF, and re-boot your computer.

@@ Line 287: / Line 287: @@
 === Step 4 ===
-Download FILO from http://felixx.tsn.or.jp/~ts1/filo, and expand
+Download [[FILO]].
 In the FILO source directory, run: