Level 2 cache activation code?

[ron minnich]

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Svante Signell wrote:

> i) Does LinuxBIOS work for 440BX-based mother-boards, single and dual?
> Downloading the code from CVS shows support for Intel L440GX+ and a
> patch for linux-2.4.13, not 440BX or kernels later than 2.4.13. Also, I
> did not find anything about MSI mainboards.

single are tested. Dual I don't know.

> ii) Does the cache activation code work for Mendocino, Coppermine,
> Tualatin and newer Intel processors? Will it work for the VIA C3
> Nehemiah?

It was only needed for PII. Coppermine and later -- "Just works". It is 
extremely cpu-dependent.

> iii) How much of the boot process in GNU/Linux the BIOS responsible for?
> I thought that the kernel was only dependent on the BIOS for a few
> functions, such as different HW initialisations: CPU, memory, disks, etc
> compared to Windows 9x etc. Any pointers?

that's about right.

> I will try. Which files do I need in addition to src/cpu/p6/l2_cache.c?

none. You have to turn that back into a main() but it should  be fine.

> With risks I meant the chance of being left with a dead motherboard...
> I'm always nervous when flashing the BIOS that something will happen,
> for example a sudden power loss, regardless of where the BIOS originates
> from.

never do this kind of work without a spare bios part. Never.

> BTW: Why is this work called LinuxBIOS (except maybe for historical
> reasons). Will other OSes (eg GNU/Hurd) boot with LinuxBIOS now or in
> the future? Maybe then something like FreeBIOS should be used instead.

It was called linuxbios for a simple reason: linux was going to be the 
bios. linux would be in flash, linux would boot the oses. 

Small flashes have caused changes in course in some cases, but the name 
has stuck anyway. Now that vendors have joined in, changing the name would 
be hard.

ron