[LinuxBIOS] Is my motherboard supported?...

[Corey Osgood]

Robert Oscilowski wrote:
>
> Corey,
>
> Thanks for the quick reply!
> Unfortunately, I'm not so quick...
> So... what is a TSOP socket?
>
> > You'll need to have that replaced with a
> > TSOP socket to test linuxbios.
>
> How would I go about doing that?
> What else has to be done before I can run it?
>
> With all due respect,
>
> R.J.O aka "robjoski-1"

I think it was either Carl-Daniel or Peter that linked to this recently:
http://www.emulation.com/catalog/off-the-shelf_solutions/sockets/tsop/index.html
IIRC, that flash chip is 48 pin. The onboard flash chip would have to be
desodiered and replaced with a socket like this one. You'd also have to
purchase at least one, if not more, additional flash chips to flash
linuxbios on to. This way, if anything goes wrong, you have the factory
bios to fall back onto.

Personally, I'd recommend getting a different motherboard over a socket.
You can probably pick up another 440bx based board with a socketed PLCC
or DIP bios off ebay for around the same price as this socket (~$20).
PLCC and DIP bios chips can be purchase from distributors like
mouser.com and avnet.com in the US. You'll find mention of BIOS Savior
RD1s in the wiki, but these are no longer manufactured and are growing
nearly impossible to find, I know frozencpu.com still has a few. Or you
can go for a pentium 3 based board and continue work on the i810 port
I've started (complete except vga and fully dynamic sdram detection), or
grab one of the already-support motherboards listed in the Supported
Motherboards page of the wiki. Just my 2 cents.

-Corey