[LinuxBIOS] [RFC] Call for Action: LinuxBIOS foundations

[Uwe Hermann]

On Tue, Aug 28, 2007 at 12:48:06AM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > hardware. Unfortunately not a single new port resulted from this, though
> > many people participated and lots of (unaccomplished) expectations were
> 
> The expectations are a bit of a problem. This also has to do with our
> shortage of skilled manpower and the very steep learning curve for doing
> a port in v2.

Exactly.

Which is why I think random lspci's won't help us (see my other post).

 
> > created. So I carefully wonder what the real goal of such a call would
> > be, except gathering random people with random boards? Something like:
> > We have 10 people who are willing to work on this or that mainboard if
> > you get them a system they can keep for doing the work, given that the
> 
> Would it be possible to create sort of a pseudo-port which only ensures
> working RAM, serial and flashing? Such a pseudo-port would leave people

No, "working RAM" is already 95% of the work in most cases.


> Maybe a call for action for tools only? Flashrom and probe_superio
> support are necessary requirements for easy porting. And if our tools
> get used for stuff besides LinuxBIOS (maybe in the lm-sensors project or
> somewhere else), they get wider testing coverage and maybe even outside
> contributors. I see this chance especially for flashrom.

Yes, I agree on that. We should really get more people to use flashrom,
not only as cheap advertising for LinuxBIOS but also because it really
_is_ a lot better than all those crappy "use DOS boot disk" or "create
CDROM with DOS *.exe flasher on it" solutions people keep recommending
all the time.

I've written up a short article on that already, see
http://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/flashing-a-bios-the-linux-way-tm-using-flashrom

(and I think the "flashrom on about 140 computers" was a direct result
of that post)

http://www.linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/2007-July/023046.html


> People want to flash their proprietary BIOS under Linux now, without
> having to reboot. They benefit from flashrom support for their system as
> much as we do. Giving people a working tool for something that is really
> complicated right now could even make them interested in LinuxBIOS.
> After all, they would have to visit our website to get flashrom.

Full ack. How can we advertise flashrom some more?


Uwe.
-- 
http://www.hermann-uwe.de  | http://www.holsham-traders.de
http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org
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