[LinuxBIOS] Where to begin?

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Richard Wilson <Richard.Wilson at senokian.com> [070312 13:06]:
> Guess I'll just have to buy some hardware and be a testing monkey then :-)
> 
> At the moment at work we have a Via PD10000, which we use for a bunch of 
> quite mission-critical things. We can reboot it as often as we like, but 
> at the moment, doing so is a PITA because it takes so long. Hmm. 
> Wouldn't it be nice if I could boot LinuxBIOS on it...

Can you please send an lspci -vv to this list? 

> So here I am, bidding on another one on eBay, so that we can have a 
> spare in case our mission-crit one dies. But it would be a shame for the 
> spare to sit around doing nothing...

Heh.. given that it works (depends on the lspci), you might put it into
the LinuxBIOS test system:

http://www.linuxbios.org/Distributed_and_Automated_Testsystem

We started the system last year, but only a single board has been put to
test since then.

> Its worth saying at this point that I don't want to divert anyone coding 
> actually /useful/ things, so if I have to wait around for someone to 
> have a spare moment to give me a hand, thats fine.
 
Just send your questions to the list. There's almost always something
who might answer them.

> I'm happy to go get a chip puller, some spare bios chips, a chip 
> programmer, etc. Just tell me where to get the right ones.

I bought this programmer, and I think it is a really good deal:
http://www.progshop.com/shop/programmer/galep/galep4.shtml
it burns about everything, requires a non-usb parport though

for the beginning you might get away cheaper with a bios savior (if you
still get one) or with hotswapping the chips. 

> So, my question is this: Shall I go and get a POST card, a chip flasher 
> and some spare lumps of silicon, or should I not bother?

POST card is not required. Better get a serial null modem cable. That's
a lot more convenient for debugging.

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