[LinuxBIOS] Where to begin?

Ward Vandewege ward at gnu.org
Mon Mar 12 16:02:29 CET 2007


On Mon, Mar 12, 2007 at 02:45:05PM +0100, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> * Ward Vandewege <ward at gnu.org> [070312 14:21]:
> > On Mon, Mar 12, 2007 at 02:15:58PM +0100, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > > 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
> > 
> > What's the software situation Stefan? Free software support? Do you know of
> > any programmers that are supported by free software?
> 
> Don't think any of them do, sorry :-(
> 
> I think the artec group LPC dongle comes with open source software, but
> that is a different model.

I assume you're referring to this

  http://www.artecgroup.com/products/hardware-products/programmable-lpc-dongle.html

Python code, usb device - I like this. It says it comes with an 'LPC cable';
any idea what that looks like? Presumably some sort of plcc adapter would
still be required?

> Some people on this list were talking about creating an open
> alternative to the bios savior, with more or less intelligence.
> (including Peter and me), but it did not work out yet.

Yeah, I remember that discussion. I do hope something comes out of that.

Richard Smith mentioned this ROM emulator to me:

  http://www.tech-tools.com/er3.htm

The dos-based cli tools work under wine, he says. That's better than nothing,
but still proprietary software of course, so not an option for the FSF.

> Ironwood Electronics sells a "PLCC clip on base", an inverted PLCC
> socket that can be plugged on a soldered-in flash part. Together with a
> BIOS savior kind of device, this would be a really cool thing.

Oh! That's very interesting. So if you'd clip this onto an smd-soldered plcc
chip (like on the m57sli-s4), and plug in a bios savior, would the bios
savior allow you to switch between the on-board chip and the built-in bios
savior chip?

> Though I want to get my hands on a device I can use with the artec group
> LPC dongle. It has cool features, such as "console by rom write". You
> write some sequence to the flash chip/dongle and get a console on the
> other (USB) end... Pretty good stuff for a 150$ (no guarantee) device..

That's not a bad price at all!

Thanks,
Ward.


-- 
Ward Vandewege <ward at fsf.org>
Free Software Foundation - Senior System Administrator




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