[coreboot] Coreboot on an Acer Aspire 3680?

[ron minnich]

On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 12:17 PM, Daniel Levine <dlev89 at gmail.com> wrote:
> My Aspire 3680 has a bad BIOS, is no longer under warranty, and is
> already leaning towards obsolescence a year and a half after its
> purchase;  I'm wondering if Coreboot might work on it.
>
> The output of lspci follows:
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML
> and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS,
> 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME,
> 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High
> Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
> 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
> Port 1 (rev 02)
> 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
> Port 2 (rev 02)
> 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
> Port 3 (rev 02)
> 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
> UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
> 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
> UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
> 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
> UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
> 00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
> UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
> 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2
> EHCI Controller (rev 02)
> 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
> 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface
> Bridge (rev 02)
> 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family)
> SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
> 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
> 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8038
> PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
> 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x
> 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
> 0a:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
> 0a:09.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia
> Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
>
> How well are 945GM and 82801G supported? Could I actually have
> Coreboot working on this machine, or would I only succeed in bricking
> it? Would I need custom code for the laptop?

they're quite well supported. But there is so much custom hardware in
these laptops -- the embedded controller is the big one -- that you
would have to commit to significant reverse engineering. This will be
a bit of work absent help from Acer.

>
> Also, for whatever it's worth - can Coreboot load GNU GRUB (or
> FreeBSD's BTX bootloader) instead of a Linux kernel?

Does BTX make BIOS calls? In any event there are lots of bootloaders
you can use, I believe (but have not tried) GRUB+seabios+coreboot
ought to work.

ron