[coreboot] IB520 Embedded MoBo

Peter Stuge peter at stuge.se
Mon Oct 13 23:29:26 CEST 2008


Hi Davide,

Davide Visconti wrote:
> I'm new in this mailing list.

Welcome to the list!


> I have install, on my embedded system, a minimal version of Debian
> and/or Ubuntu, but... I must have a very fast boot, so I have see
> that my cpu and chipset are supported by LinuxBIOS.
> I have a IB520 motherboard (http://www.ibase.com.tw/ib520.htm) with
> a CPU Geode LX 700 (433MHz) and the AMD CS5536 (south bridge).
> The I/O chip is a Winbond W83627HF.
> The BIOS is a PhoenixBios E686 on a chip SST 49LF004B 
> (http://www.sst.com/products.xhtml/serial_flash/49/SST49LF004B).
> If possible, I would want to put the linux kernel inside of the
> BIOS chipset.
> I have attached the output of "lspci" and "lspci -vv" command.
> Please, can you give any suggestion?

This platform (Geode LX + CS5536) is well supported by coreboot, and
several similar mainboards are already working well, but some code
and data files will still be needed to make this specific mainboard
work.

SST49LF004B is a FWH type flash chip, and because it is in a socket
it is easy to replace with a larger flash chips. There are compatible
flash chips up to 16 Mbit (2Mbyte) in size, which is enough room for
a Linux kernel.


> After the installation can I "reinstall" my old bios? How?

The program flashrom (http://www.coreboot.org/Flashrom) can be used
to reprogram the contents of flash chips from Linux. But we strongly
recommend you to buy several extra flash chips, so that you can swap
between your factory BIOS and coreboot while developing. This is a
nice idea: http://www.coreboot.org/Image:Pushpin_roms_2.jpg

If you have some more money for the project it is nice to work with a
ROM emulator, but the cheapest ones we know cost 150-200 EUR or so.


If you want to work on adding support for this mainboard I suggest
starting with the code for the ALIX boards, they may be similar and
are well supported.

It will be helpful to have an engineering contact at iBASE, but if
they are uncooperative it can still be possible to support the board
in coreboot.


//Peter




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