[coreboot] CarPC project, with MB899 MB

Nasa nasa01 at comcast.net
Thu Oct 14 00:15:09 CEST 2010


----- "Peter Stuge" <peter at stuge.se> wrote:

> Nasa wrote:
> > All that said, I was hoping to get pointed in the right direction
> > to being able to install this in my motherboard. The specifics of
> > the board (in case I misread the post) are(from manual):
> > 
> > IBASE MB899
> > Intel 945GM Chipset
> > GMCH: 82945GM 1466-pin Micro-FCBGA
> > ICH7M:82801GBM 652-pin MBGA.
> 
> Did you pick a particular CPU for the board, or did the CPU come
> already installed when you bought the board?
> 
> In general you're in luck because as was noted the board is supported
> by coreboot.
> 
> You will need a few things:
> 
> * Cross-over serial cable (AKA null modem)
> * Spare boot flash chips
> * Patience
> 
> You have to choose a payload for your coreboot build. coreboot does
> hardware init but does not include any code to boot your operating
> system. That second part is handled by a completely separate program,
> which is stored together with coreboot in the boot flash.
> 
> An easy first step might be to use SeaBIOS as payload. SeaBIOS is an
> open source legacy BIOS implementation, so your system should start
> just like before. Once everything is running well with
> coreboot+SeaBIOS you could move on and try to optimize the boot even
> further, using other payloads.
> 
> 
> > While I am very capable of building software out of SVN (been doing
> > that for mythtv, openmobile, etc) and linux kernel,
> 
> Good. Note that coreboot and SeaBIOS both run before an operating
> system environment is available, and the toolchains shipped with many
> distributions have been patched so that they fail to correctly build
> such software. You can try using your regular toolchain, but if you
> have any trouble then it is recommended to build a reference
> toolchain and use that to build coreboot. After svn checkout of the
> coreboot tree, do:
> 
> cd util/crossgcc
> ./buildgcc
> cd ../..
> rm -f .xcompile
> 
> The next time you run make in the coreboot directory it should pick
> up the toolchain built by buildgcc automatically. Check the contents
> of .xcompile to make sure.
> 
> 
> > I have not played with pulling individual chips, like a BIOS.  So I
> > don't know anything about acquiring and/or replacing one.
> 
> Note that BIOS is the software, not so much the flash chip it is
> stored in.
> 
> You will need replacement flash chips. They shouldn't cost more than
> a few USD and I recommend getting a few of them, so that you always
> have at least one backup of the factory BIOS that you can use if
> coreboot doesn't work straight away. (Sometimes it will, but better
> safe than sorry, if there's a problem you can't start the system
> anymore without a backup flash chip.)
> 
> 
> Warren Turkal wrote:
> > the bios chip might be the SST thing near the white connector in
> > the bottom left quadrant of the board.
> 
> Yes, that's correct. This package is called PLCC32, but only
> describes the physical format of the chip.
> 
> 
> > I think it's an LPC style chip.
> 
> Well, almost. It is connected to a bus which is electrically and
> protocol-wise compatible with LPC, but all Intel chipsets use their
> own memory read and write commands which are different from the LPC
> standard commands. The flash chip type is usually called FWH,
> Firmware Hub, since that is the name of Intel's own boot flash chips.
> 
> Look for a couple of compatible flash chips. Some current part
> numbers are:
> 
> 8Mbit = 1Mbyte
> SST49LF008A-33-4C-NHE
> http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/1904170-ic-flash-fwh-8mbit-33mhz-32plcc-sst49lf008a-33-4c-nhe.html
> 
> 16Mbit = 2Mbyte
> SST49LF016C-33-4C-NHE
> SST49LF016C-66-4C-NHE
> http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/1904173-ic-flash-ser-lpc-16mbit-32plcc-sst49lf016c-33-4c-nhe.html
> 
> 
> You can most likely use flashrom (flashrom.org, coreboot sibling
> project) to read the factory BIOS from the chip in a running system.
> You can then hotswap flash chips (prepare them with pushpin knobs
> first) in the running system, put a blank chip in, and write your
> first factory BIOS backup onto that. Then get the third flash chip,
> repeat the hotswap, and write a coreboot image with SeaBIOS onto
> that chip. Reboot and watch the seral port output on another
> computer, via the null modem cable.
> 
> 
> //Peter
Wow,

Thanks a lot Peter -- that was VERY informative.  

I choose the CPU (a number of years ago) which is an Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile 1.66GHz.

I have read a little about payloads and noted that SeaBIOS would be the easiest way to go...
However (this being important for the flash chip), I didn't see anything about the benefits of 
putting a linux kernel as a payload.  I did read from the FAQ that most chips aren't large 
enough to have the kernel added as a payload.  If my goal is the fastest boot time possible, while
still supporting the basic system, would going to a Linux payload be the way to go?  If so, what 
size flash chip should I get?

Thanks Again for the SWEET email.

Nasa


BTW: once I get this working, it's going up on the carpc forum -- I know a lot of people would 
be interested in reducing their systems boot time.




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