[coreboot] Coreboot + SeaBIOS on GA-M52S-S3P?

[Ivan Shmakov]

>>>>> Marc Jones <marcj303 at gmail.com> writes:
>>>>> On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Ivan Shmakov <oneingray at gmail.com> wrote:

 >> I wonder, did anyone try Coreboot and SeaBIOS on Gigabyte's
 >> GA-M52S-S3P?

 > The nvidia chipset is the biggest challenge.  I don't know how close
 > it is to the nvida support in coreboot.

	I seem to be quite lucky in this respect, as I've just found
	that I have at least two systems based on nVidia chipsets.

	But I'm still interested in running Coreboot there.

	As per [1], the “chipset north bridge” is “GeForce 6100 / nForce
	430”, but I don't seem to find those listed in [2]?

[1] http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-m52s-s3p_10/
[2] http://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Chipsets_and_Devices

 >> I'm mainly interested in booting Linux 2.6-based GNU system via GRUB
 >> 2 from a SATA HDD (with GPT), but I'd like to have other boot
 >> devices (floppy and DVD drives, USB Flash) and systems supported as
 >> well.

 > This is a typical coreboot + seabios solution.

	ACK, thanks.

 >> One more issue is that the BIOS IC (labelled MX 25L4005AM2C)

	… Which may be documented in [3] or [4].

[3] http://semiconductorstore.com/pdf/Macronix/SerialProductBrief.pdf
[4] http://www.mct.net/download/macronix/mx25l8005.pdf

 >> is soldered to the board.  I wonder, what'd be the recovery
 >> procedure should the newly uploaded firmware fail to boot?

 > There are a number of ways to handle recovery. Please see this page
 > for more info:

 > http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#External_EPROM.2FFlash_programmer_that_can_program_the_flash_chip_on_your_motherboard

	This section is mainly concerned with the use of computer's
	motherboard (with replaceable flash) instead of a “real”
	programmer.  In my case, the section below is more applicable:

--cut: http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#In_Circuit_chip_programmer -- 
In Circuit chip programmer

    Should allow you to program your BIOS even if it is soldered to the
    motherboard.

    • http://www.xeltek.com/pages.php?pageid=8
--cut: http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#In_Circuit_chip_programmer -- 

	Perhaps I'd even be able to build an in-system programmer myself
	(especially if something like Avrdude [5] supports, or could be
	tweaked to support, the protocol itself), but I'm not entirely
	sure that the motherboard in question has all the relevant
	circuitry to allow for in-system programming.

[5] http://www.nongnu.org/avrdude/

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