Board:rca/rm4100

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Documentation is now handled by the same processes we use for code: Add something to the Documentation/ directory in the coreboot repo, and it will be rendered to https://doc.coreboot.org/. Contributions welcome!

The RCA RM4100 was originally designed by Thomson Electronics and was called the IP1000. I was then manufactured by RCA and named the RM4100. It is the Thomson IP1000's little brother. It is a great little set-top-box for coreboot. Maintained by Joseph Smith.

A full boot log of this board running coreboot is available for reference.

Status

Device/functionality	Status	Comments
CPU
CPU works	OK	Mobile Intel(R) Celeron(TM) CPU 733MHz.
L1 cache enabled	OK
L2 cache enabled	OK	256 KB
L3 cache enabled	N/A
Multiple CPU support	N/A
Multi-core support	N/A
Hardware virtualization	N/A
RAM
EDO	N/A
SDRAM	N/A
SO-DIMM	OK	Onboard 128MB PC133.
DDR	N/A
DDR2	N/A
DDR3	N/A
Dual channel support	N/A
ECC support	N/A
On-board Hardware
On-board IDE 3.5"	OK	Tested with hard drive.
On-board IDE 2.5"	OK	Tested with 2.5" hard drive and adapter.
On-board SATA	N/A
On-board SCSI	Unknown
On-board USB	OK	Tested with USB keyboard.
On-board VGA	OK	VGA support in coreboot works fine. TV-Out is still a WIP.
On-board Ethernet	OK	Onboard Intel 82562ET LAN On Motherboard (LOM) Design.
On-board Audio	OK
On-board Modem	Untested	Detected by the kernel ok, but has not been tested.
On-board FireWire	N/A
On-board Smartcard reader	N/A
On-board CompactFlash	OK
On-board PCMCIA	N/A
On-board Wifi	N/A
On-board Bluetooth	N/A
On-board SD card reader	N/A
Add-on slots/cards
ISA add-on cards	N/A
Audio/Modem-Riser (AMR/CNR) cards	N/A
PCI add-on cards	N/A
Mini-PCI add-on cards	Unknown
Mini-PCI-Express add-on cards	Unknown
PCI-X add-on cards	Unknown
AGP graphics cards	N/A
PCI Express x1 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x2 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x4 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x8 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x16 add-on cards	N/A
PCI Express x32 add-on cards	N/A
HTX add-on cards	N/A
Legacy / Super I/O
Floppy	N/A
Serial port 1 (COM1)	OK
Serial port 2 (COM2)	OK	IR is connected to COM2. Tested: Wireless (IR) keyboard on COM2.
Parallel port	OK	There is no actual Parallel connector, the Parallel is used to enable IR and control 3 LEDs.
PS/2 keyboard	N/A
PS/2 mouse	N/A
Game port	N/A
Infrared	OK	Should work fine but has not been tested with lirc and a remote yet.
PC speaker	N/A
DiskOnChip	N/A
Input
Trackpoint	N/A
Touchpad	N/A
Fn Hotkeys	N/A
Fingerprint Reader	N/A
Laptop
Docking VGA	N/A
Docking LAN	N/A
Docking USB	N/A
Docking Audio	N/A
Docking Displayport	N/A
Thinklight	N/A
Webcam	N/A
Miscellaneous
Sensors / fan control	OK	lm-sensors uses i801, smsc47m192.
Hardware watchdog	Untested
SMBus	Unknown
CAN bus	N/A
CPU frequency scaling	Untested
Other powersaving features	WIP
ACPI	N/A
Reboot	OK
Poweroff	WIP
Suspend	Unknown
Nonstandard LEDs	OK	Controlled by parallel port.
High precision event timers (HPET)	N/A
Random number generator (RNG)	N/A
Wake on modem ring	Untested
Wake on LAN	Untested	Enabled on LOM Design, should work fine but untested.
Wake on keyboard	Untested	Supported by the Super I/O but not implemented.
Wake on mouse	N/A
TPM	Unknown
Flashrom	OK	Should work since flashrom version r3145.

Hardware

Front of the RCA RM4100.	Back of the RCA RM4100.
Stock RM4100, still in the case.	RM4100 with PLCC socket, IDE, and VGA modifications.

• Low Voltage Intel® Celeron® processor (Micro-FC-BGA) 733MHz
• Intel 830M northbridge
• Intel 82801DB (ICH4) southbridge
• SMSC LPC47M192 Super I/O
• ST M50FW080 8-Mbit (1Mbx8) Firmware Hub (FWH) flash memory
• 128MB PC133 SDRAM on board
• Two USB 2.0 ports
• 2 Ultra-ATA/100/66/33 IDE channels (no connectors)
• 64MB Compact Flash via IDE controller (upgradeable)
• Integrated 10/100 Intel 82562ET LAN On Motherboard (LOM)
• Integrated 2D and 3D graphics with AGP 4X interface
• Conexant CX25873-13 High Performance Video Encoder
• Optical SPDIF output (Dolby Digital)
• Composite and S-Video outputs (can deliver either NTSC or PAL video)

• Integrated Conexant CX81801-94 SmartV.XX V.92, V.34, V.32 data modem
• IR receiver for remote / keyboard
• 3 LEDs with GPIO control

VGA vs. Headless

Before building coreboot for the RCA RM4100 there are a few settings to consider. Depending on whether you want VGA support or not, you might have to modify some files.

See VGA support for information on how to add support for the onboard VGA controller.

Payload

Next you will need to prepare a payload. For this tutorial I will use FILO to boot from a hard drive (Fedora Core 7). In the FILO directory run

make

like instructed in the INSTALL directions and then edit the file Config.

Change:

MENULST_FILE = "hda3:/boot/filo/menu.lst"

to (menu.lst is a symlink to grub.conf and FILO does not like that)

MENULST_FILE = "hda1:/grub/grub.conf"

to boot to GRUB on the Compact Flash card or

MENULST_FILE = "hdc1:/grub/grub.conf"

to boot from the harddrive (if you have the HD hack installed).

Change:

#SERIAL_SPEED = 115200

to

SERIAL_SPEED = 115200

to insure we get output to the serial console. That should be it. Now you can run

make 

again to build your payload ELF file. Once that finishes copy filo.elf to the /tmp directory, or you can adjust targets/rca/rm4100/Config.lb to point to where filo.elf is.

You can further reduce the size of filo.elf by disabling various unneeded options in FILO's Config file (e.g. support for filesystems you don't use).

Building coreboot

Now we are ready to build coreboot.

See the Build HOWTO for information on how to build coreboot for this board.

See VGA support for information on how to add support for the onboard VGA controller.

Flashing coreboot

At last you're ready to flash bios.bin to your RM4100. If this is the first time, meaning your RM4100 still has the original BIOS, you need to use the method described on the Howto install coreboot & Linux on the RM4100 article to flash, otherwise you can just use flashrom.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.