[LinuxBIOS] linuxbios on an NCR-7456 POS PC

Maciej Grela maciej.grela at gmail.com
Fri Dec 22 01:17:31 CET 2006


Hi

	I want to run LinuxBIOS on an NCR-7456 POS PC. It`s mainboard is said 
to be "Tiger MVP" (http://developer.novell.com/yes/75294.htm) and it 
doesn`t seem to be on the SupportedMainboards list. However it`s 
equipped with a VT8601A northbridge and VT82C686 southbridge. It also 
has a 39VF040 flash chip soldered onboard. The northbridge is said to 
be supported by LinuxBIOS but the VT82C686 has a question mark in the 
SupportedChipsets table (for linuxbios v1) and isn`t mentioned at all 
on the list of devices supported by LinuxBIOS v2. If so, what are the 
odds of successfully running LinuxBIOS on this machine ? The BIOS flash 
is soldered to the mainboard so it won`t be easy to reflash when 
something goes wrong. If the southbridge chip (VT82C686) isn`t 
supported what minimal code must be written for it to work ? I assume 
that rs232 support is crucial for further development.
	I have 2 of those machines, so I`m can experiment a little on one of 
them. The second machine has already Linux installed (standard BIOS 
though) and here is it`s lspci output:

gammu ~ # lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] 
(rev 05)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 8
        Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP] 
(prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        Memory behind bridge: fb100000-fc7fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 10000000-100fffff
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] 
(rev 40)
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. Unknown device 0668
        Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. 
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) 
(prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        I/O ports at 1860 [size=16]
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 1a) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) USB Controller
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
        I/O ports at 1800 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 1a) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) USB Controller
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
        I/O ports at 1820 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 
40)
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI]
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 9
        Capabilities: [68] Power Management version 2

00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 
(MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
        Subsystem: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 
(MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 90, IRQ 9
        I/O ports at 1400 [size=256]
        Memory at fb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at 10100000 [disabled] [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 
0a)
        Subsystem: Creative Labs SBLive! 5.1 Digital Model SB0220
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 15
        I/O ports at 1840 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

00:10.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 
0a)
        Subsystem: Creative Labs Gameport Joystick
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        I/O ports at 1878 [size=8]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1 
(rev 6a) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1
        Flags: fast Back2Back, 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 7
        Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8M]
        Memory at fb100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        Memory at fb800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8M]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at 10000000 [disabled] [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [80] AGP version 2.0
        Capabilities: [90] Power Management version 1

I can also provide dmesg output, exact chip types, dmesg output and any 
information that is neccessary. Unfortunately I didn`t find any 
additional specs for this machine apart from marketing gibberish. But 
I`ll keep looking.

-- 
Maciej Grela <jid:thermal at jabber.wroc.pl>
counter.li.org: 319794




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