[LinuxBIOS] linuxbios on an NCR-7456 POS PC

Corey Osgood corey_osgood at verizon.net
Wed Dec 27 05:21:45 CET 2006


Maciej Grela wrote:
> 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?


vt8601 support is already present in linuxbios, and I'm currently
working on vt82c686 (which should work, but I haven't had a chance to
test it yet). There are two variants of the 82c686, the a and the b. Can
you either check the manual to find out which one of these it is, or
reply with "lspci -n"? Then, beyond that, it's the code for the actual
motherboard, which usually isn't too hard.

 The BIOS flash
> is soldered to the mainboard so it won`t be easy to reflash when 
> something goes wrong. 

Find an electronics shop that can do sodiering work, and get them to
install a socket on one of the motherboards, and then get a couple extra
bios chips (mouser.com I've had very good luck with). There's a chance
that your flash could work perfectly the first time, but if it doesn't,
you're out a motherboard, there is no reflash.

Thanks.
-Corey






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