[coreboot] Will coreboot run on ASRock ALiveNF5-eSATA2+ R3.0?

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi Manuel,

looking at lspci, it seems the MCP65 chipset of your board is not
supported yet. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get docs from
Nvidia and it is even more difficult to get their approal for a release
of the source code anyone writes with these docs. Even if we started
today, it would probably take over a year until the first source is
released and then mainboards with this chipset wouldn't be available on
the market any more.
The only suggestion I can give you is to look for alternative boards if
you want to try coreboot.

On 06.05.2008 16:28, Manuel Reimer wrote:
> I own the mainboard ASRock ALiveNF5-eSATA2+ R3.0. I would like to test/use coreboot on this board.
>
> I have a second PC and a nullmodem cable, I have Linux knowledge and I have a *very* basic knowledge of the C programming language. I don't have a second BIOS chip (would buy one if there is a chance to use the board with coreboot) and I don't have a device for flashing BIOS chips (would be nice if it's possible to replace the chip while the system runs to flash the new chip directly on the mainboard).
>
> More information about the board:
>
> http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=ALiveNF5-eSATA2%2B%20R3.0
>
> 00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 Memory Controller [10de:0444] (rev a3)
> 00:01.0 ISA bridge [0601]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 LPC Bridge [10de:0441] (rev a3)
> 00:01.1 SMBus [0c05]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 SMBus [10de:0446] (rev a1)
> 00:01.2 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 Memory Controller [10de:0445] (rev a1)
> 00:02.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 USB Controller [10de:0454] (rev a3) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
> 00:02.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 USB Controller [10de:0455] (rev a3) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
> 00:07.0 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 High Definition Audio [10de:044a] (rev a1)
> 00:08.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI bridge [10de:0449] (rev a1) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
> 00:09.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 IDE [10de:0448] (rev a1) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
> 00:0a.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 SATA Controller [10de:045d] (rev a3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
> 00:0b.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation Unknown device [10de:045b] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
> 00:0c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI Express bridge [10de:045a] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
> 00:0d.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI Express bridge [10de:0458] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
> 00:0e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI Express bridge [10de:0459] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
> 00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100]
> 00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101]
> 00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102]
> 00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103]
> 01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8168] 02:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller [1106:3044] (rev c0) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
> 05:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation Unknown device [10de:0402] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA]

AMD engineers are working on support for the M690T/SB600 chipset
combination and we'll have source for that soon (maybe even this month).
Working from there, it should be possible to get a wide range of cheap
mainboards with AMD *690* chipset supported.

A coreboot developer also has access to the docs for the K8T/K8M chipset
series from VIA and we have a few supported boards with those chipsets.

A great overview of supported boards is at
http://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Motherboards

Regards,
Carl-Daniel