[coreboot] First coreboot build for Tyan s2895 K8WE mobo with seabios payload, computer starts, but graphical ubuntu 64bits is crashing

[Harald Gutmann]

Hello Frederic,

I'm sorry to get a bit "rude" in my answer, but here is what I want to say:

"crashing on Ubuntu logo"
Oh, that's really a nice description of what happens. No way to tell you 
what's the problem with your bios, without a more detailed error output.

And yes you couldn't see a lot on your screen before booting Ubuntu, because 
coreboot is fast.

My advice as a next step would be:
Try to get an error log which is useful. Means, turn off the graphical stuff of 
Ubuntu, get a serial console, and a decent log of the failing boot process.

Everything else will be a guessing around without a good chance to track the 
problem.


BTW: That's one of the reasons why I don't like Ubuntu, people don't learn any 
more how kernel/boot messages look like, how much information is in there and 
how to interpret those messages. "Crashing Ubuntu logo" - This is as stupid as 
the new Ubuntu splash screen which indicates a loading bar, but at the end of 
the bar it starts in the beginning once again. There is not even a chance to 
guess in which part of booting problems occur.
The same bars come around in Windows Vista/7 and iTunes setup and so on. But 
who whats to have a loading bar which does say exactly nothing? It seems that 
too much stuff gets just eye candy and showing the user that something is 
happening without any interesting information.


Oh, once again sorry. But such things have the power to get me upset. ;)


Kind regards,
Harald





On Thursday 16 September 2010 22:18:32 STEMMELIN, FREDERIC (FREDERIC)** CTR ** 
wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> this was my first try to build a coreboot bios ever, for my tyan s2895
> mobo. I get managed to build and burn the bios into a RD1 512KB bios
> savior chip. The computer is booting, and then crashing on Ubuntu logo
> (10.04 64bits version), so far so nice.
> 
> Here is what i have done:
> 
> My rom build computer is installed with Ubuntu 10.04 64bits version, with
> build-essential and some other packages (flex bison git-core g++ gdb
> libncurses5-dev doxygen iasl build-essential lzma-dev liblzma-dev) I
> downloaded latest available verszion of payload seabios, with command "git
> clone git://git.linuxtogo.org/home/kevin/seabios.git seabios". Then i have
> adapted the config.h file as follow:
> 
> #define CONFIG_COREBOOT 1
> #define CONFIG_DEBUG_SERIAL 1
> #define CONFIG_VGAHOOKS 1
> 
> The make command has build the file => out/bios.bin.elf 1048716 bytes
> 
> Now i downloaded latest coreboot files, with a "svn co
> svn://coreboot.org/coreboot/trunk coreboot" But, on first "make", i run
> into troubles:
> 
> build/coreboot_ram.o: In function `__wrap___umoddi3':
> (.text+0x1223f): undefined reference to `__umoddi3'
> build/coreboot_ram.o: In function `__wrap___moddi3':
> (.text+0x1224a): undefined reference to `__moddi3'
> build/coreboot_ram.o: In function `__wrap___udivdi3':
> (.text+0x12255): undefined reference to `__udivdi3'
> build/coreboot_ram.o: In function `__wrap___divdi3':
> (.text+0x12260): undefined reference to `__divdi3'
> collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
> make: *** [build/coreboot_ram] Erreur 1
> 
> Then i find out (in some mailing list archive) that there is a integrated
> compiling toolchain in the coreboot files, under "coreboot/util/crossgcc".
> The command "./buildgcc" was succesfull even if it tooks some time,
> enought to drink a coffee.
> 
> On second "make" try, same compile errors. After some researches i find out
> that i need to do a "rm -rf build" and a new "make menuconfig", but it
> didnt solved my problem, same compilation errors :( I finnaly found out
> that i need to also delete the .xcompile file. So after the "rm -rf
> build", "rm .config", "rm .xcompile" and finally a "make menuconfig", the
> "make" was working (i am not a programmer), yes.
> 
> I burned the coreboot.rom into the RD1 chip, and restared the computer. I
> then saw briefly a message about pressing F12 for some configuration.
> After some other quick messages, which i coulnd read, i saw Ubuntu
> starting and then crashing on the graphical logo. This is not really a
> problem so far, as i was able to switch back to the original bios to get
> computer up and running.
> 
> 
> Now i have a 3 questions for you:
> 
> Is the coreboot.rom 32bits only and is there any advantage to build a
> 64bits version of the coreboot bios, as i intend to run a 64bits OS ? I
> build the seabios with Ubuntu gcc 64bits version, it is compatible, can i
> mix it, with the coreboot.rom build with i386-elf coreboot toolchain ? The
> build seabios (bios.bin.elf) is about 1MB in size, how it is possible to
> put it into a smaller 512KB chip inside coreboot.rom ?
> 
> I didnt put VGA bios so far into the coreboot.rom.
> 
> In my opinion, it would be a good idea to mention, somewhere in the build
> howto, that there is a integrated toolchain in coreboot, and may be also
> mention not to forget to delete the .xcompile file after the toolchain was
> built.
> 
> What are your advice for the next steps ? Put VGA bios into coreboot.rom,
> change Ubuntu default start to non-graphical one ? I have attached the
> .config file for coreboot (btw i used lzma compression for payload).
> 
> Thank you very much, i really appreciate your help.
> Frédéric Stemmelin