From owner-freebsd-small Thu May 21 16:59:34 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA03127 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Thu, 21 May 1998 16:59:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ns1.inland.net (dahunter@ns1.inland.net [207.155.59.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA03096 for ; Thu, 21 May 1998 16:59:16 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dahunter@ns1.inland.net) Received: from localhost (dahunter@localhost) by ns1.inland.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) with SMTP id RAA18512 for ; Thu, 21 May 1998 17:00:23 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 17:00:22 -0700 (PDT) From: shawn To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG subscribe To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 03:37:03 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id DAA25642 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 03:37:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from fleming.cs.strath.ac.uk (root@fleming.cs.strath.ac.uk [130.159.196.123]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id DAA25635 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 03:36:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from roger@cs.strath.ac.uk) Received: from muir-10 (roger@muir-10.cs.strath.ac.uk [130.159.148.10]) by fleming.cs.strath.ac.uk (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id LAA19250 Fri, 22 May 1998 11:36:27 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: <35655529.2781@cs.strath.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 11:36:25 +0100 From: Roger Hardiman Organization: University of Strathclyde X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; OSF1 V3.2 alpha) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Embedded FreeBSD for Telepresence Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At Strathclyde University Telepresence Group we use FreeBSD extensivly in our embedded systems. We've used it to control the following stepper motors, PCMCIA cards, frame grabbers, PC/104 IO boards. hardware watchdog timers Details are at http://telepresence.dmem.strath.ac.uk/freebsd and general information on the group is at http://telepresence.dmem.strath.ac.uk If anyone has any embedded FreeBSD questions, please feel free to contact us. -- Roger Hardiman, | Department of Computer Science, PhD Research Student, | University of Strathclyde, roger@cs.strath.ac.uk | Glasgow, Scotland, UK http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/~roger To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 04:47:56 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id EAA06495 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 04:47:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from foehn.plesnik.bonsai.de (vas@www.plesnik.de [195.4.37.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id EAA06490 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 04:47:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from vas@plesnik.de) Received: (from vas@localhost) by foehn.plesnik.bonsai.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA03652 for freebsd-small@freebsd.org; Fri, 22 May 1998 13:50:18 +0200 Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 13:50:18 +0200 From: Volker Seebode Message-Id: <199805221150.NAA03652@foehn.plesnik.bonsai.de> To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG subscribe To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 05:23:17 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id FAA09881 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 05:23:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from neuron.hippocampus.net (neuron.hippocampus.net [204.138.241.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id FAA09873 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 05:23:12 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@hippocampus.net) Received: from localhost (marc@localhost) by neuron.hippocampus.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id IAA06177 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 08:23:26 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 08:23:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Nicholas To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG subscribe marc@netstor.com -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hippocampus OSD, Inc. "Industrial Strength Internet Solutions" vox://416.979.9000 fax://416.979.8223 http://www.hippocampus.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 11:53:16 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id LAA18737 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 11:53:16 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from IAEhv.nl (root@iaehv.IAEhv.nl [194.151.64.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id LAA18731 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 11:53:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from janb@IAEhv.nl) Received: from iae.nl (pm8d01.IAEhv.nl [194.151.71.34]) by IAEhv.nl (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id UAA09535 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 20:53:00 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <3565C9B5.CAB3CD34@iae.nl> Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 20:53:41 +0200 From: "J. Bierings" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: (no subject) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG subscribe freebsd-small To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 12:33:22 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA28439 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 12:33:22 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from neuron.hippocampus.net (neuron.hippocampus.net [204.138.241.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA27957 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 12:32:08 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@hippocampus.net) Received: from localhost (marc@localhost) by neuron.hippocampus.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id PAA07402 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 15:32:33 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 15:32:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Nicholas To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG subscribe marc@hippocampus.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 15:12:54 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA00419 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 15:12:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from oldyeller.comtest.com (comtest.hits.net [206.127.244.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA00377 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 15:12:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Received: from graphics.comtest.com (graphics.comtest.com [206.127.245.194]) by oldyeller.comtest.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA07511; Fri, 22 May 1998 12:03:31 -1000 (HST) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Message-Id: <199805222203.MAA07511@oldyeller.comtest.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Randal S. Masutani" Organization: ComTest Technologies, Inc. To: Andrzej Bialecki Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:21:52 -1000 Subject: Re: Embeded applications? Reply-to: randal@comtest.com CC: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG References: <199805212145.LAA05174@oldyeller.comtest.com> In-reply-to: X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 22 May 98 at 8:35, Andrzej Bialecki wrote: > On Thu, 21 May 1998, Randal S. Masutani wrote: > > > On 14 May 98 at 11:12, Andrzej Bialecki wrote: > > > > > It emulates a hard drive at the BIOS level. ie. it is accessed as > > drive=0x80 and has cylinders=1021, heads=1, sectors=16, ~8MB Flash. It > > has a standard partition table in c=0, h=0, s=1. The BIOS after POST > > looks for a bootable floppy disk, then a bootable hard drive. Just like > > a standard boot process. The flash drive is setup with the standard DOS > > FDISK and FORMAT commands. > > So, this looks _exactly_ like IDE drive. This means it can boot FreeBSD no > problem. No, no ... sorry if I was not clear with my statements above. Let me clarify myself. There are two major ways that manufactures implement access to Flash memory devices, Software or Hardware emulation. 1. Software BIOS emulation, INT 13H. Also identified as Flash File System. This mean that you can only access the flash through BIOS call interrupt 13H. Using INT 13H you can specify CHS(cylinder,head,sector) values to access the flash. It does not have any hardware compatibility with IDE I/O ports or registers. Since DOS commands rely only on BIOS calls to access hard drives, this type of emulation works with the standard DOS commands FDISK and FORMAT. FreeBSD kernel cannot see this type of flash since it cannot call BIOS routines. (this is the type of flash that is built onto the PC/104 CPU board I am using) 2. Hardware IDE emulation. This means hardware compatibility with IDE I/O ports and registers. It physically attaches to an IDE controller cable as a drive. The FreeBSD kernel can see this type of flash. It will show up as a 'disk wd0 at wdc0 drive 0' device in the kernel. (I do not have this type of IDE flash yet) 3. Hardware PCMCIA flash. This type of flash plugs into standard PCMCIA slots. This type of flash requires the standard PC CARD Socket Services. The PAO version of FreeBSD supports this type of flash. 4. Hardware Floppy emulation. This type of flash looks just like a floppy drive. It attaches to the floppy controller cable as a drive. FreeBSD kernel would work with this type also, as 'disk fd0 at fdc0 drive 0'. However I haven't seen this type available in the form that I need. > > I have copied over the floppy.tree/etc to mfs.tree/etc. I did take into account > > the language files and mfs.rc.xx. I had to modify the populate and stage3 > > scripts accordingly. I did get it to compile and work ok from floppy only. > > However I understand that the /etc files are static and cannot save changes. > > Not what I want. But I can work with this for now. > > Hmmm... You see, FFS takes too much space from flash (which is expensive), > so as long as you can you should avoid it. One possible solution would be > to split flash into two partitions: one big (containing bootable image on > raw partition), and the second one containing the configuration file > (single). This way, you could use the whole partition for bootable image > (no space wasted on FFS), and then you could access raw partition #2 to > get raw blocks containing configuration data (and after changing, just > write it block by block back on the raw partition). It's just an idea - it > needs testing.. :-) > > > I haven't modified the boot block yet. I am not sure which boot block > > to use. What's the difference in biosboot, dosboot, kzipboot, rawboot? > > Also what about the files in /usr/mdec/ bootfd, fdboot, bootwd, wdboot, > > boot1, boot2, rawboot? > > * biosboot: uses BIOS services to find proper disk/partition, and uses its > own knowledge of FFS to get kernel from there, > * rawboot: as above, but doesn't understand FFS. All it knows is to pull > the chain of next data blocks from the media it was started from > * dosboot: EXE program, which can load FreeBSD kernel either from DOS > partition or from FFS > * kzipboot: it's a special stub which gets appended and prepended to > kzipp'ed kernel in order to unpack it after loading. (see kzip(8)). > > And the files: > * bootfd, fdboot, bootwd, wdboot - links to so called 'stage 1 boot', i.e. > the stub that pulls the data from media. > * boot2 - the stub that actually loads the kernel (i.e. properly relocates > appropriate sections of a.out binary file, and passes control to it). > > > I am not sure what to modify in your scripts to put the right boot block info. > > Could you show me what I need to change? > > What really matters here is the 'dd if=/usr/mdec/boot1' line in 'stage3' > script. It uses biosboot stub. In order to use rawboot you'd say something > like: > cat /usr/mdec/rawboot kernel.kz >/dev/rvn0c > Of course, you loose the FFS now - the media it will be booting from can > be accessed only as raw data blocks... I will try using the rawboot, since I do not need FFS. Technically I do not have access to FFS anyway as explained above, since I am using software BIOS flash drive. > > Also once I have built the picobsd image how do I transfer that to the flash > > drive? I need some kind of utility to transfer an image file to flash? > > If you have the flash connected to FreeBSD machine, it should be detected > during bootup (see 'dmesg') as one more IDE disk. Then you access it in > quite normal way, i.e. /dev/rwdX. As for transfering the files... simply > do dd if=you_file of=/dev/rwdX - it should work. As explained above I do not have hardware IDE compatibility with this flash. So I still need to figure out once I have the kernel and MFS built. How to transfer that to the flash drive? I need some kind of program that can transfer an image to the flash drive using BIOS-INT 13H calls. I also need to figure out from what source will I get the image from. I have only a floppy drive attached to the PC/104 board. I can only boot from floppy since I do not have anything in flash drive yet. So I probably need a DOS boot floppy with a image writer program and the picobsd image. > > Can I have picobsd boot from a DOS partition using fbsdboot.exe ? > > I think - yes. I didn't try it yet... > > > Do I need to make the picobsd image differently for booting from a DOS > > partition using fbsdboot.exe? > > In normal case of GENERIC kernel, it can be booted right from DOS > partition. To be frank, I've never tried this... But I will. I plan to try > to create something like bootable FreeBSD image which could be put on DOS > partition, and be started from there... but it's still in plans only... This would be an alternative. Since I can format the flash drive as a bootable DOS FAT partition. And put the fbsdboot.exe and a bootable kernel image in it. And then boot DOS and have autoexec.bat execute fbsdboot.exe on startup. > > The IDE emulation is in hardware. So it is register level compatible. > > The IDE flash looks like a wd hard drive to the kernel. With this IDE > > emulation we can have a FFS filesystem in flash just like a standard > > hard drive. > > Yep. But as I said above, in most cases (except for development and > debugging, and just to get the project started :-) you don't want to have > FFS there - it wastes too much space. The target situation (IMHO) should > be to live without FFS, and use raw pieces of flash for kernel and config > data. > > Andrzej Bialecki > NOTE: FYI, "FFS" acronyms is used in two ways. In FreeBSD FFS stands for Fast File System. In the PC/104 industry FFS stands for Flash File System. It can get confusing at times... :) Randal Masutani ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ComTest Technologies, Inc. 3049 Ualena St., Suite 1005 Honolulu, Hawaii 96819 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 16:07:57 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA09676 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 16:07:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (dingo.cdrom.com [204.216.28.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA09670 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 16:07:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA02699; Fri, 22 May 1998 14:55:57 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805222155.OAA02699@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: randal@comtest.com cc: Andrzej Bialecki , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Embeded applications? In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 12:21:52 -1000." <199805222203.MAA07511@oldyeller.comtest.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 14:55:56 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > 1. Software BIOS emulation, INT 13H. Also identified as Flash File System. > This mean that you can only access the flash through BIOS call interrupt 13H. > Using INT 13H you can specify CHS(cylinder,head,sector) values to access the > flash. It does not have any hardware compatibility with IDE I/O ports or > registers. Since DOS commands rely only on BIOS calls to access hard drives, > this type of emulation works with the standard DOS commands FDISK and FORMAT. > FreeBSD kernel cannot see this type of flash since it cannot call BIOS > routines. (this is the type of flash that is built onto the PC/104 CPU board I > am using) Actually, FreeBSD-current probably *can* talk to this sort of flash disk, although there are some missing components (the disk driver, eg.). Someone with a BIOS-only flash disk would be the perfect candidate to complete this support. > I will try using the rawboot, since I do not need FFS. Technically I do not > have access to FFS anyway as explained above, since I am using software BIOS > flash drive. You can use the normal boot1/boot2 bootloaders, as they have enough FFS support internally to read the kernel. > I still need to figure out once I have the kernel and MFS built. How to > transfer that to the flash drive? I need some kind of program that > can transfer an image to the flash drive using BIOS-INT 13H calls. Write the boot image to a floppy, boot DOS on the target system and use diskcopy. > This would be an alternative. Since I can format the flash drive as a > bootable DOS FAT partition. And put the fbsdboot.exe and a bootable kernel > image in it. And then boot DOS and have autoexec.bat execute fbsdboot.exe on > startup. This wastes (lots of) space. > NOTE: FYI, "FFS" acronyms is used in two ways. > In FreeBSD FFS stands for Fast File System. > In the PC/104 industry FFS stands for Flash File System. > It can get confusing at times... :) Yes. Although the Flash File System extends beyond just the BIOS interface. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 16:53:15 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA19892 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 16:53:15 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from oldyeller.comtest.com (comtest.hits.net [206.127.244.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA19842 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 16:52:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Received: from graphics.comtest.com (graphics.comtest.com [206.127.245.194]) by oldyeller.comtest.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id NAA07640; Fri, 22 May 1998 13:43:20 -1000 (HST) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Message-Id: <199805222343.NAA07640@oldyeller.comtest.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Randal S. Masutani" Organization: ComTest Technologies, Inc. To: Mike Smith Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 14:01:46 -1000 Subject: Re: Embeded applications? Reply-to: randal@comtest.com CC: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <199805222155.OAA02699@dingo.cdrom.com> References: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 12:21:52 -1000." <199805222203.MAA07511@oldyeller.comtest.com> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 22 May 98 at 14:55, Mike Smith wrote: > > 1. Software BIOS emulation, INT 13H. Also identified as Flash File System. > > This mean that you can only access the flash through BIOS call interrupt 13H. > > Using INT 13H you can specify CHS(cylinder,head,sector) values to access the > > flash. It does not have any hardware compatibility with IDE I/O ports or > > registers. Since DOS commands rely only on BIOS calls to access hard drives, > > this type of emulation works with the standard DOS commands FDISK and FORMAT. > > FreeBSD kernel cannot see this type of flash since it cannot call BIOS > > routines. (this is the type of flash that is built onto the PC/104 CPU board I > > am using) > > Actually, FreeBSD-current probably *can* talk to this sort of flash > disk, although there are some missing components (the disk driver, eg.). > > Someone with a BIOS-only flash disk would be the perfect candidate to > complete this support. > > > I will try using the rawboot, since I do not need FFS. Technically I do not > > have access to FFS anyway as explained above, since I am using software BIOS > > flash drive. > > You can use the normal boot1/boot2 bootloaders, as they have enough FFS > support internally to read the kernel. I don't understand, do you mean that you can use FFS on a BIOS-only flash ? So boot1/boot2 will only make BIOS calls to access FFS on flash? If so then all I need to do is copy the boot image(with kernel/mfs and FFS) to flash? > > I still need to figure out once I have the kernel and MFS built. How to > > transfer that to the flash drive? I need some kind of program that > > can transfer an image to the flash drive using BIOS-INT 13H calls. > > Write the boot image to a floppy, boot DOS on the target system and use > diskcopy. This would be fine if the target system was a floppy disk. But the target system is emulating a BIOS hard drive. My understanding is diskcopy only works from floppy to floppy. > > This would be an alternative. Since I can format the flash drive as a > > bootable DOS FAT partition. And put the fbsdboot.exe and a bootable kernel > > image in it. And then boot DOS and have autoexec.bat execute fbsdboot.exe on > > startup. > > This wastes (lots of) space. Yes, although I have 8MB Flash memory to play with. > > NOTE: FYI, "FFS" acronyms is used in two ways. > > In FreeBSD FFS stands for Fast File System. > > In the PC/104 industry FFS stands for Flash File System. > > It can get confusing at times... :) > > Yes. Although the Flash File System extends beyond just the BIOS > interface. > > -- BTW, Mike the PC/104 board that I am using is from Mesa Electronics 4c27 which is using the Crystal CS8900 ethernet chip. Do you know if anyone is working on a driver for this chip? Randal Masutani ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ComTest Technologies, Inc. 3049 Ualena St., Suite 1005 Honolulu, Hawaii 96819 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:01:15 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA21154 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:01:15 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (dingo.cdrom.com [204.216.28.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA21133 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:01:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA02972; Fri, 22 May 1998 15:55:36 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805222255.PAA02972@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: randal@comtest.com cc: Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Embeded applications? In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:01:46 -1000." <199805222343.NAA07640@oldyeller.comtest.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 15:55:36 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > You can use the normal boot1/boot2 bootloaders, as they have enough FFS > > support internally to read the kernel. > > I don't understand, do you mean that you can use FFS on a BIOS-only flash ? > So boot1/boot2 will only make BIOS calls to access FFS on flash? > If so then all I need to do is copy the boot image(with kernel/mfs and FFS) > to flash? boot1/boot2 have no internal disk drive support - they depend entirely on the BIOS to read the disk from which they are trying to boot. So yes, all you need to do is duplicate the boot image on the flash disk. > Yes, although I have 8MB Flash memory to play with. In this case, you might want to consider writing a driver that knows how to talk directly to the flash. This would let you use the parts of the flash that aren't holding the boot image to store parameter information. > BTW, Mike the PC/104 board that I am using is from Mesa Electronics > 4c27 which is using the Crystal CS8900 ethernet chip. Do you know if > anyone is working on a driver for this chip? Yes, I have a driver here waiting for me to obtain a suitable IBM ethernet card for testing. It's designed for the IBM Etherjet cards, but it should work Just Fine. Let me know if/when you want it, and I'll put it up for fetching. I hope to have the hardware involved next week. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:16:43 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA24840 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:16:43 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from neuron.hippocampus.net (neuron.hippocampus.net [204.138.241.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA24776 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:16:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@hippocampus.net) Received: from localhost (marc@localhost) by neuron.hippocampus.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id UAA08422 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 20:16:52 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 20:16:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Nicholas To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: BIOS bootstrap? Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG This is a tiny bit off-topic for the list, but I thought I'd throw it out there... My embedded system supports BIOS extension and includes it's own local Flash memory to do so. Basically what I'd like to do is build some sort of (EE)ROM bootstrap to load my custom FreeBSD operating system. HOWEVER... All input/output must be done via COM1. I've never done much low level PC programming...has anyone attempted something like this? In an ideal world, I'd also be looking to front-end the BIOS setup screen over COM1. And, no, I can't just get a BIOS kit and re-write the BIOS :-p -marc To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:27:27 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA26843 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:27:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (dingo.cdrom.com [204.216.28.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA26836 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:27:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA03133; Fri, 22 May 1998 16:22:01 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805222322.QAA03133@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: randal@comtest.com cc: Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Embeded applications? In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:01:46 -1000." <199805222343.NAA07640@oldyeller.comtest.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 16:22:01 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > > I still need to figure out once I have the kernel and MFS built. How to > > > transfer that to the flash drive? I need some kind of program that > > > can transfer an image to the flash drive using BIOS-INT 13H calls. > > > > Write the boot image to a floppy, boot DOS on the target system and use > > diskcopy. > > This would be fine if the target system was a floppy disk. But the target > system is emulating a BIOS hard drive. My understanding is diskcopy only > works from floppy to floppy. Whoops, I missed this one. Yes, this could cause you a problem. The solution is slightly nontrivial, unfortunately. Basically, you will need to tweak the part of the PicoBSD build process where it generates a 1.44MB image, and have it generate an image that contains a partition table. (See the stuff in the vnconfig manpage about this.) Keep the image under 1.44MB, so that you can still put it on a floppy. Then you can dump this on top of the flash disk using something like rawrite. You may need to roll some custom utilities for this. A slightly easier solution would be to get a PC104 IDE adapter, and use an old IDE disk to transfer stuff around. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:28:53 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA27126 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:28:53 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from oldyeller.comtest.com (comtest.hits.net [206.127.244.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA27099 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:28:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Received: from graphics.comtest.com (graphics.comtest.com [206.127.245.194]) by oldyeller.comtest.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id OAA07728; Fri, 22 May 1998 14:19:56 -1000 (HST) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Message-Id: <199805230019.OAA07728@oldyeller.comtest.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Randal S. Masutani" Organization: ComTest Technologies, Inc. To: Mike Smith Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 14:38:21 -1000 Subject: Re: Embeded applications? Reply-to: randal@comtest.com CC: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <199805222255.PAA02972@dingo.cdrom.com> References: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:01:46 -1000." <199805222343.NAA07640@oldyeller.comtest.com> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 22 May 98 at 15:55, Mike Smith wrote: > boot1/boot2 have no internal disk drive support - they depend entirely > on the BIOS to read the disk from which they are trying to boot. > > So yes, all you need to do is duplicate the boot image on the flash > disk. BTW, the flash disk is access as drive=0x80, a hard drive. Are there any issues with boot1/boo2 accessing it as drive=0x80 ? do you have any ideas on how I can transfer the image over to flash? or do you still think I can use diskcopy? > > Yes, although I have 8MB Flash memory to play with. > > In this case, you might want to consider writing a driver that knows > how to talk directly to the flash. This would let you use the parts of > the flash that aren't holding the boot image to store parameter > information. That would be ideal. Any ideas on where to start ? Actually the flash is composed of two 4MB NAND chips soldered on the main board. And I can partition the chips as two separate 4MB drives. However, Mesa Electronics wrote their own BIOS support for them. I need to check with them if they are willing to give out the specs for accessing the flash chips directly. > > BTW, Mike the PC/104 board that I am using is from Mesa Electronics > > 4c27 which is using the Crystal CS8900 ethernet chip. Do you know if > > anyone is working on a driver for this chip? > > Yes, I have a driver here waiting for me to obtain a suitable IBM > ethernet card for testing. It's designed for the IBM Etherjet cards, > but it should work Just Fine. > > Let me know if/when you want it, and I'll put it up for fetching. I > hope to have the hardware involved next week. Great! Will it work with 2.2.6 Release ? I would like to try it out asap, I am trying to meet some deadlines for this project. I could do some test for you as well. Randal Masutani ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ComTest Technologies, Inc. 3049 Ualena St., Suite 1005 Honolulu, Hawaii 96819 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:39:06 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA28536 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:39:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (dingo.cdrom.com [204.216.28.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA28492 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:38:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA03240; Fri, 22 May 1998 16:33:37 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805222333.QAA03240@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: randal@comtest.com cc: Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Embeded applications? In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:38:21 -1000." <199805230019.OAA07728@oldyeller.comtest.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 16:33:37 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > On 22 May 98 at 15:55, Mike Smith wrote: > > > boot1/boot2 have no internal disk drive support - they depend entirely > > on the BIOS to read the disk from which they are trying to boot. > > > > So yes, all you need to do is duplicate the boot image on the flash > > disk. > > BTW, the flash disk is access as drive=0x80, a hard drive. Are there any > issues with boot1/boo2 accessing it as drive=0x80 ? Not as long as it looks more-or-less like a hard drive, no. > do you have any ideas on how I can transfer the image over to flash? > or do you still think I can use diskcopy? You're right, discopy won't do the job. It's sounding like you're going to have to write your own tool for this job. Are you in a position to write trivial real-mode DOS utilities? > > > Yes, although I have 8MB Flash memory to play with. > > > > In this case, you might want to consider writing a driver that knows > > how to talk directly to the flash. This would let you use the parts of > > the flash that aren't holding the boot image to store parameter > > information. > > That would be ideal. Any ideas on where to start ? > Actually the flash is composed of two 4MB NAND chips soldered on the main board. > And I can partition the chips as two separate 4MB drives. The separate partitioning would be a good idea. In conjunction with a custom tool, this would let you have a 4MB boot image and 4MB data store. > However, Mesa > Electronics wrote their own BIOS support for them. I need to check with them if > they are willing to give out the specs for accessing the flash chips directly. If not, it may be possible to go the BIOS route. > > > BTW, Mike the PC/104 board that I am using is from Mesa Electronics > > > 4c27 which is using the Crystal CS8900 ethernet chip. Do you know if > > > anyone is working on a driver for this chip? > > > > Yes, I have a driver here waiting for me to obtain a suitable IBM > > ethernet card for testing. It's designed for the IBM Etherjet cards, > > but it should work Just Fine. > > > > Let me know if/when you want it, and I'll put it up for fetching. I > > hope to have the hardware involved next week. > > Great! Will it work with 2.2.6 Release ? It was written for 2.2.6-RELEASE, yes. > I would like to try it out asap, I am trying to meet some deadlines for this > project. I could do some test for you as well. Sure. It's at http://www.freebsd.org/~msmith/if_cs.tar.gz The authors are Maxim Bolotin and Oleg Sharoiko. They've been maintaining the driver for over a year now, and it's in heavy daily use, so I expect that it will work for you prettymuch as-is. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:40:11 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA28858 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:40:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from oldyeller.comtest.com (comtest.hits.net [206.127.244.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA28714 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:39:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Received: from graphics.comtest.com (graphics.comtest.com [206.127.245.194]) by oldyeller.comtest.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id OAA07761; Fri, 22 May 1998 14:31:04 -1000 (HST) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Message-Id: <199805230031.OAA07761@oldyeller.comtest.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Randal S. Masutani" Organization: ComTest Technologies, Inc. To: Mike Smith Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 14:49:28 -1000 Subject: Re: Embeded applications? Reply-to: randal@comtest.com CC: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <199805222322.QAA03133@dingo.cdrom.com> References: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:01:46 -1000." <199805222343.NAA07640@oldyeller.comtest.com> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 22 May 98 at 16:22, Mike Smith wrote: > Basically, you will need to tweak the part of the PicoBSD build process > where it generates a 1.44MB image, and have it generate an image that > contains a partition table. (See the stuff in the vnconfig manpage > about this.) Keep the image under 1.44MB, so that you can still put it on > a floppy. > > Then you can dump this on top of the flash disk using something like > rawrite. You may need to roll some custom utilities for this. I took a look at rawrite and it looks like it only works on floppies. I guess I need to make my own utility. Any ideas where to start? > A slightly easier solution would be to get a PC104 IDE adapter, and use > an old IDE disk to transfer stuff around. Actually the board has an IDE controller on it already. I guess I just need to get a spare IDE drive to shuffle around. But still how would I transfer the image? Randal Masutani ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ComTest Technologies, Inc. 3049 Ualena St., Suite 1005 Honolulu, Hawaii 96819 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:49:33 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA00731 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:49:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (dingo.cdrom.com [204.216.28.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA00693 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:49:21 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA03319; Fri, 22 May 1998 16:44:00 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805222344.QAA03319@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: randal@comtest.com cc: Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Embeded applications? In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:49:28 -1000." <199805230031.OAA07761@oldyeller.comtest.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 16:43:59 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > On 22 May 98 at 16:22, Mike Smith wrote: > > > Basically, you will need to tweak the part of the PicoBSD build process > > where it generates a 1.44MB image, and have it generate an image that > > contains a partition table. (See the stuff in the vnconfig manpage > > about this.) Keep the image under 1.44MB, so that you can still put it on > > a floppy. > > > > Then you can dump this on top of the flash disk using something like > > rawrite. You may need to roll some custom utilities for this. > > I took a look at rawrite and it looks like it only works on floppies. I guess I > need to make my own utility. Any ideas where to start? Read 512 bytes from the image file, write to the first sector on the disk. Read the next 512 bytes from the image file, write to the second sector on the disk. Repeat. Use the BIOS int13 calls to do your writing. You'll need to query the BIOS equipment list for the geometry, (or ask the user). > > A slightly easier solution would be to get a PC104 IDE adapter, and use > > an old IDE disk to transfer stuff around. > > Actually the board has an IDE controller on it already. I guess I just need to > get a spare IDE drive to shuffle around. But still how would I transfer the > image? Plenty of ways - put DOS on the IDE harddisk, use a comms program to download the image over a null-modem cable for example. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 17:51:11 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA01192 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:51:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from oldyeller.comtest.com (comtest.hits.net [206.127.244.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA01151 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:50:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Received: from graphics.comtest.com (graphics.comtest.com [206.127.245.194]) by oldyeller.comtest.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id OAA07791; Fri, 22 May 1998 14:42:06 -1000 (HST) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Message-Id: <199805230042.OAA07791@oldyeller.comtest.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Randal S. Masutani" Organization: ComTest Technologies, Inc. To: Mike Smith Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 15:00:31 -1000 Subject: Re: Embeded applications? Reply-to: randal@comtest.com CC: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <199805222333.QAA03240@dingo.cdrom.com> References: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:38:21 -1000." <199805230019.OAA07728@oldyeller.comtest.com> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 22 May 98 at 16:33, Mike Smith wrote: > You're right, discopy won't do the job. It's sounding like you're > going to have to write your own tool for this job. > > Are you in a position to write trivial real-mode DOS utilities? Yes, I suppose I could write my own. Maybe I could take fdimage or rawrite source and modify them? > > However, Mesa > > Electronics wrote their own BIOS support for them. I need to check with them > > if they are willing to give out the specs for accessing the flash chips > > directly. > > If not, it may be possible to go the BIOS route. This sounds interesting how would this work? What would be required? Randal Masutani ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ComTest Technologies, Inc. 3049 Ualena St., Suite 1005 Honolulu, Hawaii 96819 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 18:08:45 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id SAA04237 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 18:08:45 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from oldyeller.comtest.com (comtest.hits.net [206.127.244.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA04135 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 18:08:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Received: from graphics.comtest.com (graphics.comtest.com [206.127.245.194]) by oldyeller.comtest.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id OAA07815; Fri, 22 May 1998 14:59:03 -1000 (HST) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Message-Id: <199805230059.OAA07815@oldyeller.comtest.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Randal S. Masutani" Organization: ComTest Technologies, Inc. To: Mike Smith Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 15:17:27 -1000 Subject: Re: Embeded applications? Reply-to: randal@comtest.com CC: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <199805222344.QAA03319@dingo.cdrom.com> References: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 14:49:28 -1000." <199805230031.OAA07761@oldyeller.comtest.com> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 22 May 98 at 16:43, Mike Smith wrote: > Read 512 bytes from the image file, write to the first sector on the > disk. Read the next 512 bytes from the image file, write to the second > sector on the disk. Repeat. > > Use the BIOS int13 calls to do your writing. You'll need to query the > BIOS equipment list for the geometry, (or ask the user). Thanks, I guess it is simple enough to write. > > > A slightly easier solution would be to get a PC104 IDE adapter, and use > > > an old IDE disk to transfer stuff around. > > > > Actually the board has an IDE controller on it already. I guess I just need to > > get a spare IDE drive to shuffle around. But still how would I transfer the > > image? > > Plenty of ways - put DOS on the IDE harddisk, use a comms program to > download the image over a null-modem cable for example. Actually I just remembered that Mesa has a disk transfer program for just this purpose of transfering large files over to the board. Randal Masutani ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ComTest Technologies, Inc. 3049 Ualena St., Suite 1005 Honolulu, Hawaii 96819 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Fri May 22 18:22:23 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id SAA06983 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Fri, 22 May 1998 18:22:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from oldyeller.comtest.com (comtest.hits.net [206.127.244.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA06962 for ; Fri, 22 May 1998 18:22:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Received: from graphics.comtest.com (graphics.comtest.com [206.127.245.194]) by oldyeller.comtest.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id PAA07832; Fri, 22 May 1998 15:12:53 -1000 (HST) (envelope-from randal@comtest.com) Message-Id: <199805230112.PAA07832@oldyeller.comtest.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Randal S. Masutani" Organization: ComTest Technologies, Inc. To: Marc Nicholas Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 15:31:18 -1000 Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? Reply-to: randal@comtest.com CC: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 22 May 98 at 20:16, Marc Nicholas wrote: > This is a tiny bit off-topic for the list, but I thought I'd throw it out > there... > > My embedded system supports BIOS extension and includes it's own local > Flash memory to do so. Basically what I'd like to do is build some sort of > (EE)ROM bootstrap to load my custom FreeBSD operating system. HOWEVER... > > All input/output must be done via COM1. I've never done much low level PC > programming...has anyone attempted something like this? In an ideal world, > I'd also be looking to front-end the BIOS setup screen over COM1. > > And, no, I can't just get a BIOS kit and re-write the BIOS :-p > > > -marc The input/output through COM1 must be done with BIOS support. If you do not have BIOS support for this then I am not sure what else you can do. I have an embedded controller which has bios support for this. If the BIOS doesn't detect a video card installed it will assume that there is a terminal on COM1,9600,8,n,1. Also you need to boot the kernel with the -h option, which redirects console output to the serial port during booting. Then set up /etc/ttys with getty enabled on the COM1 ttyd1 device, so you can login afterwards. This works from me and it really neat. I am currently doing this on a PC/104 board from Mesa Electronics www.mesanet.com, Model 4c27 386SX-40MHz, 8MB RAM, 8MB Flash, Ethernet, and the usual PC AT ports. Its a great little board. What kind of board are you using? Randal Masutani ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ComTest Technologies, Inc. 3049 Ualena St., Suite 1005 Honolulu, Hawaii 96819 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 08:13:53 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA28364 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 08:13:53 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (castles219.castles.com [208.214.165.219]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA28346 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 08:13:42 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@antipodes.cdrom.com) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by antipodes.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id HAA00468; Sat, 23 May 1998 07:09:47 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805231409.HAA00468@antipodes.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: Marc Nicholas cc: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 20:16:52 EDT." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 07:09:46 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > This is a tiny bit off-topic for the list, but I thought I'd throw it out > there... > > My embedded system supports BIOS extension and includes it's own local > Flash memory to do so. Basically what I'd like to do is build some sort of > (EE)ROM bootstrap to load my custom FreeBSD operating system. HOWEVER... > > All input/output must be done via COM1. I've never done much low level PC > programming...has anyone attempted something like this? In an ideal world, > I'd also be looking to front-end the BIOS setup screen over COM1. > > And, no, I can't just get a BIOS kit and re-write the BIOS :-p The FreeBSD bootstrap already supports serial console I/O, and FreeBSD has always supported serial consoles. You can tweak the bootblock build to always use com1 for I/O, and then set the appropriate flags in the kernel to use com1 as the serial console. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 09:00:55 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA03702 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 09:00:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from neuron.hippocampus.net (neuron.hippocampus.net [204.138.241.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA03696 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 09:00:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@hippocampus.net) Received: from localhost (marc@localhost) by neuron.hippocampus.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA11602; Sat, 23 May 1998 12:00:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 12:00:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Nicholas To: Mike Smith cc: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-Reply-To: <199805231409.HAA00468@antipodes.cdrom.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, 23 May 1998, Mike Smith wrote: > > This is a tiny bit off-topic for the list, but I thought I'd throw it out > > there... > > > > My embedded system supports BIOS extension and includes it's own local > > Flash memory to do so. Basically what I'd like to do is build some sort of > > (EE)ROM bootstrap to load my custom FreeBSD operating system. HOWEVER... > > > > All input/output must be done via COM1. I've never done much low level PC > > programming...has anyone attempted something like this? In an ideal world, > > I'd also be looking to front-end the BIOS setup screen over COM1. > > > > And, no, I can't just get a BIOS kit and re-write the BIOS :-p > > The FreeBSD bootstrap already supports serial console I/O, and FreeBSD > has always supported serial consoles. You can tweak the bootblock > build to always use com1 for I/O, and then set the appropriate flags in > the kernel to use com1 as the serial console. Sorry, I guess I wasn't very clear... I'm talking about system bootstrap stuff *before* the FreeBSD bootstrap...i.e. showing some sort of POST output, allowing the user to possibly tweak some BIOS settings, etc. all over a console. -marc -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hippocampus OSD, Inc. "Industrial Strength Internet Solutions" vox://416.979.9000 fax://416.979.8223 http://www.hippocampus.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 09:04:50 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA04029 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 09:04:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from neuron.hippocampus.net (neuron.hippocampus.net [204.138.241.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA04024 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 09:04:43 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@hippocampus.net) Received: from localhost (marc@localhost) by neuron.hippocampus.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA11621; Sat, 23 May 1998 12:04:58 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 12:04:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Nicholas To: "Randal S. Masutani" cc: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-Reply-To: <199805230112.PAA07832@oldyeller.comtest.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Randal: On Fri, 22 May 1998, Randal S. Masutani wrote: > The input/output through COM1 must be done with BIOS support. If you do not > have BIOS support for this then I am not sure what else you can do. My BIOS allows me to write extensions... > I am currently doing this on a PC/104 board from Mesa Electronics > www.mesanet.com, Model 4c27 386SX-40MHz, 8MB RAM, 8MB Flash, Ethernet, and the > usual PC AT ports. Its a great little board. > What kind of board are you using? A Toronto Microelectronics Pentium SBC. They use the Mr. BIOS kit to graft a BIOS onto the board. There is also int 13 Flash available on the board and a other SBC stuff like soft/hard watchdogs. -marc -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hippocampus OSD, Inc. "Industrial Strength Internet Solutions" vox://416.979.9000 fax://416.979.8223 http://www.hippocampus.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 11:32:35 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id LAA24197 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 11:32:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (castles231.castles.com [208.214.165.231]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id LAA24107 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 11:32:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA03419; Fri, 22 May 1998 17:01:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805230001.RAA03419@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: randal@comtest.com cc: Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Embeded applications? In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 15:00:31 -1000." <199805230042.OAA07791@oldyeller.comtest.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 17:01:14 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > On 22 May 98 at 16:33, Mike Smith wrote: > > > You're right, discopy won't do the job. It's sounding like you're > > going to have to write your own tool for this job. > > > > Are you in a position to write trivial real-mode DOS utilities? > > Yes, I suppose I could write my own. Maybe I could take fdimage or rawrite > source and modify them? That would be the fastest technique, yes. > > > However, Mesa > > > Electronics wrote their own BIOS support for them. I need to check with them > > > if they are willing to give out the specs for accessing the flash chips > > > directly. > > > > If not, it may be possible to go the BIOS route. > > This sounds interesting how would this work? What would be required? You would have to run 3.0 on the system. You would then need to write a small driver which used the kernel's support for real-mode BIOS calls to call the flash BIOS code. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 14:55:11 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA06788 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:55:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from neuron.hippocampus.net (neuron.hippocampus.net [204.138.241.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA06751 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:54:46 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@hippocampus.net) Received: from localhost (marc@localhost) by neuron.hippocampus.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id RAA12200; Sat, 23 May 1998 17:25:28 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 17:25:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Nicholas To: Julian Elischer cc: "Randal S. Masutani" , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, 23 May 1998, Julian Elischer wrote: > what is Mr BIOS? A BIOS kit...allows an SBC developer to quickly/easily create a BIOS for their product. -marc -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hippocampus OSD, Inc. "Industrial Strength Internet Solutions" vox://416.979.9000 fax://416.979.8223 http://www.hippocampus.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 14:55:17 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA06796 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:55:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from neuron.hippocampus.net (neuron.hippocampus.net [204.138.241.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA06761 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:54:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@hippocampus.net) Received: from localhost (marc@localhost) by neuron.hippocampus.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id RAA12204; Sat, 23 May 1998 17:28:56 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 17:28:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Nicholas To: Julian Elischer cc: Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, 23 May 1998, Julian Elischer wrote: > That's what we do on the Interjet. > We altered our BIOS to use com2 as it's POST output. What BIOS are you using?? What kind of processor module/SBC? > Does anyone know if there is a FreeBIOS project anywhere? Unfortunately I haven't found anything that can be reasonably used on a modern system. Chipsets have gotten complicated, there are many possible boards to try and support, etc. etc. There were some free BIOS's, but I think you'd have a hard time grafting them onto modern equipment. -marc -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hippocampus OSD, Inc. "Industrial Strength Internet Solutions" vox://416.979.9000 fax://416.979.8223 http://www.hippocampus.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 14:55:30 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA06833 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:55:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from gatekeeper.whistle.com (gatekeeper.whistle.com [207.76.204.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA06774 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:55:02 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from julian@whistle.com) Received: (from smap@localhost) by gatekeeper.whistle.com (8.7.5/8.6.12) id OAA11207 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:25:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from alpo.whistle.com(alpo 207.76.204.38) by gatekeeper via smap (V2.0) id xma011204; Sat, 23 May 98 14:25:15 -0700 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by alpo.whistle.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA15536; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:10:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from current1.whistle.com(207.76.205.22) via SMTP by alpo.whistle.com, id smtpd015533; Sat May 23 21:10:40 1998 Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 14:10:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Julian Elischer To: Marc Nicholas cc: "Randal S. Masutani" , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG what is Mr BIOS? On Sat, 23 May 1998, Marc Nicholas wrote: > Randal: > > On Fri, 22 May 1998, Randal S. Masutani wrote: > > > The input/output through COM1 must be done with BIOS support. If you do not > > have BIOS support for this then I am not sure what else you can do. > > My BIOS allows me to write extensions... > > > I am currently doing this on a PC/104 board from Mesa Electronics > > www.mesanet.com, Model 4c27 386SX-40MHz, 8MB RAM, 8MB Flash, Ethernet, and the > > usual PC AT ports. Its a great little board. > > What kind of board are you using? > > A Toronto Microelectronics Pentium SBC. They use the Mr. BIOS kit to graft > a BIOS onto the board. There is also int 13 Flash available on the board > and a other SBC stuff like soft/hard watchdogs. > > > -marc > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Hippocampus OSD, Inc. "Industrial Strength Internet Solutions" > vox://416.979.9000 fax://416.979.8223 http://www.hippocampus.net > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 14:55:32 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA06837 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:55:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from gatekeeper.whistle.com (gatekeeper.whistle.com [207.76.204.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA06785 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:55:08 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from julian@whistle.com) Received: (from smap@localhost) by gatekeeper.whistle.com (8.7.5/8.6.12) id OAA11208 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:25:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from alpo.whistle.com(alpo 207.76.204.38) by gatekeeper via smap (V2.0) id xmaa11204; Sat, 23 May 98 14:25:15 -0700 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by alpo.whistle.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA15508; Sat, 23 May 1998 14:09:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from current1.whistle.com(207.76.205.22) via SMTP by alpo.whistle.com, id smtpd015503; Sat May 23 21:09:38 1998 Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 14:09:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Julian Elischer To: Marc Nicholas cc: Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG That's what we do on the Interjet. We altered our BIOS to use com2 as it's POST output. That way it goes to the LCD. Does anyone know if there is a FreeBIOS project anywhere? On Sat, 23 May 1998, Marc Nicholas wrote: > On Sat, 23 May 1998, Mike Smith wrote: > > > > This is a tiny bit off-topic for the list, but I thought I'd throw it out > > > there... > > > > > > My embedded system supports BIOS extension and includes it's own local > > > Flash memory to do so. Basically what I'd like to do is build some sort of > > > (EE)ROM bootstrap to load my custom FreeBSD operating system. HOWEVER... > > > > > > All input/output must be done via COM1. I've never done much low level PC > > > programming...has anyone attempted something like this? In an ideal world, > > > I'd also be looking to front-end the BIOS setup screen over COM1. > > > > > > And, no, I can't just get a BIOS kit and re-write the BIOS :-p > > > > The FreeBSD bootstrap already supports serial console I/O, and FreeBSD > > has always supported serial consoles. You can tweak the bootblock > > build to always use com1 for I/O, and then set the appropriate flags in > > the kernel to use com1 as the serial console. > > Sorry, I guess I wasn't very clear... > > I'm talking about system bootstrap stuff *before* the FreeBSD > bootstrap...i.e. showing some sort of POST output, allowing the user to > possibly tweak some BIOS settings, etc. all over a console. > > > -marc > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Hippocampus OSD, Inc. "Industrial Strength Internet Solutions" > vox://416.979.9000 fax://416.979.8223 http://www.hippocampus.net > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 21:24:46 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA04660 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 21:24:46 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (castles167.castles.com [208.214.165.167]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA04654 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 21:24:40 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@antipodes.cdrom.com) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by antipodes.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA02593; Sat, 23 May 1998 15:33:34 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805232233.PAA02593@antipodes.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: Julian Elischer cc: Marc Nicholas , Mike Smith , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 23 May 1998 14:09:35 PDT." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 15:33:34 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > That's what we do on the Interjet. > We altered our BIOS to use com2 as it's POST output. > That way it goes to the LCD. If you have BIOS source, that's always good. > Does anyone know if there is a FreeBIOS project anywhere? Ask AltaVista about "openbios", but be aware that they appear to be totally clueless. Apart from that, I don't believe so, no. Writing a complete, up-to-date BIOS is a nontrivial exercise, and you have to be tied closely to the board you run on in many ways. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 21:24:49 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA04684 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 21:24:49 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (castles167.castles.com [208.214.165.167]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA04652 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 21:24:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@antipodes.cdrom.com) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by antipodes.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA02610; Sat, 23 May 1998 15:34:29 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805232234.PAA02610@antipodes.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: Julian Elischer cc: Marc Nicholas , "Randal S. Masutani" , freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 23 May 1998 14:10:37 PDT." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 15:34:29 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > what is Mr BIOS? Microid Research, one of the relatively newer players in the BIOS game. www.mrbios.com -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message From owner-freebsd-small Sat May 23 22:29:10 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id WAA12416 for freebsd-small-outgoing; Sat, 23 May 1998 22:29:10 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (castles167.castles.com [208.214.165.167]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA12402 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 22:29:02 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@antipodes.cdrom.com) Received: from antipodes.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by antipodes.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA04131 for ; Sat, 23 May 1998 21:25:12 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805240425.VAA04131@antipodes.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BIOS bootstrap? In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 23 May 1998 12:00:52 EDT." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 21:25:12 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > > This is a tiny bit off-topic for the list, but I thought I'd throw it out > > > there... > > > > > > My embedded system supports BIOS extension and includes it's own local > > > Flash memory to do so. Basically what I'd like to do is build some sort of > > > (EE)ROM bootstrap to load my custom FreeBSD operating system. HOWEVER... > > > > > > All input/output must be done via COM1. I've never done much low level PC > > > programming...has anyone attempted something like this? In an ideal world, > > > I'd also be looking to front-end the BIOS setup screen over COM1. > > > > > > And, no, I can't just get a BIOS kit and re-write the BIOS :-p > > > > The FreeBSD bootstrap already supports serial console I/O, and FreeBSD > > has always supported serial consoles. You can tweak the bootblock > > build to always use com1 for I/O, and then set the appropriate flags in > > the kernel to use com1 as the serial console. > > Sorry, I guess I wasn't very clear... > > I'm talking about system bootstrap stuff *before* the FreeBSD > bootstrap...i.e. showing some sort of POST output, allowing the user to > possibly tweak some BIOS settings, etc. all over a console. You would have to hijack the video BIOS (steal its vectors, presuming the system BIOS calls it 'legally') and shadow the screen using a nominated terminal emulation. Given you can write BIOS extensions, that's not impossible, but it is quite a lot of work, and if you're not familiar with low-level PC bitbashing you have quite a lot to learn. (That's not intended to discourage you - just some perspective.) -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message