Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 16:00:54 -0700 From: Parag Patel <parag@cgt.com> To: Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov>, Jung-uk Kim <juikim@engin.umd.umich.edu>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Anybody working on FreeBSD BIOS? Message-ID: <68338.961110054@pinhead.parag.codegen.com> In-Reply-To: Message from Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG> of "Thu, 15 Jun 2000 14:47:32 PDT." <200006152147.OAA00521@mass.osd.bsdi.com>
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On Thu, 15 Jun 2000 14:47:32 PDT, Mike Smith wrote: > >I'd suggest you go talk to Parag Patel, who's just wasted about three >months of his life trying to make SmartFirmware run on _one_ supposedly >well-documented board. Parag is nobody's fool, and I consider his >results pretty representative of the issue. Thanks, but I think I'm a fool for even *attempting* this project. :) That said, I'm trying to get a SuperMicro P6DGE going right now. I toasted my L440GX+ or I'd probably be further along. I *think* I can talk to the ISA bus but am not yet sure. I can't seem to wake up the Winbond 977TF ISA I/O chip. The L440GX uses the same GX and PIIX4 chipset but a different I/O chip. The problem, as Mike said, is the magic goo hidden away in the BIOS ROMs that actually initializes parts and patches around some most *interesting* bugs in the hardware. Each chipset and motherboard seem to have their own sets of bugs and workarounds. None of the motherboard or chipset vendors (except for SiS) are even slightly interested in talking to us. I've even resorted to diassembling the BIOS ROM to try to figure out what's going on. This is another exercise in frustration, but we did manage to find some magic undocumented ISA ports being initialized. We have no idea what it's initializing. My current plan of action is to plug in a vanilla ISA card and use another serial port to see if I can get something out of it. This has lead to another comedy of errors as there's isn't enough room in the rackmount case to plugin an ISA card *with connectors*. Sigh. I'm remounting the motherboard in a vanilla cheapie ATX case right now... Anyway, if I can get something out a serial port, I can start dumping registers, and then hopefully make some progress. Lots of "if"s... Unfortunately, all this work will have to be done all over again for the next motherboard, and the next, and the next... -- Parag Patel To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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