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List:       freebsd-hackers
Subject:    Re: How good a job of PCI config will freebsd do?
From:       Parag Patel <parag () cgt ! com>
Date:       2000-03-29 23:45:08
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Mike Smith wrote:

>I'd prefer real firmware, actually.  OF isn't all that bad, and I seem to 
>recall that Parag Patel is porting it to run on the L440GX+.

Heh - yup, I'm right in the middle of port SmartFirmware to the L440GX+.
Definitely masochistic.  I've decided that drilling a hole through my
head would be faster with the same results, only with less pain.

Anyway, we've had our L440GX+ surgically altered and it's now sporting a
Meritec socket in place of the flash part.  I've just now ordered a
PromICE with trace as the old hit-n-miss techniques to get something out
of the serial port from ROM just ain't working.

I've come to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing about PC
hardware that is in any way shape or form designed correctly.
*Everything* about it is wrong wrong wrong.  Don't get me started.

The port is progressing.  I already have a RAM version of SF running
happily, probing devices, booting images off of the net, etc.  Getting
it bootstrapped out of ROM is the current task.  SF always runs in
32-bit `flat' mode, ROM or RAM.


Ronald G. Minnich wrote:

>> It's getting there. Also SiS is now a supporter. Long term, we may see
>> motherboards specifically designed for the OSS community, with real docs
>> yet. Also, I can't see any way to get to 3-second reboot (one of the
>> things we need) given the stupid way BIOSes work. PXE is not an answer. 

Don't know if SmartFirmware will be able to meet the 3-second boot, but
it should definitely be faster than a BIOS.  For one thing, we don't
pretend that we can run an exhaustive and completely trustworthy memory
test.  :)  (Not even sure if this is possible, actually.)


>> You haven't look at how intel designs and documents some of their
>> motherboards, particularly the L440GX+. They won't tell people what they
>> need to know to update flash on this one. Result: you have to boot DOS to
>> upgrade flash. Stupid of them. 

This is why I'm burning the entire flash part in an external programmer.
Once SmartFirmware is running on the motherboard, it'll be able to
update and burn new images over the net, including your original one.
Bootstrapping will still need a floppy to boot under the old BIOS, run a
RAM version of SmartFirmware, download a ROM image over the net, burn it
in, then reset.


	-- Parag Patel


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