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zxy
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:32 pm    Post subject: LinuxBIOS - flashrom, superiotool, lxbios svn ebuilds Reply with quote

I'm playing with LinuxBIOS and they have programs called flashrom, superiotool and lxbios that are used to flash BIOS, get info about superio and a tool to get info from linuxbios when booted with it. As i didn't find an ebuild for them i made them myself.
Here are the links to original intructions:

Here they are:
/var/paludis/repositories/local/sys-fs/flashrom/flashrom-scm.ebuild:
# Copyright 1999-2006 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header: $

#
# flashrom SVN ebuild
#

inherit subversion eutils

DESCRIPTION="Flash rom chips"
HOMEPAGE="http://www.linuxbios.org/Flashrom"

LICENSE="GPL"
SLOT="0"
KEYWORDS="~x86"
IUSE=""

SRC_URI=""
ESVN_REPO_URI="svn://linuxbios.org/repos/trunk/util/${PN}"

RDEPEND="sys-apps/pciutils
        sys-libs/zlib"

S=${WORKDIR}/${PN}

src_install() {
#       not using emake, because it makes sandbox violations
        dosbin flashrom
        doman *.8
}


/var/paludis/repositories/local/sys-apps/superiotool/superiotool-scm.ebuild:
# Copyright 1999-2006 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header: $

#
# superiotool SVN ebuild
#

inherit subversion eutils

DESCRIPTION=" Superiotool allows you to detect which Super I/O you have on your mainboard, and it can provide detailed information about the register contents of the Super I/O."
HOMEPAGE="http://www.linuxbios.org/Superiotool"

LICENSE="GPL"
SLOT="0"
KEYWORDS="~x86"
IUSE=""

SRC_URI=""
ESVN_REPO_URI="svn://linuxbios.org/repos/trunk/util/${PN}"

S=${WORKDIR}/${PN}

src_install() {
#       not using emake, because it makes sandbox violations
        dobin superiotool
        doman *.8
}


/var/paludis/repositories/local/sys-apps/lxbios/lxbios-scm.ebuild:
# Copyright 1999-2006 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header: $

#
# lxbios SVN ebuild
#

inherit subversion eutils

DESCRIPTION="Lxbios is a utility for reading/writing LinuxBIOS parameters and displaying information from the LinuxBIOS table in CMOS."
HOMEPAGE="http://www.linuxbios.org/Lxbios"

LICENSE="GPL"
SLOT="0"
KEYWORDS="~x86"
IUSE=""

SRC_URI=""
ESVN_REPO_URI="svn://linuxbios.org/repos/trunk/util/${PN}"

S=${WORKDIR}/${PN}

src_install() {
#       not using emake, because it makes sandbox violations
        dobin ${PN}
        doman lxbios.1.gz
}

I hope they will work for others too.

-- edit --
1. flashrom now installs in /usr/sbin
2. added superiotool ebuild
3. added lxbios.ebuild
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Last edited by zxy on Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:34 pm; edited 3 times in total
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zxy
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 12:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

For all three ebuilds i also opened bugreports.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have PT-6IBD Azza motherboard and I needed to patch the LinuxBIOSv2 to make it work.
To patch it for this board get the patch from HERE and copy it to the your_local_repo/sys-apps/superiotool/files/
Code:
# wget http://www.linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/attachments/20071025/f5922745/attachment-0001.bin -O v2_i440bx_azza_pt-6ibd.patch
# cp v2_i440bx_azza_pt-6ibd.patch  /path_to_your_local_repo/sys-apps/superiotool/files/

Also change the ebuild a bit, add
Code:
src_unpack(){
        subversion_src_unpack ${A}
        cd "${S}"
        patch -i ${FILESDIR}/*.patch
}
to the superiotool ebuild. And reinstall superiotool.
And to patch the LinuxBIOSv2 do
Code:
# cd LinuxBIOSv2
# patch -p0 < v2_i440bx_azza_pt-6ibd.patch


For the howto, based on my bios flashing, you can look at http://linuxbios.org/AZZA_PT-6IBD_Build_Tutorial
Photos and video are comming there in a few days, too. 8O
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StifflerStealth
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I read about this project when it first came out. Supposedly they had issues where the computer booted so fast that the Hard Drives didn't have time to spin up, so they would need to press the reboot button a couple times in order to actually post the machine.

How well is working for you? Does your system boot any faster?
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

zxy wrote:
I have PT-6IBD Azza motherboard and I needed to patch the LinuxBIOSv2 to make it work.
To patch it for this board get the patch from HERE and copy it to the your_local_repo/sys-apps/superiotool/files/
Code:
# wget http://www.linuxbios.org/pipermail/linuxbios/attachments/20071025/f5922745/attachment-0001.bin -O v2_i440bx_azza_pt-6ibd.patch
# cp v2_i440bx_azza_pt-6ibd.patch  /path_to_your_local_repo/sys-apps/superiotool/files/

Also change the ebuild a bit, add
Code:
src_unpack(){
        subversion_src_unpack ${A}
        cd "${S}"
        patch -i ${FILESDIR}/*.patch
}
to the superiotool ebuild. And reinstall superiotool.
And to patch the LinuxBIOSv2 do
Code:
# cd LinuxBIOSv2
# patch -p0 < v2_i440bx_azza_pt-6ibd.patch


For the howto, based on my bios flashing, you can look at http://linuxbios.org/AZZA_PT-6IBD_Build_Tutorial
Photos and video are comming there in a few days, too. 8O


You could include this patch in your ebuild n make full use of IUSE.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hoyanf wrote:
....
You could include this patch in your ebuild n make full use of IUSE.

I know, but it will be soon included in svn, so the patch won't be needed any more. :wink:
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

StifflerStealth wrote:
I read about this project when it first came out. Supposedly they had issues where the computer booted so fast that the Hard Drives didn't have time to spin up, so they would need to press the reboot button a couple times in order to actually post the machine.

How well is working for you? Does your system boot any faster?


It works nice. :wink:
There are some issues still (it is worked on by LB devs) with my RAM. For my board it only recognizes one dimm chip, but the patch is in the work now so i hope it will be available soon (I was informed that it will be :D ).

Otherwise i'm impressed with the boot speeds.

I've put some photos on my webpage http://drzile.dyndns.org/linuxbios/. Tonight i hope to make a video of LB booting and especially I hope to make a video of LB+einit booting.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So here are two videos of very bad quality, but speed can be seen. :D :D :D

I'm waiting for a better camera, and then I'll make more videos. Should be soon.

The hardware specs are:
readme.txt wrote:
This video files were taken on Azza/PT-6IBD motherboard with
- pentium-3, 450 Mhz processor (with L2 cache disabled)
- 64 Mb RAM
- 6 Gb hard disk (no cache)
- motherboard running on 66Mhz

System starts rsync server, ssh daemon and basic system services.
BIOS chip has LinuxBIOS (http://linuxbios.org/) inside
and uses eINIT (http://einit.org/) as init.


And two (low quality) videos are here: ftp://ftp.ns-linux.org/pub/linuxbios
Linux guys from Novi Sad (Serbia), thanks for hosting them.

I didn't add any delay for harddisk, as asked in above post.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hope that there will be soon support for my mobo from the linuxbios.
m2n32ws

:roll:
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kollin wrote:
I hope that there will be soon support for my mobo from the linuxbios.
m2n32ws

:roll:

If it's not supported on the wiki try #OpenBIOS on irc.freenode.org. I did just that. 8)
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Can Flashrom flash any motherboard bios say with a file that has an extension *.bin? I would like to update my motherboards bios but I cannot make a windows boot disk.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

charlie wrote:
Can Flashrom flash any motherboard bios say with a file that has an extension *.bin? I would like to update my motherboards bios but I cannot make a windows boot disk.

It works on supported motherboards, or better on supported superio chips and eeprom chips.

I made myself a backup of the bios first then flashed my working/second chip with it and booted with it, to test if flashing worked. Then I started to play with LinuxBIOS. So my original chip is still intact in the drawer.

flashrom -h shows you the options, but don't play with -w option if you don't exactly know what you are doing. If this fails, you wont be able to boot the machine. Bu this can happen with windoze flasher software too.

charlie, you can ask flashrom devs on #OpenBIOS about it, too. They might/would give you better answers.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

zxy wrote:
I made myself a backup of the bios first then flashed my working/second chip with it and booted with it, to test if flashing worked.

How does that work? Do you hot swap the bios rom to flash the second one? Where do you buy roms?
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

AaronPPC wrote:
zxy wrote:
I made myself a backup of the bios first then flashed my working/second chip with it and booted with it, to test if flashing worked.

How does that work? Do you hot swap the bios rom to flash the second one? Where do you buy roms?

Yup, i just hotswapped (i don't have an external device for flashing roms).

I got the second one on a dead motherboard in a local computer shop. :wink:
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

zxy wrote:
For all three ebuilds i also opened bugreports.

Updated all of them, hope it works without problems. It compiles fine on my two boxes.

Also, included them in roslin overlay (info in signature).
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also added a little tool called getpir (in roslin overlay).
Code:
# Copyright 1999-2007 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header: $

inherit subversion eutils

DESCRIPTION="Reads PIR table from memory"
HOMEPAGE="http://www.linuxbios.org/"

LICENSE="GPL-2"
SLOT="0"
KEYWORDS="~x86"
IUSE=""

SRC_URI=""
ESVN_REPO_URI="svn://linuxbios.org/repos/trunk/util/${PN}"

S=${WORKDIR}/${PN}

src_unpack() {
        subversion_src_unpack
        cd ${S}
        sed -i \
                -e "s|-O2 -D_GNU_SOURCE -DGETPIR -Wall|-D_GNU_SOURCE -DGETPIR ${CFLAGS}|" \
                Makefile || die "sed"
}

src_compile() {
        emake || die "emake failed"
}

src_install() {
        dobin ${PN}
        dodoc README
}

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Playing with some other machines made me make myself a repo just for linuxbios and a minimal install cd for amd64 that has linuxbios programs already on.

Minimal boot cd is hosted here:

Thanks for hosting :D
There are also 2 videos there of system booting linuxbios+einit. (I hope to shoot some better quality videos soon)

The overlay for just linuxbios programs is accessible via rsync on the addres rsync://drzile.dyndns.org/linuxbios

Paludis users can use the following conf file as a sample.
/etc/paludis/repositories/linuxbios.conf:
location = ${ROOT}/var/paludis/repositories/linuxbios
sync = rsync://drzile.dyndns.org/linuxbios
master_repository = gentoo
cache = /var/empty
format = ebuild
provides_cache = ${location}/.cache/provides
names_cache = ${location}/.cache/names
write_cache = /var/cache/paludis/metadata
importance=1

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