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diff --git a/qemu/roms/openbios/utils/devbios/README.bios b/qemu/roms/openbios/utils/devbios/README.bios deleted file mode 100644 index 45bd9a809..000000000 --- a/qemu/roms/openbios/utils/devbios/README.bios +++ /dev/null @@ -1,256 +0,0 @@ -NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! - -/dev/bios is obsolete and no longer under development. Please adapt all -changes to the "flashrom" utility of LinuxBIOS. This utility can be found -at LinuxBIOSv2/utils/flashrom in the LinuxBIOS v2 repository. LinuxBIOS -is available at http://www.linuxbios.org/ - -I'm also looking for volunteers to port all features available in /dev/bios -to flashrom so /dev/bios can be dropped from the OpenBIOS tree. These features -include - -- block information about flash chips -- block wise writing of flash chips -- lots of supported flash chips and vendors. - -If you have questions, contact Stefan Reinauer <stepan@coresystems.de> - -NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! - - -/dev/bios documentation 2002/02/19 - -Table of contents ------------------- - - 1. What is /dev/bios? - 2. What hardware/software do I need to run /dev/bios? - 3. Where to get the latest release of /dev/bios - 4. How to get /dev/bios work - 5. Writing to the devices - 6. About PCI chipsets (ix86 only) - 7. About APM Powermanagement (ix86 only) - 8. About different flashchips. - 9. Hints for BIOS flashing - -If you want better information on this driver, read the ChangeLog, -mail me or read the source, Luke :-) - -1. What is /dev/bios? ----------------------- - -This is a kernel driver for different kinds of (Flash)BIOSs that are -available in today's hardware. - -There are well known BIOSs for - - System BIOS (resides at 0xe0000 on Intel PCs) - - graphics hardware - - SCSI host adapters - - networking interfaces with 'BOOT ROM' - - ... - -While in former times these BIOSs were implemented by using ROM or -EPROM (both can't be updated without opening your computer) today's -PC hardware is often delivered with so called FLASH ROMs. These -can simply be updated by software. This driver has the approach to -make Linux read and write flash roms. - -One word before you read ahead: This is still alpha software and -writing to your flash roms may destroy them. So if you notice anything -strange, don't even think about going on, but write some mail to: - - Stefan Reinauer <stepan@openbios.org> - -Please note that I am not responsible in any way for what you -do with this code or for what this code does with your computer. - -2. What hardware/software do I need to run /dev/bios? ------------------------------------------------------- - -Currently this driver supports ix86 (mainly Pentium, -PPro, PII/III, Athlon, but some 486s), Itanium and Alpha -architecture. -It supports all flash chips from 32k to 2M (theoretically). -Minimum kernel version is v2.2.x, but it's wise to use a -2.4.x kernel. - -3. Where to get the latest release of /dev/bios? -------------------------------------------------- - -/dev/bios was recently integrated into the OpenBIOS CVS -tree for easier maintainance. General information can be -found on the /dev/bios status page: -http://www.freiburg.linux.de/OpenBIOS/status/devbios.html -Latest releases of /dev/bios can be found at the download page: -http://www.freiburg.linux.de/OpenBIOS/dev/download.html -Latest development trees of /dev/bios can be found in the -OpenBIOS CVS. For information how to access it, go to -http://www.freiburg.linux.de/OpenBIOS/dev/cvs.html - -4. How do I get /dev/bios work -------------------------------- - -Create the system bios device with - - mknod /dev/bios c 104 0 - -Now you can add devices for the other BIOSs (often known as option -roms) in your Computer, i.e. like this: - - mknod /dev/gfxbios c 104 1 - mknod /dev/hddbios c 104 2 - mknod /dev/netbios c 104 3 - -The order of the devices may vary on your computer, maybe you even don't -have a flash bios on your network card or on your scsi host adapter. You will -have to decide this after playing around a bit. - -Now you have to compile and insert the kernel driver module: - - cd devbios - make clean && make - insmod bios.o - -Now you have a new device, /dev/bios and, if you have -your kernel configured to have the /proc/ interface, -you have a status file /proc/bios. - -Since this driver is in an early state, you should have -a look at dmesg very often. - -5. Writing to the devices --------------------------- - -If you insert bios.o without any options, you are not able -to write any of the devices. To enable writing, you should -use - insmod bios.o write=1 - -Writing is now possible with i.e. - dd if=yourbios.bin of=/dev/bios bs=128k count=1 -or - dd if=yourbios.bin of=/dev/bios bs=256k count=1 - -depending on the size of your flash chip. - -You can use 'cat' for flashing as well. Note: Many flashchips are -sectored and the whole sector has to be rewritten, the 4k clusters -of cat may be very slow (and an 112 kb sector has to be written 28 -times completely instead of 1 time with dd) - -Make sure that your file "yourbios.bin" is a valid bios image for -your motherboard and that it is not pkzipped or exe-pkzipped. -(Usually, a 128kb bios images consist of 112kb lha-compressed data, -2*4kb ESCD and DMI (PnP) Data and an 8 kb emergency boot block.) - -Writing to /dev/bios does not work for many chips right now. Write -accesses are ignored in this case. If you want an unsupported flash -rom supported, please mail me. -WARNING: Setting an unsupported chip to "supported" without changing -the rest of the code will *very likely* destroy the contents of your -chip. - -On machines with an AWARD bios you can test whether writing works -safely by only deleting the ESCD/DMI memory on the flash chip. -This data is rewritten by the bios when empty, corrupted or when -you put in a new expansion device. In that case you should see a -message stating "Updating ESCD" during the next boot. - -Please have a close look at the size of your flash chip. For 128k -flash chips, try - - dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/bios bs=4096 seek=28 count=2 - -For 256k flash chips, you _MUST_ use the following line instead, -or your system bios is going byebye: - - dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/bios bs=4096 seek=56 count=2 - -Attention: I found other machines with their ESCD memory in the -first sectors of the flash chip. These are afaics 512k+ chips -often connected via a firmware hub. -Behaviour of other BIOSs may be similar, but I can't give you -any warranty it works. - -NOTE: If you listen to music from your soundcard while flashing, -you may get errors like this: - Sound: DMA (output) timed out - IRQ/DRQ config error? - -Second, sound switches off while flashing. This is because all -IRQs are blocked while the write procedure to ensure it doesn't -get disturbed by any other hardware. - -6. About PCI chipsets ----------------------- - -Because this driver uses direct PCI accesses to switch shadowing -and write protection of the bios off on PC architecture, each PCI -chipset (or at least chipset group) has to be implemented and -tested seperately. Successfully tested PCI chipsets are - - * Intel 430HX/TX, 440BX/ZX, 460, 8x0 - * UMC 486 (8881F/8886A) - * VIA (M)VP3 - * AMD Irongate and others - * ServerWorks chipsets - * NSC CS5530 (geode companion) - -Any success/error reports are highly welcome. If you need a certain -system type supported, contact me. - - -7. About APM Power Management (ix86 only) ------------------------------------------- - -This driver is known to cause kernel oopses with some of the chipset -drivers when APM is enabled. Reason is that the flash chip is mapped -to the low bios address space which makes the unpacked bios image vanish -so all pointers to APM functions are invalid. -Nowadays most of the chipset drivers only map the high bios area, so -this problem should not occur on any but old UMC/SiS chipsets. If you -encounter oopses while reading/probing flash devices, disable power -management before any write attempts. To achieve so, please pass "apm=off" -as a kernel option, if your kernel is compiled with APM support. - - - -8. About different flashchips ------------------------------- - -Flash chips, /dev/bios has been successfully tested (writing) on: - - * Winbond 29EE011 - * Intel 28F008(SA) - * Atmel AT29C512 - * SST 29EE010, 39SF020 - -It *should* work, if you see a "Supported: yes" in /proc/bios, but -I am not responsible in any way for what you do.. Please be careful. -Please report any working flash chips so that this list can be completed. -Currently many more flash chips than mentioned here will work. -If you need a certain flash device supported, contact me. - -9. Hints for BIOS-Flashing ---------------------------- - -* Always try to write to the ESCD/DMI Memory before you overwrite the rest - of a bios (ix86) If you get ANY errors in dmesg output, DO NOT CONTINUE! -* Always "diff" the new bios with the written image before rebooting -* You may use comp, a little utility in the devbios source tree instead - of diff. It has a nicer output for binary files. -* on Intel, only write the first 120k of an image to the System ROM, this keeps - the emergency bootblock working. - -************** FINAL NOTE ***************************** - -If you want to help this project, send me - - * /proc/bios-output - * dmesg-output (after insmodding the driver) - * your system-configuration - (e.g. output of lspci or /proc/bus/pci/devices) - * any comments - * any ideas - - Stefan Reinauer <stepan@openbios.org> - |