switch-coreboot/HOWTO/SiS630

This file contains instructions for the SiS 630 based mainboards.

WARNING: we assume you've built kernels, know how to open up your PC, and how
to yank the flash part out and put in a different part. There is NO WARRANTY, 
express or implied, with this software. In fact, if you don't know what you're
doing, and you get careless, you're going to end up with a nice paperweight
instead of a motherboard. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 

That said, this process is pretty hard to screw up. 

The mainboards that are "known good" are:
Matsonic MS7308E
Winfast 6300MAX

Mainboards with SiS630 that we KNOW will not work are:
Any ASUS (uses the wrong kind of flash part)
Matsonic MS7308D (no Ethernet connector)

Vendors we have experience with that work:
www.aaronix.com

Clueless vendors, who ship the wrong board:
www.dknypc.com

Vendors who might work:
www.eurocomla.com

----
The steps for loading linuxbios are simple:
1) get a kernel, patch it, then build it
2) config and build linuxbios
3) get linux installed on your machine
4) put a Disk On Chip into the flash socket
5) Burn the chip
6) hit reset. You're up.

---
Step 1:
o 	to www.kernel.org and get linux-2.4.0-test11

o	Once you have pulled this file down and untar'ed it, 
	apply the proper patch from the freebios/src/kernel_patches 
	directory.  Here's the current favorite for test11:
 	linux-2.4.0-test11-sis630-fat-sisfb.patch

o	Now copy config-2.4.0-test11.sis to .config, then
	make oldconfig
	make clean
	make dep
	make vmlinux

You now have a kernel for linuxbios.

Step 2:

o	You need to get linuxbios source.
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.freebios.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/freebios login 

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.freebios.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/freebios co freebios 


o	You now need to figure out where you want to put your build images. 
	DO NOT PUT THESE IN THE LINUXBIOS SOURCE TREE. 
	You want to put them OUTSIDE THE TREE, so you can always
	cvs update
	and not lose any of your build directory. 
	Linuxbios does all the builds in a single directory, outside the 
	source tree, much as BSD does. To build the initial Makefile, 
	assembly stub, and ld script, we have a config tool. 
	You need to build a config file (simple), run the config tool,
	cd to the build directory, and type 'make'. 
	Here is a config file for the winfast 6300

	# This will make a target directory of ./winfast
	# Note that this is RELATIVE TO WHERE YOU ARE WHEN YOU RUN THE 
	# CONFIG TOOL. Make it absolute if you like
	target winfast 

	# WinFast 6300 MAX mainboard
	mainboard leadtek/winfast6300

	# Enable Serial Console for debugging
	# It will come up at 115200,8n1
	option SERIAL_CONSOLE

	# Enable MicroCode update and L2 Cache init for PII and PIII
	option UPDATE_MICROCODE
	option CONFIGURE_L2_CACHE

	# Use the internal VGA frame buffer device
	option HAVE_FRAMEBUFFER

	# Path to your kernel (vmlinux)
	linux /usr/src/linux

	# Kernel command line parameters
	commandline root=/dev/hda1 

	
	The target command names the build directory. The mainboard command
	names the mainboard. We have set options for a serial console which
	will get you linuxbios debug output via the serial port; updating
	microcode on the PIII (mandatory for coppermine!); configuring the
	L2 cache (harmless, leave it in); framebuffer init (leave it in
	if you want a console). You have to tell it where to find the vmlinux
	you build (the 'linux' command); and finally you need a commandline
	for now. 

	That's the file. Here's what it looks like when you run it. 
 	python LBConfig.py winfast.config ~/src/bios/freebios
	winfast is not a directory. 
 	I know I should make this, but I'm too paranoid
 	To fix this, type
	mkdir -p  winfast
 	then run this program again

	Note this first time, we got an error, since I forgot to make
	the 'target' directory.
	mkdir -p winfast

	python LBConfig.py winfast.config ~/src/bios/freebios
	Will place Makefile, crt0.S, ldscript.ld in  winfast
	Process config file:  /users/rminnich/src/bios/freebios/src/mainboard/leadtek/winfast6300/Config
	Process config file:  /users/rminnich/src/bios/freebios/src/northsouthbridge/sis/630/Config
	Added ram init file:  northsouthbridge/sis/630/raminit.inc
	Process config file:  /users/rminnich/src/bios/freebios/src/cpu/p5/Config
	Process config file:  /users/rminnich/src/bios/freebios/src/cpu/p6/Config
	Process config file:  /users/rminnich/src/bios/freebios/src/lib/Config
	Trying to create  winfast/Makefile
	Trying to create  winfast/ldscript.ld
	Trying to create  winfast/crt0.S
	Check for crt0.S param file: /users/rminnich/src/bios/freebios/src/include/northsouthbridge/sis/630/param.h
 	Adding include to crt0.S for this parameter file

	OK, all those messages are normal. Now we do a make:

	(for a full transcript, see later in the file)

	We now have three files to be loaded into the Disk On Chip. The first
	is called docipl. It is 512 bytes. The second is called linuxbios.strip,
	and is the binary image of the linuxbios that gets loaded into Doc. 
	The third file  is you kernel, and is stripped and compressed, 
	vmlinux.bin.gz

	-rw-------    1 rminnich CIC-ACL       512 Dec 20 08:41 docipl
	-rwx------    1 rminnich CIC-ACL     33494 Dec 20 08:41 linuxbios.strip*
	-rwx------    1 rminnich CIC-ACL    756069 Dec 20 08:41 vmlinux.bin.gz*


	You're now ready to burn the Disk On Chip, but first .... 

Step 3) 
	Get Linux installed on your machine. You still have to do this first.
	We can't yet boot alternate media such as cdroms. 
	Be sure and get a kernel running which has MTD on as MODULES. 

Step 4) open the machine (LEAVE THE POWER ON), yank the flash, and 
	plug in the DoC. We recommend you practice this first with the 
	power off. Make sure that whatever you do, you are not shorting 
	things out. 

	NOTE: YOU CAN HURT YOURSELF AT THIS STEP. We can't take any
	responsibility for what happens to you here. If you haven't 
	done this, or are not trained, or have a history of getting
	hurt by hardware, DON'T DO IT.

Step 5) Run the following script:

Step 6) Hit reset. Linuxbios should come up in a few seconds.