Easy projects: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:01, 19 September 2010

You probably came here trying to find a small (minutes to hours) and easy task where you can get your hands dirty and get results immediately.

If you're a coreboot or flashrom newbie, this page is for you.

coreboot

AMD 740G information gathering

(This project description is not finished yet)

If you have a board with AMD 740G chipset, please run (as root)

$ flashrom -V
$ lspci -nnvvvxxxx
$ superiotool -deV
$ dmidecode

and mail the output to the coreboot mailing list together with the exact model number/name of your board.

This helps us evaluate which boards are good targets for coreboot.

Here are some boards:

http://www.czechcomputer.cz/cat_tree.jsp?bpath=Z%C3%A1kladn%C3%AD+desky\Socket+AM2%2B\AMD+740G

Use CBFS wherever possible

src/cpu/amd/model_lx/vsmsetup.c is a very good candidate. The VSM blobs should be loaded from CBFS.

Payloads

coreboot can use a number of different payloads.

Add/test new supported payloads

Test syslinux (probably requires SeaBIOS in addition, needs to be checked).
Port GPXE to "native" coreboot (it works fine together with SeaBIOS though).

flashrom

The flashrom tool can read/write coreboot/BIOS images from/to flash chips.

See flashrom's Easy Projects list for details.

Other

Add support for using coreboot in VirtualBox.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 If you're a coreboot or flashrom newbie, this page is for you.
-=[[flashrom]]=
+== coreboot ==
-A tool to read/write coreboot/BIOS images from/to flash chips.
-==Add timing info to flash chip definitions==
+=== AMD 740G information gathering ===
-Go through the list of flash chips in flashchips.c inside the flashrom source. For each chip (except SPI chips), read through the data sheets and add a comment to the flash chip definition which contains the timing information in microseconds(!) for the probe sequence.
-This will make probing a lot more reliable.
+(This project description is not finished yet)
-Every annotated chip helps.
+If you have a board with AMD 740G chipset, please run (as root)
-==Add the bus type to flash chip definitions==
+ $ '''flashrom -V'''
-Go through the list of flash chips in flashchips.c inside the flashrom source. Look for chip definitions which have .bustype = CHIP_BUSTYPE_NONSPI and look at their data sheets. Read the data sheets and try to figure out the flash bus they use (Parallel/LPC/FWH/SPI). Change the bustype field to CHIP_BUSTYPE_PARALLEL etc. and post a patch to the list.
+ $ '''lspci -nnvvvxxxx'''
+ $ '''superiotool -deV'''
+ $ '''dmidecode'''
-This will make probing faster and more reliable.
+and mail the output to the [[Mailinglist|coreboot mailing list]] together with the exact model number/name of your board.
-Even a single updated chip helps.
+This helps us evaluate which boards are good targets for coreboot.
-[[Flashrom#Communication_bus_protocol]] has a writeup on how to figure out the bus type.
+Here are some boards:
-==Add new flash chip definitions==
+* http://www.czechcomputer.cz/cat_tree.jsp?bpath=Z%C3%A1kladn%C3%AD+desky\Socket+AM2%2B\AMD+740G
-We have a few dozen chip IDs listed in flash.h, but not in flashchips.c. Find them, dig up the data sheets and add chip definitions for them to flashchips.c. You can use similar flash chips as a guideline.
-This will reduce the number of undetected chips.
+=== Use CBFS wherever possible ===
-Every added chip broadens flashrom support.
+* '''src/cpu/amd/model_lx/vsmsetup.c''' is a very good candidate. The VSM blobs should be loaded from [[CBFS]].
-==Test flashrom==
+== Payloads ==
-If you have a desktop (no laptops/notebooks/netbooks), please run
- flashrom
-and check if it finds your flash chip. If it does and any of the operations are listed as unsupported, we'd like to hear about it. If your flash chip is not found, we'd like to hear about it as well.
-In both cases, please send the output of
+coreboot can use a number of different [[Payloads|payloads]].
- flashrom -V
-to the coreboot mailing list (preferred) or to flashrom@coreboot.org
-=coreboot=
+=== Add/test new supported payloads ===
-I'll skip explaining what coreboot is. The whole wiki is about this topic and I can't summarize it in one sentence.
-==coreboot v2==
+* Test syslinux (probably requires [[SeaBIOS]] in addition, needs to be checked).
-The workhorse version of coreboot. Lots of supported boards, but difficult to work with.
+* Port [[GPXE]] to "native" coreboot (it works fine together with [[SeaBIOS]] though).
-TODO: Add easy tasks here.
+== flashrom ==
-==coreboot v3==
+The [[flashrom]] tool can read/write coreboot/BIOS images from/to flash chips.
-The next generation version of coreboot. Few supported boards, still in the design testing phase, easy to work with.
-TODO: Add easy tasks here.
+* See [http://flashrom.org/Easy_projects flashrom's Easy Projects] list for details.
+== Other ==
+* Add [http://tracker.coreboot.org/trac/coreboot/ticket/95 support for using coreboot in VirtualBox].