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diff --git a/docs/tasks.html b/docs/tasks.html index e1c646c6..6086469f 100644 --- a/docs/tasks.html +++ b/docs/tasks.html @@ -53,81 +53,40 @@ </li> <li> Libreboot has so far been biased towards Intel. This needs to end (the sooner, the better). A nice start: + <ul> <li> - <b>ASUS KGPE-D16</b>: this is a very modern board. It has support for both Fam10h and Fam15h AMD CPUs. The board is still - new, and still in production. See - these coreboot mailing list posts:<br/> - <a href="http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2015-April/079773.html">post 1</a> and - <a href="http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2015-April/079773.html">post 2</a><br/><br/> - - The board is fully functional (blobs not required), and will be an instant addition to libreboot. - See <a href="https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-status.php">https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-status.php</a><br/><br/> - - <a href="http://raptorengineeringinc.com/content/base/main.htm">Raptor Engineering Inc</a> (USA) has ported - this board to coreboot, and is using the port internally on their computing cluster, for - the research that they do. This is the same company that ported - the <a href="hcl/kfsn4-dre.html">ASUS KFSN4-DRE</a> which is supported in libreboot. - The owner (and the - person who ported the board to coreboot), Timothy Pearson (tpearson on freenode IRC) has reached out to the community, - in request for funding. This funding will pay for the many months of work (at least 4-5 months, for over 10000 - lines of code any many patches that will need to be split up) to get the code - upstreamed into coreboot. This is not as simple as just releasing the code; coreboot has a very strict code - review process (in place to ensure quality control). The patches will have to be split up, with people's - concerns and comments addressed over a long period, with patches constantly rebased to keep up with the - latest coreboot master branch. In order to get this done in a decent enough time frame, Raptor Engineering will need - to work on a more-or-less full-time basis.: - </li> - <li> - Francis Rowe (lead developer of libreboot) is paying for this privately, and will have it - ready in libreboot as soon as possible. - </li> - <li> - Although Raptor will be working for many months to get this upstreamed (merged in coreboot's master branch - in the git repository), libreboot will merge it more or less instantly, probably in the same week that the - code is released for review. Raptor would also of course be rebasing the patches on a regular basis, as part - of the review process, so even if it takes longer for the patches to be merged in coreboot, libreboot would have - support for this board.<br/><br/> - - This is a <b>very</b> high-end board, making for a powerful server or workstation (desktop) system - that should easily be more than powerful enough for almost everyone. Timothy has replaced the AGESA - source in coreboot with native initialization code for AMD. The work that he has done can easily be - extended to support more hardware, so getting this code out and upstreamed is very important.<br/><br/> + TYAN S8230 is very similar, and could probably be ported based on the KGPE-D16. Same GPU too. + <a href="http://tyan.com/product_SKU_spec.aspx?ProductType=MB&pid=665&SKU=600000194">http://tyan.com/product_SKU_spec.aspx?ProductType=MB&pid=665&SKU=600000194</a> <ul> <li> - TYAN S8230 is very similar, and could probably be ported based on the KGPE-D16. Same GPU too. - <a href="http://tyan.com/product_SKU_spec.aspx?ProductType=MB&pid=665&SKU=600000194">http://tyan.com/product_SKU_spec.aspx?ProductType=MB&pid=665&SKU=600000194</a> - <ul> - <li> - W83627 (SuperIO) might have a public datasheet. - Board-specific wiring (PCI interrupts, DIMM voltage selection). etc. - Board seems to use socketed SOIC-8 SPI flash according to tpearson, based on photos available online - looks like a ZIF socket or something else, a clip retaining the chip. - </li> - <li> - tpearson says: Tyan seems to have done the same thing as Asus did and built a whole lot of custom power control circuitry out of FETs. - According to him, this will take much effort to reverse engineer. - </li> - <li> - IPMI firmware is non-free but optional (for iKVM feature, remote management like Intel ME). Not sure if add-on module or baked in. - In either case, it might be removed or otherwise excluded because it's a HUGE backdoor. Unlike Intel ME, this isn't signed so can be - removed, and also replaced theoretically. Is the protocol standard public? If so, might be easy/feasible to replace with free code. - <a href="https://github.com/facebook/openbmc">https://github.com/facebook/openbmc</a> - also linked from - <a href="https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-status.php">https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-status.php</a> - - might be possible adapt this. - - You - might need to use the vendor tools running from under the proprietary BIOS to wipe the Flash chip holding the IPMI firmware, - if it's baked in. (on KGPE-D16, it's an <a href="http://www.servethehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ASUS-ASMB6-iKVM-Module.png">add-on card</a> so just don't add the add-on card - also SOIC-16 according to tpearson. but not sure what form factor used on S8230 - it better not be bl***y WSON). - </li> - <li> - SAS controller requires firmware, but optional. (same thing on KGPE-D16). Board also has SATA, so it's fine. - NOTE: SAS firmware is already flashed onto the SAS controller, to a dedicated chip. Not uploaded/handled by coreboot or linux kernel. - </li> - <li> - tpearson says: power control circuits are a potential issue, not a definite one. it all depends on how Tyan decided to wire things up - if they engineered things properly, it should actually be transparent. - ASUS did not, and required work to get it going (see the notes document) - </li> - </ul> + W83627 (SuperIO) might have a public datasheet. + Board-specific wiring (PCI interrupts, DIMM voltage selection). etc. + Board seems to use socketed SOIC-8 SPI flash according to tpearson, based on photos available online - looks like a ZIF socket or something else, a clip retaining the chip. + </li> + <li> + tpearson says: Tyan seems to have done the same thing as Asus did and built a whole lot of custom power control circuitry out of FETs. + According to him, this will take much effort to reverse engineer. + </li> + <li> + IPMI firmware is non-free but optional (for iKVM feature, remote management like Intel ME). Not sure if add-on module or baked in. + In either case, it might be removed or otherwise excluded because it's a HUGE backdoor. Unlike Intel ME, this isn't signed so can be + removed, and also replaced theoretically. Is the protocol standard public? If so, might be easy/feasible to replace with free code. + <a href="https://github.com/facebook/openbmc">https://github.com/facebook/openbmc</a> - also linked from + <a href="https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-status.php">https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-status.php</a> + - might be possible adapt this. + - You + might need to use the vendor tools running from under the proprietary BIOS to wipe the Flash chip holding the IPMI firmware, + if it's baked in. (on KGPE-D16, it's an <a href="http://www.servethehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ASUS-ASMB6-iKVM-Module.png">add-on card</a> so just don't add the add-on card - also SOIC-16 according to tpearson. but not sure what form factor used on S8230 - it better not be bl***y WSON). + </li> + <li> + SAS controller requires firmware, but optional. (same thing on KGPE-D16). Board also has SATA, so it's fine. + NOTE: SAS firmware is already flashed onto the SAS controller, to a dedicated chip. Not uploaded/handled by coreboot or linux kernel. + </li> + <li> + tpearson says: power control circuits are a potential issue, not a definite one. it all depends on how Tyan decided to wire things up + if they engineered things properly, it should actually be transparent. + ASUS did not, and required work to get it going (see the notes document) </li> </ul> </li> |