Board:kontron/986lcd-m

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This page describes how to use coreboot on the Kontron 986LCD-M/mITX mainboard. It is maintained by Uwe Hermann.

The mainboard's manual (PDF) is available from the vendor website (together with various other documents).

A sample boot log from this board is available in the mailing list archive.

Status

Device/functionality	Status	Comments
CPU
CPU works	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5300 @ 1.73GHz (dual core)
L1 cache enabled	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
L2 cache enabled	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	L2 cache: 2048K
L3 cache enabled	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Multiple CPU support	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Multi-core support	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Both cores show up in /proc/cpuinfo.
Hardware virtualization	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Untested	Hardware virtualization is not supported by this CPU (modprobe kvm-intel fails on coreboot + vendor BIOS).
RAM
EDO	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
SDRAM	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
SO-DIMM	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
DDR	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
DDR2	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine, but currently you need to populate both RAM slots with DIMMs of the same size (and reasonably similar timing probably: The controller has to operate in Dual Channel mode for now).
DDR3	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Dual channel support	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine according to memtest86+ (Tested: 2x 1GB DIMMs, interleaved mode).
ECC support	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board Hardware
On-board IDE 3.5"	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK
On-board IDE 2.5"	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board SATA	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Tested: SATA disk ((hd0,0) / hda1 in FILO, /dev/sda1 in Linux).
On-board SCSI	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board USB	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Tested: USB thumb drive in all 4 backpanel USB ports, as well as on the USB pin headers on the board (USB6_7, see manual).
On-board VGA	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	You need to prepend the VGA blob from the proprietary BIOS for this to work. Console works, X11 works (use the intel X.org driver).
On-board Ethernet	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	All three NICs show up correctly in ifconfig -a and work fine.
On-board Audio	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine.
On-board Modem	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board FireWire	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Seems to work fine (backpanel FireWire port), even with pci=noacpi. Tested using the eth1394 module for IPv4-over-FireWire. The FireWire pinheader IEEE1394_1 (see manual) is not yet well-tested.
On-board Smartcard reader	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board CompactFlash	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	There's an onboard CompactFlash slot on the back-side of the board. FILO sees it as (hd2,0) / hdc1, Linux as /dev/sdb1.
On-board PCMCIA	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board Wifi	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board Bluetooth	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
On-board SD card reader	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Add-on slots/cards
ISA add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Audio/Modem-Riser (AMR/CNR) cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
PCI add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine, tested with a PCI network card.
Mini-PCI add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Untested
Mini-PCI-Express add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Unknown
PCI-X add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
AGP graphics cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
PCI Express x1 add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine with PCIe x1 network card in x16 slot
PCI Express x2 add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
PCI Express x4 add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
PCI Express x8 add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
PCI Express x16 add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine, tested with an Nvidia x16 graphics card
PCI Express x32 add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
HTX add-on cards	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Legacy / Super I/O
Floppy	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Serial port 1 (COM1)	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK
Serial port 2 (COM2)	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Untested	There are also COM3 and COM4 pin headers on this board.
Parallel port	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Doing modprobe ppdev works, but no further test were performed. You probably need a special cable to connect to the onboard pin-header.
PS/2 keyboard	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK
PS/2 mouse	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK
Game port	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Infrared	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Untested
PC speaker	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK
DiskOnChip	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Input
Trackpoint	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Touchpad	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Fn Hotkeys	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Fingerprint Reader	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Laptop
Docking VGA	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Docking LAN	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Docking USB	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Docking Audio	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Docking Displayport	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Thinklight	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Webcam	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Miscellaneous
Sensors / fan control	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine using the w83627hf, coretemp (and also i2c-dev, i2c-i810, and eeprom) Linux kernel modules.
Hardware watchdog	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Not yet actually tested, but it seems to be found: iTCO_wdt: Found a ICH7 or ICH7R TCO device (Version=2, TCOBASE=0x0560).
SMBus	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Untested
CAN bus	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
CPU frequency scaling	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | WIP	With pci=noacpi the cpufreq-info utility doesn't output anything useful. On vendor BIOS you can use p4-clockmod (discouraged) or acpi-cpufreq (iff you enabled the respective option in the BIOS menu). On coreboot with ACPI, you can modprobe p4-clockmod successfully (but not acpi-cpufreq), but it's unclear if it really works correctly.
Other powersaving features	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
ACPI	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK
Reboot	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Seems to work fine, even with pci=noacpi.
Poweroff	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine.
Suspend	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Unknown
Nonstandard LEDs	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
High precision event timers (HPET)	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	The HPET is detected by Linux (hpet0: at MMIO 0xfed00000, IRQs 2, 8, 0) and powertop output suggests that it works ok.
Random number generator (RNG)	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Wake on modem ring	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A
Wake on LAN	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine. Tested using the wakeonlan utility.
Wake on keyboard	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Untested	Works fine with vendor BIOS.
Wake on mouse	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | N/A	Doesn't seem to be supported (by the hardware / vendor BIOS), tested with a PS/2 mouse, as well as with a USB mouse.
TPM	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | Unknown
Flashrom	OK=lime | TODO=red | No=red | WIP=orange | Untested=yellow | N/A=lightgray | yellow }}" | OK	Works fine, but you might need -m kontron:986lcd-m when booted with the vendor BIOS (not needed when booted with coreboot).

Build tutorial (with onboard VGA)

$ svn co svn://coreboot.org/coreboot/trunk coreboot
$ cd coreboot
$ make menuconfig

In the payload menu change the settings like follows:

       Add a payload (An ELF executable payload)  --->
   (payload.elf) Payload path and filename
   [*] Use LZMA compression for payloads

To add a VGABIOS image to the CBFS image go to the VGA BIOS submenu and change the settings to the following:

   [*] Add a VGA BIOS image
   (amipci_01.20) VGA BIOS path and filename
   (8086,27a2) VGA device PCI IDs

Now copy your payload into the current directory and name it payload.elf. Then:

$ make

The resulting build/coreboot.rom is your coreboot ROM image you can flash using flashrom.

Getting the VGABIOS image

Then, you have to obtain the VGA blob from the vendor BIOS. Thus, get the original vendor BIOS image using flashrom:

$ flashrom -r kontron.dd

You can list all components of the vendor BIOS via the amideco utility (apt-get install amideco on Debian systems):

$ amideco kontron.dd -l
-=AmiBIOSDeco, version 0.31e (Linux)=-

FileLength      : 100000 (1048576 bytes)
FileName        : kontron.dd

        AMIBIOS information:
Version         : 0800
Packed Data     : 693A0 (431008 bytes)
Start           : DF83C
Packed Offset   : DF83C
Offset          : 0
Released        : 07 June 2007
DirName         : kontron.---
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Class.Instance (Name)        Packed --->  Expanded      Compression   Offset |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

   08 01 (        Interface)    00798 ( 01944) => 00798 ( 01944)      DF83Ch
   04 02 (     Setup Client)    05B6E ( 23406) => 09437 ( 37943)  +   D9CB8h
   0C 03 (           ROM-ID)    00008 ( 00008) => 00008 ( 00008)      D9C9Ch
   0E 04 (         OEM Logo)    0005D ( 00093) => 03E11 ( 15889)  +   D9C28h
   1A 05 (       Small Logo)    00532 ( 01330) => 026A2 ( 09890)  +   D96E0h
   18 06 (ADM (Display MGR))    017FD ( 06141) => 04245 ( 16965)  +   D7ECCh
   19 07 (         ADM Font)    0059C ( 01436) => 01304 ( 04868)  +   D791Ch
   1B 08 (             SLAB)    2FF20 (196384) => 65299 (414361)  +   A79E8h
   21 09 (    Multilanguage)    032A6 ( 12966) => 0723E ( 29246)  +   A472Ch
   20 10 (    PCI AddOn ROM)    09145 ( 37189) => 0EC00 ( 60416)  +   9B5D0h
   20 11 (    PCI AddOn ROM)    09681 ( 38529) => 10000 ( 65536)  +   91F38h
   20 12 (    PCI AddOn ROM)    06008 ( 24584) => 0A800 ( 43008)  +   8BF1Ch
   11 13 (     P6 Microcode)    00001 ( 00001) => 00005 ( 00005)  +   7DEF4h
   90 14 (  User-Defined ;))    021DE ( 08670) => 04200 ( 16896)  +   7BD00h
   2A 15 (         User ROM)    005F8 ( 01528) => 00C7A ( 03194)  +   7B6F4h
   2E 16 (         User ROM)    047B3 ( 18355) => 07800 ( 30720)  +   76F2Ch
   06 17 (         DMI Data)    00258 ( 00600) => 01024 ( 04132)  +   76CC0h
   80 18 (  User-Defined ;))    00044 ( 00068) => 00044 ( 00068)      76C68h
Total Sections  : 18

The next step is to extract all components:

$ amideco kontron.dd -x
-=AmiBIOSDeco, version 0.31e (Linux)=-

FileLength      : 100000 (1048576 bytes)
FileName        : kontron.dd

        AMIBIOS information:
Version         : 0800
Packed Data     : 693A0 (431008 bytes)
Start           : DF83C
Packed Offset   : DF83C
Offset          : 0
Released        : 07 June 2007
DirName         : kontron.---
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Class.Instance (Name)        Packed --->  Expanded      Compression   Offset |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Total Sections  : 18

The file we need is the 64KB VGA blob named amipci_01.20:

$ ls
amibody.04  amibody.0e  amibody.1a  amibody.2e    amipci_01.20
amibody.06  amibody.11  amibody.1b  amibody.80    amipci_02.20
amibody.08  amibody.18  amibody.21  amibody.90    kontron.dd
amibody.0c  amibody.19  amibody.2a  amipci_00.20

Notes

• If you use FILO, SATA will probably be hda and hdb, while hdc is the master drive of the IDE controller.
• If you experience kernel crashes (when building without onboard VGA support) try to blacklist the agpgart and intel_agp kernel modules.

Boot speed

This is a non-scientific, quick'n'dirty boot speed measurement using coreboot v2 (r4341) + FILO trunk (r98) and the vendor BIOS, where coreboot was configured with no serial output (loglevel 0).

BIOS	Power-up — GRUB	Power-up — Linux login prompt
Vendor BIOS (boot from SATA disk)	13.1s	38.8
coreboot (boot from SATA disk)	7.3s	37.9

Although coreboot is ca. 6 seconds faster at the GRUB prompt, the "Loading initrd" part of the Linux kernel booting seems to take longer than on the vendor BIOS. This should be investigated.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.