Trying coreboot...vga bios issue

Question

hi. I'm giving coreboot a try, but i've found a couple of problems.
Now, the documentation says if i dont have an external VGA adapter (PCI, AGP, PCIe), i need to add the VGA BIOS.
this is the page with the procedures: http://www.coreboot.org/VGA_support
My MoBo is the Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H (Award BIOS), which has an on-board VGA. So i guess that means i have to add the bios.
first theres is the option of specify directly the path, filename, vendor_id and device_id. but i dont have the faintest idea about what path and filename are.
The first method to get it is a program called bios_extract, which i've compiled and run (according to the doc, ./bios_extract hdmag217.rom), without any success, it does not find the file hdmag217.rom
I tried too a former software called awardeco, but it says it doesnt find via.rom
Another method is a direct copy of the bios via dd. So i guess bios ROM it's supposed to be mapped into RAM.
In order to know the sizer of the rom i need to check /proc/iomem and look for ROM. Well it doesnt appear ROM anywhere.
The VGA on-board is an ATI HD4200. Is it possible it is taken as a pci card although is built on the mobo?
I dont wanna flash the bios without having everything clear, so i wanted to make sure first.
cheers.
Last edited by Viper_Scull (2011-03-23 18:48:08)

Answer 1

You need to do this after restoring your BIOS:
# cat /proc/iomem | grep 'Video ROM' | (read m; m=${m/ :*}; s=${m/-*}; e=${m/*-}; \
dd if=/dev/mem of=vgabios.bin bs=1c skip=$[0x$s] count=$[$[0x$e]-$[0x$s]+1])
(That is one line, copy and paste the whole thing). Credit: coreboot wiki