VIA Epia V

I just got a VIA Epia V board from a friend and thought I'd try putting arch on it, it keeps rebooting after I try starting from CD.
I'm not sure which process is on there, but from the manual it says this...
The VIA EPIA-V Mini-ITX Mainboard includes an embedded VIA Eden Processor or VIA C3TM E-Series Processor.

I've got some progress
I noticed that I was trying to load an old ISO, I downloaded the newest release, i686-200708-2.core.iso and things were looking better, it was booting and it passed the point of reset, unfortunately shortly thereafter, I got the following message; PANIC: CPU too old for this kernel. Does anyone know how I can compile new kernel with the support for this CPU and replace it in the ISO, so I can install Arch.

Similar Messages

Solaris 10 b69 on VIA EPIA motherboards?

Has anyone had success in getting Solaris 10 beta69 to boot on VIA EPIA (C3 CPU-based) motherboards?
I've got two mini-ITX systems here built around VIA EPIA M10000 motherboards (C3 @ 1Ghz). One has 1G RAM, one has 256M. Both have Hitachi/IBM 80G IDE hard drives and generic CD-ROM drives.
On both systems, S10 starts to boot, but hangs (permanently; I've let it sit overnight) right after the kernel spits out the copyright message and version.
Any suggestions?

Hi,
I get the same behaviour with a Via CM266 motherboard with C3 1Ghz Ezra CPU. 768M of memory, using third party rh driver since b7 doesn't support Rhine natively.
Using the -v option I get to either loading the mmu32 module or just after the copyright lines and then the box hang's solid.
The first week I was working with b7 I was able to boot about 1/3 of the time and the box ran GREAT once I added a cheapo ATI card, the S3 graphics are ungrok'd by X server, and a third party driver for the Rhine II ethernet controller.
Its VERY frustrating since I just started to putts with dtrace and I can't get it to boot again!!!
NetBSD and Fedora core 3 run fine on the system; partition 0 and 1 respectively. Its only Solaris I can't get to run. B^(.
Don't know if this helps any,
-Rob

Installing Solaris 10 on VIA EPIA PE10000G mobo + VIA C3 Nehemiah processor

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I recently purchased a VIA EPIA PE10000G motherboard with a VIA C3 Nehemiah 1.0GHz EBGA processor (http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/motherboards.jsp?motherboard_id=451).
I am trying to install Solaris 10 08/07 and running into problems with the processor being recognized. In my research, I've found some posts, but alas, I seem to have come to a dead end. Here's what I've done:
Downloaded Solaris, fired up the installation. When the kernel starts booting I get:
"486 processor detected this processor not supported by solaris"
After searching on this error, I conculded that by doing the following, I should be able to get around this problem:
perl -pi -e 's#GenuineIntel#CentaurHauls#g' solaris_cd_1.iso
in order to swap out the vendor string for the processor.
Next, I booted with b -kv to see what would happen. While it seems that I got further along, I now get the following:
"processor does not support cmpxchg8b instruction"
and I get dropped into the kernel debugger which I am not familiar with.
I looked for an exact match for this error in Google and came up with this page as the only hit:
http://fxr.watson.org/fxr/source/i86pc/vm/hat_i86.c?v=OPENSOLARIS
Even though it says OPENSOLARIS in the URL, I bet it's the same piece of code that I'm hitting when I try to install Solaris 10:
if ((x86_feature & X86_CX8) == 0)
panic("Processor does not support cmpxchg8b instruction");
So my guess is that either x86_feature or X86_CX8 is false, I'm figuring it's the latter since the error message has looks similar to that variable.
Furthermore, I see that the error message exists in several places on the original installation CD:
strings solaris_cd_1.iso |grep cmpxchg8b
Processor does not support cmpxchg8b instruction
Processor does not support cmpxchg8b instruction
Processor does not support cmpxchg8b instruction
Processor does not support cmpxchg8b instruction
cmpxchg8b
cmpxchg8b
cmpxchg8b
cmpxchg8b
I'd really like to get Solaris 10 on this motherboard because I'd like to use it as a small firewall where space is at a premium.
Might anyone have some further suggestions as to what I can do to get this to work? From what I've seen, I think it is possible, it's just a matter of changing something more to the disk image.
thanks,
Geoprge

I did some more research and found a pdf on my processor and here's what I came up with:
0 = The CPUID instruction does not report the presence of the CMPXCHG8B instruction
(CX8 = 0). The instruction actually exists and operates correctly, however.
1 = The CPUID instruction reports that the CMPXCHG8B instruction is supported
(CX8 = 1).
From what I read here http://www.via.com.tw/download/mainboards/6/13/VIA_C3_EBGA%20datasheet110.pdf it would seem that the default is CX8=0 and I'm guessing that if it were 1, then I'd at least get past this error message.
Maybe there's a way to trick the installation image by changing the code that checks for this value similar to what I did for the vendor processor ID string? Seems to me that if I find where it checks for the CX8 value and reverse the logic, the installation would continue...

Audio player on Via-Epia M

Hello,
I'd like to install Arch on a small machine that I intend to use as an audio player. The box will be connected to a good old Amplifier+loudspeakers. This is mainly to read internet radio streams, sometime also to read so ogg or mp3 music files. The machine has a VIA processor Epia-M.
Do you have any suggestion about what to install on it ?
Will the arch i586 work on it ?
Olivier

okplayer02 wrote:http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install_Arch_i586
did u look at this?
Yes I did.
cvsup, libol packages does not exist. Don't know what they are used for.
There is no/etc/abs/abs.conf , no /var/abs directory.

JInitiator issue with VIA Processor based motherboard

I am having VIA EPIA-V Motherboard loaded with Windows. I have installed Jinitiator. But My Jinitiator is not working. I got error saying that
HotSpot Virtual Machine Error : EXCEPTION_ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION
# Error ID : 4F530E43505002BD
Finally I found that the Via CPU Support on JRE 1.3.x is having some Bug.(Bug ID 4395702). So they asked us to use some nonstandard paramemter(-J-XX:-CodeForP6) with the java.exe. So I have to change the forms pages to invoke Jinitiator with this option. But My Other PCs will not work with this solution.
But It is getting fixed at JRE 1.4.x But the Jinitiator is based on 1.3.x only. So Jinitiator is not working in my PC. How to overcome this?
Any Idea / suggestion on this will help me.

Subbiah,
Use the SUN Java 1.4.1 Plugin instead of JInitiator
Frank

Jinitiator on my VIA Processor based Board

I am having VIA EPIA-V Motherboard loaded with Windows. I have installed Jinitiator. But My Jinitiator is not working. Finally I found that the Via CPU Support on JRE 1.3.x is having some Bug. It is getting fixed at 1.4.x
But the Jinitiator is based on 1.3.x only. So Jinitiator is not working in my PC. How to overcome this?

Subbiah,
Use the SUN Java 1.4.1 Plugin instead of JInitiator
Frank

Small, cheap NAS box that supports nfs/rsync/ssh ?

Hi all,
for my personal backup needs, I'm looking for a standalone NAS box ("networked hard disk/raid solution"). I need to have support for at least one of rsync/nfs/ssh. (smb/ftp is not enough for me)
It shouldn't be too big (eg not the size of a regular pc.) and it shouldn't cost more then 350 euro or so without disks.
If I can mount one or two sata 1TB disks I'm happy.
Bonus points for solutions where I have total control over the "OS" on it, where the hardware platform exists of standardized easily replacable parts and if it's powerfull enough to do encryption. (I'm prepared to throw in extra cash for these features)
I guess my options are:
1) a product that supports what I want out of the box. I couldn't find that (unless ridiculously expensive, eg 500 euro or more without disks)
2) a product that *almost* does what I want, but where you can install a small Linux distro/freenas over the original firmware so you can do what you want. Basically any appliance (be it a storage device, embedded platforms, network equipment, ...) that can host hard disks and where you can overwrite the OS is worth looking into.
3) building something myself. I've seen some really small motherboards based on Atom cpu's, or even embedded stuff can be enough (something like soekris, pc-engines, etc). But it needs 2 sata ports then, I need to find a housing, a psu, etc. SFF-pc's such as shuttle's etc can also be good options
Any tips, pointers, ideas ?
Thanks
UPDATE:
Here is a list of some devices/urls/thoughts/questions I'm working on. Work in progress! I'll update.
Interesting url's
http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/productd … S_devices/ off-the-shelf-nas
http://www.mini-itx.com/ all stuff mini-ITX
http://www.epiacenter.com all stuff epia
http://www.logicsupply.com/ mini-itx and SFF resource
http://www.logicsupply.com/matrix/mainboard mainboard matrix
http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/ review of 5 Atom mini-itx boards with power comparison between the 2 intel chipsets
http://resources.mini-box.com/online/po … lator.html power calculator (not prepared for Atom though)
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=275906 power comparison atom vs C2D
Chipsets
TDP's taken from http://download.intel.com/design/proces … 309219.pdf page 399, http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=28994
type - TDP - usage - url
945 GM /GME express - 7 - used with atoms? - http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/ … erview.htm
945 GMS/GSE express - 6 - used on some atom boards who are not available yet (eg the MSI 9830/9832) - http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/em … /index.htm
945 GC - 22.2 - used on nearly all current atom boards - http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=28994
945 PM express - 6 - ?
943 GML express - 7 - ?
940 GML express - 7 - ?
945 GT express - 15 - ?
ultra mobile 945GU express - 5 - ?
G45 - 24 - "rich media" socket 775 boards - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/designguide/319972.pdf
Q45 - 17 - "business" socket 775 boards - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/designguide/319972.pdf
P45 - 22 - ?? - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/designguide/319972.pdf
TDP's of complete systems
type - TDP idle - TDP loaded cpu - TDP loaded cpu+video - source url
945 GSE setup without HDD - 15 - 17 - ? - http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/
945 GC setup without HDD - 25 - 27 - ? - http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/
945 GC (and ich7) full setup - 27 - 31 - 38 - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article865-page5.html
G45 Express + C2D E6400 65nm full setup - 49 - 97 - 98 - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article869-page5.html
G45 Express + C2D E7200 45nm full setup - 35 - 64 - 65 - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article869-page5.html
Off-the-shelf NAS
* LaCie Ethernet Disk mini: needs to connect to internet to activate? or is this only for the remote feature? can you run custom OS on it?
* ximeta ndas seems to need special/proprietary drivers/calls to be able to use it?
* linksys nas200
seems pretty customizable. some 3rd party firmwares
http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showt … hp?t=60232
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/NAS200/Hardware
http://www.iomega-europe.com/section?SI … ecid=40380 (nslu2 firmwares)
slow: 3MB/s over 100Mbps
slower then dlink and qnap. see http://www.trustedreviews.com/networkin … -NAS200/p2
* intel SS4000E or something?
* qnap ts-509 or other qnap?
http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=86 -> 480euro
http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=104 -> 800 euro
* iomega storcenter
* netgear readynas: they have decent pricy ones who are big and consuming as much as an atom based server or something.
they also have smaller ones.:
2disk 310euro
4disk -> 1000 euro
http://www.netgear.nl/producten/product … od=RND2150 -> 300 euro
6disk http://www.netgear.nl/producten/product … d=RNDP6610 -> runs on an intel C2D -> 1500euro
* dlink
* thermaltake muse looks pretty cool http://www.xpcgear.com/n0001lnu.html 390 euro http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/149904/t … -wit).html
* synology has lots of stuff. eg http://www.synology.com/enu/products/CS407/index.php
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS207+/index.php -> 285 euro
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS408/index.php -> 510+ euro
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS508/index.php -> 800+ euro
* hp
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaig … martserver
DIY-style (TODO: look up motherboards, enclosures, etc) miniITX, arm, via, intel atom,...
* info/tutorials
** http://blogs.sun.com/paulie/entry/zfs_n … _the_intel
** http://www.mashie.org/casemods/udat2.html (note: the 5disks into 3 bays thing is discontinued)
* complete boxes/barebones:
** Asus eeebox: perfect except that it can only contain 1 disk, of the format of 2.5"
** http://www.norcotek.com/DS-520.php 5x hotswap sata. Celeron, 2x Gbps,... looks great although very hard to get in EU apparently + you're bound to custom motherboard etc
** Shuttle XPC X27D dualcore atom, 1x 2.5 hdd. but 645GC http://loveno.be/product/16866
* motherboard/cpu combos
** http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainb … ard_id=610 Via C7 1.5Ghz, 4-8x sata, padlock engine, via gigabit controller. CF and miniPCI slot, 1xddr2
** http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/M … erview.htm . Atom 230 1.6Ghz. 1x IDE, 2x sata. only 100Mbit/s, 1x PCI, 1xddr2
** MSI MS-9830. fanless. 2x Gigabit. 2x sata. available yet?
** MSI MS-9832. http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832 2x Gbps, 4x sata. 1x ata. expected 1/20/2008
** Intel D945GCLF2 -> like D945GCLF, but dualcore,Gigabit.
** Intel DG45FC http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/M … erview.htm socket775, 4x sata, 2x Gbps,... -> based on intel G45 "media center" chip (eg more media features), but same price as DQ45EK !
** Intel DQ45EK http://support.intel.com/Products/Deskt … erview.htm socket775, 4xsata,Gigabit. -> based on intel Q45 "business" chip. perfect for the chenbro case, except no 5th sata (unless i loop the esata back in) or ide for the 5th 2.5" disk
** http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3& … odelmenu=1 Similar, but more media-features and 6x sata
** Jetway J7F4K1G5D-PB. Via C7. 2X Gbps, 2x sata 150, 1x ata 100
** Epia SN xx -> various epia boards with 4x sataII
* cases
** http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/pr … ?serno=100 (nice mini ITX server case with 4x hotswap bays and PSU) (just make sure you have good AHCI suppport) 170euro
** http://www.xpcgear.com/pcv350b.html Lian-Li PC-V350B , 2x 5,5", 2x 3.5", microATX
Notes
* I heard via Epia is rather expensive especially for it's quite low performance
* Via nano might be a good platform (must google more for this, stable?)
* There are no Atom boards with more then 2 sata ports. (the msi's still are to be expected)
* Taking an intel board with a slow celeron / amd with sempron can be an option, it will be fast , stable and not expensive. I'm told it wouldn't pull too much power either. (although more then atom/epia)
* "ready-to-go" SFF-pc's/barebones can be found in the <300 euro price range, making this a good target for a simple 1/2-disk NAS
* AHCI problems with AMD/ATI RS400-200, RS480 HBA and Nvidia nForce 560. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_H … _Interface
* An intel G45/Q45-based system would be sweet, they have
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In … _Factor.29
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In … C_45_nm.29
with very low TDP, but they don't fit in socket 775
Last edited by Dieter@be (2009-01-30 10:11:53)

deadrabbit wrote:I recently bought an MSI Wind desktop, with pretty much the same thing in mind. I ended deciding against a NAS enclosure, since I wanted to be able to install a conventional Linux distro, and have complete control over it. The Wind is cheap, and all the hardware is Linux compatible (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6856167032). I ended up installing the OS on a CompactFlash card, so the hard drive would have to run constantly. As a result, it's nice and quite, uses little power, and the OS on the CF card is automatically backed up to the hard drive. I wrote up a detailed description of the project here: http://rockhoppernotes.blogspot.com/200 … sktop.html.
Thanks, looks quite good.
Except one thing: the 945GC chipset has a TDP of 22.2W.. that's stupid imo, and defeats the whole purpose of a low-tdp cpu such as the Atom. Right now I'm still doubting between waiting for an Atom board based on the 945GM(S)/945GSE chip (TDP 6Watt) (eeebox has that one, some MSI mini-ITX boards should be available in january) or going for a socket775 board with an intel core2 45nm cpu, which would consume not much more then Atom+ 945GC chipset (when idle, loaded is much more but I don't plan to load it ).
Nvidia is also working on an Atom chipset but I don't think I'll wait for that.

Problems With Auto-Prepare (i586)

I'm having some issues with the auto-prepare section of the installation. I'm using the i586 version of Arch, but I don't think that should be an issue. When I choose Auto-Prepare, it displays an error and tells me to look at vc/5 for the log. This is what vc/5 says:
"sfdisk: seek error: wanted 0x00000000000 got 0x0000000000"
Anyone know what my issue is? I've tried a few IDE drives and a SCSI for good measure but have the same issue. I'm using a Via EPIA V10000 motherboard if that makes a difference.

If it's a Nehemiah (model 9+) 686 should work.
Else if it's pre model 9, it lacks the 686 cmov extension and 586 is required.
But, as for the problem at hand, I'd try partitioning the drive with fdisk by hand and see if that works as the autopartition doesn't call fdisk.

KT4V MS-6712 Odd sounds

Got this mobo a few weeks back now, everything seemed to be running fine. Decided to change the heatsink/fan for something less noisey.
Now I have noticed a noise !! Sounds like a off centre fan ! Checked all the fans in the system, nope they are all fine. Then realised the noise only happens when I move the mouse(usb) or hotsync my palm(usb) or use the keyboard(ps2) !
The noise is not coming from the soundcard, it appears to from the mobo itself !
Anyone come across this before ?
Sys Specs
KT4V MS-6712
1700xp
512mb Corsair 333mhz
G3 Ti500
Seagate 80mb
Liteon 52x24x52
420 watt psu

It's probably the PSU, some of my systems have the same But you only hear it with very silent systems
With my VIA EPIA-800 i hear it when i use my scroll-wheel

Resource trouble

Hi,
I am pretty new to Solaris 9 (december 2003 edition) x86 and want to install it on a VIA EPIA-M mini-itx motherboard with everything on-board. Boot from cdrom succeeded, but when it displays
Bus Enumeration
Determining bus types and gathering hardware configuration data...
warning: resource conflict both devices are added
Non-ACPI device: PNP0C01
Memory: CFE00-CFFFF
Memory: 9FC00-9FFFF
ACPI device: PNP0C01
I am thinking of a resource conflict with my pci bus and something else or an unknown not detectable pci bus. Installed windows on it then tried to change the address. Which was pretty foolish, it didn't work. If ignore the conflict then it boot from cd and hangs after the message
<<< Booting an interactive installation >>>
SunOS 5.9 Version Generic ....
Copyright ....
Use is subjected to license terms
and then it freezes for hours. How do i know if it is a resource conflict or an unknown not supported pci bus? Which one is it?
For details http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_m_spec.jsp?motherboardId=81
should be enough

Here is an alternative that should work (if the above did not)...
The ACPI possibly stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Management -- you should probably disable it in BIOS (press Del as the computer boots).
For the "486" issue, it seems that Solaris 9 does not recognize your VIA 6x86 CPU. Some web research indicates that VIA bought Centaur (from IDT) and Cyrix (from National Semiconductors) in 1999 and developed their CPU from that of those companies. Solaris 8's Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) listed Cyrix chips up to 07/01 and one may think that legacy support is included in Solaris 9 as well.
The following URL indicates how one may make the Solaris 9 CD isos recognize the new vendor strings used by VIA. The string used to be CyrixInstead for VIA Cyrix III CPUs (Intel uses GenuineIntel and AMD uses AuthenticAMD -- all of which have 12 characters) and the "newer" VIA CPUs (EDEN, C3, etc...) use CentaurHauls as vendor string:
http://forum.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=11&thread=15512
The URL also discusses how one might make the isos recognize the type of CPU that your board uses once the vendor string is accepted. This may involve replacing an existing "pentium" (as in the URL) or "VIA Cytrix III" string with something that represents your CPU model, for example "VIA Samuel 2" (you have to consult the datasheet or reference manual for your processor -- it may have a Samuel, Samuel 2, Ezra or some other core).
The system should boot nicely after such modifications but the on-board Network Interface Card (NIC) will probably not work (I could not find it even in older HCL). The VIA southbridge that controls ethernet communication requires "Rhine" or "VIA Rhine" drivers and you may have to install such drivers after solaris has booted. Masa Murayama has developed such Rhine drivers and you can find a link to them in the middle of the HCL section on the page:
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/collections/hardware.html
Murayama also explains very clearly how to install these drivers.

Illegal instruction in libdrm.so.2

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to set up a little media server using an old motherboard VIA EPIA M10k which mounts an embedded VIA Eden ESP processor and a VIA Apollo CLE266 chipset. When I try to start X with 'startx', I get the error below (full 'Xorg.0.log' available).
Do you think this is because I'm running X on a VIA processor?
If I try to recompile 'libdrm', do believe I can get around it? Or should I contact the package maintainer?
Thanks.
[ 1099.400] (II) OPENCHROME: Driver for VIA Chrome chipsets: CLE266, KM400/KN400,
K8M800/K8N800, PM800/PM880/CN400, VM800/P4M800Pro/VN800/CN700,
CX700/VX700, K8M890/K8N890, P4M890, P4M900/VN896/CN896, VX800/VX820,
VX855/VX875, VX900
[ 1099.401] (II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
[ 1099.401] (II) modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
[ 1099.401] (II) FBDEV: driver for framebuffer: fbdev
[ 1099.401] (--) using VT number 2
[ 1099.415] (!!) VIA Technologies does not support this driver in any way.
[ 1099.415] (!!) For support, please refer to http://www.openchrome.org/.
[ 1099.415] (!!) (openchrome 0.3.3 release)
[ 1099.415] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa
[ 1099.415] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[ 1099.416] (EE)
[ 1099.416] (EE) Backtrace:
[ 1099.416] (EE) 0: /usr/bin/X (xorg_backtrace+0x49) [0x81d7e89]
[ 1099.417] (EE) 1: /usr/bin/X (0x8048000+0x193bf4) [0x81dbbf4]
[ 1099.417] (EE) 2: linux-gate.so.1 (__kernel_rt_sigreturn+0x0) [0xb775240c]
[ 1099.417] (EE) 3: /usr/lib/libdrm.so.2 (drmIoctl+0x3b) [0xb7676adb]
[ 1099.417] (EE)
[ 1099.417] (EE) Illegal instruction at address 0xb7676adb
[ 1099.417] (EE)
Fatal server error:
[ 1099.417] (EE) Caught signal 4 (Illegal instruction). Server aborting

Because my sole purpose was to run mythtv-setup, I found a workaround. By forwarding X11 protocol via ssh, I can lunch the setup without actually running X on the mythtv box.

Problem installing ArchLinux from hdd partition

I have a SATA drive mounted on a VIA Epia motherboard, but no CD drive, which is why I install directly from hdd.
Currently I have Zenwalk running, which only has Lilo (no grub even in the repos!!!). I copied to contents of the install ISO to a new ext3 partition and used the following entry in lilo (taken from this guide):
image=/root/tmp/isolinux/vmlinuz
label=ArchInstall
initrd=/root/tmp/isolinux/initrd.img
append="root=/dev/sda4 BOOTMEDIA=cd"
But it doesn't boot properly. It says:
::Initramfs Completed - control passing to kinit
IP-config: no devices to configure
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kinit: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
kinit: init not found!
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init
..and before all that it complains that it doesn't find anything new in /config and /packages, but these directories aren't suppose to exist, I guess, because they don't on the original iso?
Anyways, it looks like it's mounting /dev/sda4, but then dies because the init part isn't found. I had a problem with lilo warning me that the init ram image was too large, but then I added the "large-memory" option to lilo.conf and it stopped complaining.
Thanks for reading,
Benjamin

I found a solution!
Aparently syslinux is very good for booting anything made with isolinux. I think it's pretty universal. So what you do is simply to mount the iso, copy the contents to a fat 16 partition, rename the isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg and then run syslinux on the partition. It's described on this blog:
http://www.elfenbeinturm.cc/2007/08/09/ … kpad-x60s/
/ Benjamin

Changing BIOS image

I have an HP Pavilion dv6 2020ev laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Is there any way to change the image BIOS displays when booting up (before Windows boot-up)?

Replacing your BIOS logo
Flashing the BIOS on your computer is risky even if you don't modify it - flashing the BIOS with a modified BIOS image is very dangerous and may well result in a non-working motherboard that is very difficult, or even impossible to repair. Follow these instructions
entirely at your own risk.
If your BIOS currently doesn't display any logo, and doesn't have any setting in the Setup, it is possible that it can't display the logo. In this case, you may check your motherboard manufacturer's website, to see if a BIOS update which can display the boot-up
logo is available.
This guide assumes that your BIOS file is called BIOS.BIN.
These instructions were tested on GigaByte 7VAXP and VIA Epia Eden 5000 motherboards. They should work with most motherboards which use Award BIOS though. (If you don't know if you have Award BIOS, here's a screenshot of mine.)
1. Requirements:
 CBROM.EXE - tool for editing the BIOS files; you can find it with Google.
 BIOS for your motherboard
 AWBMTools - programs for converting TIFF files to Award Logo format and vice-versa
2. Ensure that you have CBROM.EXE and TIFF2AWBM.EXE (from AWBMTools) somewhere in your PATH (if you don't know what this means, it's best that you don't play with your BIOS).The easiest way of ensuring this is to put all
the EXEs in the same folder as your BIOS file
3. Open a command console (MS-DOS box) and change to the folder where you have your BIOS. First check that your CBROM is compatible with your BIOS file. Type CBROM BIOS.BIN /D. You should get something similar to this:
4. E:\BIOS\GigaByte>CBROM BIOS.BIN /D
5. CBROM V2.01A (C)Award Software 1999 All Rights Reserved.
6.
7. ******** BIOS.BIN BIOS component ********
8.
9. No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
10. ================================================================================
11. 0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 13C67h(79.10K) F13.BIN
12. 1. XGROUP CODE 0AEE0h(43.72K) 07B7Ch(30.87K) awardext.rom
13. 2. ACPI table 042CFh(16.70K) 0170Eh(5.76K) ACPITBL.BIN
14. 3. EPA pattern 0168Ch(5.64K) 0030Dh(0.76K) AwardBmp.bmp
15. 4. YGROUP ROM 05EA0h(23.66K) 03F04h(15.75K) awardeyt.rom
16. 5. Other(4029:0000) 05AE0h(22.72K) 02504h(9.25K) _EN_CODE.BIN
17. 6. PCI driver[A] 10000h(64.00K) 09DEDh(39.48K) RAID133.ROM
18. 7. PCI driver[B] 04000h(16.00K) 02524h(9.29K) ATA133.ROM
19. 8. LOGO1 ROM 00B64h(2.85K) 0057Ch(1.37K) dbios.bmp
20. 9. OEM0 CODE 02449h(9.07K) 01A70h(6.61K) dbf.bin
21.
22. Total compress code space = 36000h(216.00K)
23. Total compressed code size = 31903h(198.25K)
24. Remain compress code space = 046FDh(17.75K)
25.
26. ** Micro Code Information **
27. Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID
28. ------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
29.
E:\BIOS\GigaByte>
CBROM lists the files in your BIOS and gives some other information. Most important line is Remain compress code space = 046FDh(17.75K), which tells you that there's about 17 kB free space in your BIOS, space that can be used by the logo.
Other interesting items are EPA pattern, which is the Energy Star logo displayed during boot-up and LOGO1 ROM, which is another image displayed during boot-up (in this case it's GigaByte's DoubleBIOS logo). EPA pattern and the logo can be safely removed from
the BIOS to make more space for the full-screen logo.
If your BIOS already contains a logo, a line similar to thisone will appear somewhere:
9. LOGO BitMap 4B30Ch(300.76K) 02ECBh(11.70K) VPSD.BMP
Note the uncompressed size, 300.76kB, this tells you that it's a full-screen logo. You will want to remove this.
On the other hand, if your output looks similar to this, the CBROM version is not compatible with your BIOS:
E:\BIOS\GigaByte>CBROM.EXE BIOS.BIN /D
CBROM V1.30 (C)Award Software 1999 All Rights Reserved.
******** BIOS.BIN BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 937DC88h(151031.10000h(64.00K) ô6} =»o2»XĽÔßRó27-|Le_?
1. Other(5000:0000) 20000h(128.00K) 13C66h(79.10K) F13.BIN
2. Other(7F00:0000) AEE000h(11192.007B5493h(7893.14Kô
Total compress code space = 30000h(192.00K)
Total compressed code size = 7D90F9h(8036.24K)
Remain compress code space = FF866F07h(-7780.24K)
E:\BIOS\GigaByte>
30. If you wish to remove the existing full-screen logo from your BIOS, use the following command: CBROM BIOS.BIN /LOGO Release. To remove the EPA logo, use CBROM BIOS.BIN /EPA Release. For any other logos that may be in
your BIOS, use CBROM BIOS.BIN /LOGOx Release. Replace x with the number that appears in the listing.
You can also remove other parts of BIOS this way, however you will disable those hardware components by doing it. Eg. I removed RAID133.ROM from my BIOS, because I don't use the Promise controller as RAID. (There is still ATA133.ROM in there, which allows me
to use it as normal IDE controller). If you have an on-board network card, there's a chance that boot ROM is included in your BIOS. If you don't boot off network, you can remove that ROM (it is only needed for booting, the network card will work fine without
it). Remember though, that any of these actions can corrupt the BIOS and later render the system unbootable. If you wish to remove other parts of BIOS, run CBROM without any parameters, it will tell you which switches you can use.
31. If your logo is already in AWBMP format, you can skip to step 6. Otherwise, here are instructions on how to prepare the logo:
1. The logo dimensions must be 640x480 pixels with 256 colors. However, you should avoid using too many colors at once, and the image shouldn't be dithered to improve compression. You might find it necessary to reduce the
number of colors to be able to squeeze the image into your BIOS.
2. Save your image as a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) file.
3. Use TIFF2AWBM.EXE to convert the image to Award Bitmap format: TIFF2AWBM myimage.tif myimage.bmp. Note that output file name must not be longer than 8.3 characters. Also, Award BMP format is not compatible with Windows
BMP format, even though they use the same extension.
32. To insert your logo to the BIOS, run CBROM BIOS.BIN /LOGO myimage.bmp. If it succeeds, you'll see something like this:
33. E:\BIOS\GigaByte>CBROM.EXE BIOS.BIN /logo new.bmp
34. CBROM V2.01A (C)Award Software 1999 All Rights Reserved.
35. Adding new.bmp ..................................... 19.4%
36.
E:\BIOS\GigaByte>
In this case, you can flash your BIOS with the newly prepared file. Remember that you do it at your own risk, so don't blame me if the system doesn't boot after flashing.
Follow the instructions of your motherboard's manufacturer on how to flash the BIOS.
If however, the image is too big to fit in the BIOS, you will get this message.
E:\BIOS\GigaByte>CBROM.EXE BIOS.BIN /logo new.bmp
CBROM V2.01A (C)Award Software 1999 All Rights Reserved.
Adding new.bmp ..................................... 19.6%
BIOS.BIN have not enough space for adding ROM. (Over A545h bytes)
E:\BIOS\GigaByte>
The message also tells you how much more space is needed to store the image, however it's in hex. Use your fauvorite calculator to convert it to decimal (in the example, the compressed image is 42309 bytes too large).
You can either try to reduce image complexity, or if you're more adventurous, you can try removing some of the ROMs in B

Hardware list

Hey
I wanted to find out if a mobo would work with arch...
and there is a mobo list here:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HCL/Main_Boards
however the details are very scrappy, is there a better way to find details regarding say if a board/cpu works with arch?
Last edited by FHW (2008-11-07 15:22:58)

ok, i'll try that for sure.... not listed in newegg
here are the models: VIA EPIA EX-Series
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainb … ard_id=450
VIA EPIA EK-Series
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainb … ard_id=420
and the
VIA MMC 7000
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainb … ard_id=591
they are listed as linux boards on the via website.
Last edited by FHW (2008-11-08 03:22:26)

Arch Linux on Mini-ITX

Hey There,
Because that I've got serious problems with my HP laptop (not related with Arch Linux) and I have to get my laptop laid at the tech. service the 4th time, I'm planning to have my mini-itx system based on Arch Linux.. I've always tought about VIA Epia mainboards but my friends keep saying that:
- the graphics card is not that powerful so that i can't watch some quality movies like HD..?
- that the architecture is i586 based so that i'd have to compile every package that i need
- because that via's drivers are not open source, i could have many problems
and etc..... they suggest buying an intel mini-itx mainboard as well.. So I want to ask you guys if these rumors are true or not... What would you recommend ? By the way:
- i'm not a gamer... i just play maybe openarena as a 3d game..
- instead of a harddisk, i think of using something like a sd/cf card with a few gb's of storage
- i'd like to connect the machine to a projector and a monitor.. so having 2 output connectors would be better..
- i think of building a multimedia box with it so having some modules (ports) for irda etc would be good..
thanks..

If I were you I'd just go for a small mATX, probably one of those cube cases. The epia boards will be useless for basically any 3d games and the CPU isn't powerful enough to decode HD movies like 1080p. If your must I definitely say get a board that supports a core2 intel cpu, but really a mATX is just an all around better buy. You get better hardware for the money, it is still really small, power consumption shouldn't too high albeit a bit higher then an mini-itx, it will be as powerful as a full tower desktop PC and give you a better upgrade path. Oh you can also make it really quiet depending on the case.
I am not sure if the VIA CPUs are 586 or 686 though.
Last edited by Zepp (2008-04-20 05:23:20)

VIA Epia V

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