Linux-kernel mailing list archive 1998-42,: Re: Linux on 386 EX SBC Card

# Re: Linux on 386 EX SBC Card

owner-linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu
19 Oct 1998 00:52:19 +0000

- Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
- Next message: Dustin Marquess: "Re: WINMODEM driver"
- Previous message: Alan Cox: "Re: Dynamic IP hack (PR#294)"
- In reply to: christophe leroy: "Linux on 386 EX SBC Card"
- Next in thread: Carlos Morgado: "Re: Linux on 386 EX SBC Card"

[christophe leroy]
| I'm about to buy a 386 EX SBC Card from universal developers
| (www.universal-developers.com).
| This card has a Intel 386EX with 2Mbytes DRAM, 2 serial ports,
| 1 paralele port, 1 interupts controler, 1 timer, 1 Watchdog timer
| 1Mbytes flash PROM with BIOS and DOS in it.

I have been doing some testing on a more or less related board, namely
the Élan-104 from Arcom (www.arcom.co.uk) during the last two weeks.
I am able to get it up running using a zImage dd'ed to a floppy, and
I've also installed RedHat 5.1 successfully on it. My hope is to make
it boot from the on-board flash ROM, but I've had some problems with
that. The flash ROM can be configured as a DOS drive, which the BIOS
can boot from.

I've installed syslinux on the ROM drive, but I have a problem with
sudden reboots during initialization, the reboot is btw. somehow
caused by the line
bh_mask |= 1 << nr;
in init_bh() in include/linux/interrupt.h. This function is called
during initialization of the keyboard driver, and the board reboots
without a warning one second or so after that line has been evaluated.
If I put an infinite while-loop right above it, the board will not
reboot, as it will if I put the loop right below that line.

Any suggestions on what could be causing this will be very welcome.
My quite unqualified guess is that syslinux puts the kernel over some
memory mapped power management I/O on the board, or that there are
some memory holes where the kernel ends up.

This is only happening when I use syslinux from the ROM drive, I
haven't tested out Loadlin on the ROM drive yet.

The reason I am using the Arcom board is that it is able to have a
power consumption as low as 0.8 W. I haven't been able to find any
boards that could go lower, and I hope to be able to use the APM
driver to bring the power consumption further down, but it seems like
I have do some adjustments to the kernel to have the board work the
way it should.

I don't think my experiences necessarily apply on your case, but
I thought I could mention it for what it could be worth.

    --
        Øystein Svendsen

    -
    To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
    the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
    Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

- Next message: Dustin Marquess: "Re: WINMODEM driver"
- Previous message: Alan Cox: "Re: Dynamic IP hack (PR#294)"
- In reply to: christophe leroy: "Linux on 386 EX SBC Card"
- Next in thread: Carlos Morgado: "Re: Linux on 386 EX SBC Card"