[oe] Request for Help : Porting linux to custom x86 (AMD SC520) board

[Graeme Russ]

Hello Everyone,

I have been working on a private side project (i.e. no commercial
interest at all, just a hobby) to get Linux running on a custom SC520
board. It currently runs a custom (proprietary) firmware, but I have
enough information regarding the board to give Linux a good go. The
board itself has 128MB RAM, 64MB CFI conformant Flash (Intel
StrataFlash) and 512kB Boot Flash. It also has two Realtek 8100B
Ethernet interfaces and two Compact Flash slots.

To date, I have been doing a lot of work getting a functionaly stable
boot loader up and running. I ended up choosing U-Boot because it
appeared to be the most open of all mature boot loaders. U-Boot had a
very old and incomplete x86 / sc520 port which I have put a lot of
work into maturing and stabalising. Nearly all of this work to date
has been fed back into the U-Boot source (you can track my progress on
their mailing list). I am now at the point where I feel confident that
U-Boot can launch a Linux kernel.

The problem is - I don't know how to proceed. It looks like PPC and
ARM have very strong embedded followings and there is a lot of
information out there for people that want to get an embedded kernel
running on these platforms. x86 seems to be a very poor cousin.

So far, I have cloned the 2.6.33 linux kernel Git repository and
configured and compiled the kernel.

I think my first question is about how to get hardware information
(RAM layout etc) to the Kernel. It looks like the initial U-Boot
implementation setup a very basic BIOS which emulated part of the
traditional PC BIOS. Surely there is a better way to do this. Is the
Simple Firmware Interface an option?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Graeme