myne wrote on 2025-06-20, 11:19:

Could a uefi module do it?
Ie something that could act as an option rom and/or a boot loader?

If my memory serves me I think UEFI modules are mostly serial spi nor flash?

Where the it8888 uses a serial i2c eeprom at address ox50 (1010000b). IT8888 can also be configured through PCI configuration cycles from system chipset.

Ideally, we would have a simple tool exist on user space and initiate PCI Configuration cycles on the it8888 to allow for configuration of the card without a programmer. But I have yet to investigate or make anything for that yet. I've just been programming the chip and using a standard pin header socket with eeprom on breakout board with pin headers to move chip between my programmer and card.

dartfrog wrote on 2025-06-20, 11:04:

If you use your own programmer like a XGecu T48/T56/T76, you can just use the bin file produced by the python config tool, If not let me know and I will investigate.

Awesome! I saw your repo had some IT8888 code but I didn't know what state it was in. I have a universal rom programmer so I'll just use that 😀

Um... No, I mean like any uefi module that can be loaded into the main bios like a lan boot rom can.
I assume the main thing you need to do is initialise the registers.
Software can do that, no?
So a uefi module makes sense to make it os agnostic.

myne wrote on 2025-06-20, 23:41:

Um... No, I mean like any uefi module that can be loaded into the main bios like a lan boot rom can. I assume the main thing you […]
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Um... No, I mean like any uefi module that can be loaded into the main bios like a lan boot rom can.
I assume the main thing you need to do is initialise the registers.
Software can do that, no?
So a uefi module makes sense to make it os agnostic.

If it's just to configure the registers, I wonder if it's possible to unload the module/ROM after finishing the work, as leaving the module/ROM resident means less available UMB for DOS memory managers.

That was the experience I had with launching Plop Boot Manager as a LAN boot ROM -- I lost access to about 40KB of UMB as a result.

I don't see why it would need to be a tsr.
I am pretty sure lan boot, and many other oproms are not tsr.

myne wrote on 2025-06-21, 04:45:

I don't see why it would need to be a tsr.
I am pretty sure lan boot, and many other oproms are not tsr.

I think it depends. Some option ROMs, like those for storage controllers to provide INT13H functionalities, be it onboard (RAID/AHCI modes) or discrete, will stay resident in UMB.

As a result, you'll have less upper memory available when using them. Some option ROMs leave a very big memory footprint like more than 20KB, that to the point that there won't even be enough contiguous blocks to enable EMS anymore.

Yes. Which is why I said lan and many others. Not all.
Lan would most likely be tsr when successfully lan booting.
Most uefi modules like chipset config would just run, set, and exit.

rasteri wrote on 2025-06-20, 23:41:

Awesome! I saw your repo had some IT8888 code but I didn't know what state it was in. I have a universal rom programmer so I'll just use that 😀

I had old stuff as a proof of concept including config tool. but yesterday I only uploaded the c based pico programmer part. If there's any problems with the bin or config tool, I'll fix it asap.
(also you might want to take a look at the config stuff in datasheet, and ensure the bin is setup right. since i was the only one working on this, it's likely I messed something up)

myne wrote on 2025-06-20, 23:41:

Um... No, I mean like any uefi module that can be loaded into the main bios like a lan boot rom can. I assume the main thing you […]
Show full quote

Um... No, I mean like any uefi module that can be loaded into the main bios like a lan boot rom can.
I assume the main thing you need to do is initialise the registers.
Software can do that, no?
So a uefi module makes sense to make it os agnostic.

Oh I'm sorry I understand now. When I wrote that I was very tired and not thinking correctly. For some reason i thought you were talking about using the uefi nor flash 🤣. My bad.

Yeah I guess it could. Main problem I see is no uefi signing and lack of secure boot because of it. Some systems don't even allow self signed modules. Also testing uefi stuff is a nightmare since you can brick the test machine easily, not to mention toolchain (edk2) imo is a plague on humanity. Some systems behave differently too so you might need multiple modules. which just complicates things further. If someone wants to build that they absolutely can. personally i don't see the reason for that level of complexity since there's actually only a few ways the it8888 needs to be configured for our use case. (basically it8888 needs to configured a certain way or dma will never work) And since you can configure it8888 via PCI configuration cycles, why bother with uefi?

idk just my two cents, if anyone has a valid reason for uefi over pci configuration or external programmer, I'm all ears.

Fair.
Does it use SRAM or DRAM?
If SRAM, in theory you can set it once and forget.