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1# ASUS A88XM-E
2
3This page describes how to run coreboot on the [ASUS A88XM-E].
4
5## Technology
6
7Both "Trinity" and "Richland" FM2 desktop processing units are working,
8the CPU architecture in these CPUs/APUs are [Piledriver],
9and their GPU is [TeraScale 3] (VLIW4-based).
10
11Kaveri is non-working at the moment (FM2+),
12the CPU architecture in these CPUs/APUs are [Steamroller],
13and their GPU is [Sea Islands] (GCN2-based).
14
15A10 Richland is recommended for the best performance and working IOMMU.
16
17```{eval-rst}
18+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
19| A88XM-E          |                                                  |
20+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
21| DDR voltage IC   | Nuvoton 3101S                                    |
22+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
23| Network          | Realtek RTL8111G                                 |
24+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
25| Northbridge      | Integrated into CPU with IMC and GPU (APUs only) |
26+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
27| Southbridge      | Bolton-D4                                        |
28+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
29| Sound IC         | Realtek ALC887                                   |
30+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
31| Super I/O        | ITE IT8603E                                      |
32+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
33| VRM controller   | DIGI VRM ASP1206                                 |
34+------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
35```
36
37## Flashing coreboot
38
39```{eval-rst}
40+---------------------+------------+
41| Type                | Value      |
42+=====================+============+
43| Socketed flash      | yes        |
44+---------------------+------------+
45| Model               | [GD25Q64]  |
46+---------------------+------------+
47| Size                | 8 MiB      |
48+---------------------+------------+
49| Package             | DIP-8      |
50+---------------------+------------+
51| Write protection    | yes        |
52+---------------------+------------+
53| Dual BIOS feature   | no         |
54+---------------------+------------+
55| Internal flashing   | yes        |
56+---------------------+------------+
57```
58
59### Internal programming
60
61The main SPI flash can be accessed using [flashrom], if the
62AmdSpiRomProtect modules have been deleted in the factory image previously.
63
64### External flashing
65
66Using a PLCC Extractor or any other appropriate tool, carefully remove the
67DIP-8 BIOS chip from its' socket while avoiding the bent pins, if possible.
68To flash it, use a [flashrom]-supported USB CH341A programmer - preferably with a
69green PCB - and double check that it's giving a 3.3V voltage on the socket pins.
70
71## Integrated graphics
72
73### Retrieve the VGA optionrom ("Retrieval via Linux kernel" method)
74
75Make sure a proprietary UEFI is flashed and boot Linux with iomem=relaxed flag.
76Some Linux drivers (e.g. radeon for AMD) make option ROMs like the video blob
77available to user space via sysfs. To use that to get the blob you need to
78enable it first. To that end you need to determine the path within /sys
79corresponding to your graphics chip. It looks like this:
80
81    # /sys/devices/pci<domain>:<bus>/<domain>:<bus>:<slot>.<function>/rom.
82
83You can get the respective information with lspci, for example:
84
85    # lspci -tv
86    # -[0000:00]-+-00.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Root Complex
87    #            +-01.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kabini [Radeon HD 8210]
88    # ...
89
90Here the the needed bits (for the ROM of the Kabini device) are:
91
92    # PCI domain: (almost always) 0000
93    # PCI bus: (also very commonly) 00
94    # PCI slot: 01 (logical slot; different from any physical slots)
95    # PCI function: 0 (a PCI device might have multiple functions... shouldn't matter here)
96
97To enable reading of the ROM you need to write 1 to the respective file, e.g.:
98
99    # echo 1 > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/rom
100
101The same file should then contain the video blob and it should be possible to simply copy it, e.g.:
102
103    # cp /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/rom vgabios.bin
104
105romheaders should print reasonable output for this file.
106
107This version is usable for all the GPUs.
108    1002,9901 Trinity (Radeon HD 7660D)
109    1002,9904 Trinity (Radeon HD 7560D)
110    1002,990c Richland (Radeon HD 8670D)
111    1002,990e Richland (Radeon HD 8570D)
112    1002,9991 Trinity (Radeon HD 7540D)
113    1002,9993 Trinity (Radeon HD 7480D)
114    1002,9996 Richland (Radeon HD 8470D)
115    1002,9998 Richland (Radeon HD 8370D)
116    1002,999d Richland (Radeon HD 8550D)
117    1002,130f Kaveri (Radeon R7)
118
119## Known issues
120
121- AHCI hot-plug
122- S3 resume (sometimes)
123- Windows 7 can't boot because of the incomplete ACPI implementation
124- XHCI
125
126### XHCI ports can break after using any of the blobs, restarting the
127board with factory image makes it work again as fallback.
128Tested even with/without the Bolton and Hudson blobs.
129
130## Untested
131
132- audio over HDMI
133
134## TODOs
135
136- one ATOMBIOS module for all the integrated GPUs
137- manage to work with Kaveri/Godavary (they are using a binaryPI)
138- IRQ routing is done incorrect way - common problem of fam15h boards
139
140## Working
141
142- ACPI
143- CPU frequency scaling
144- flashrom under coreboot
145- Gigabit Ethernet
146- Hardware monitoring
147- Integrated graphics
148- KVM virtualization
149- Onboard audio
150- PCI
151- PCIe
152- PS/2 keyboard mouse (during payload, bootloader)
153- SATA
154- Serial port
155- SuperIO based fan control
156- USB (disabling XHCI controller makes to work as fallback USB2.0 ports)
157- IOMMU
158
159## Extra resources
160
161- [Board manual]
162
163[ASUS A88XM-E]: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/A88XME/
164[Board manual]: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketFM2/A88XM-E/E9125_A88XM-E.pdf
165[flashrom]: https://flashrom.org/Flashrom
166[GD25Q64]: http://www.elm-tech.com/ja/products/spi-flash-memory/gd25q64/gd25q64.pdf
167[Piledriver]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piledriver_%28microarchitecture%29#APU_lines
168[Sea Islands]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Core_Next#GCN_2nd_generation
169[Steamroller]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamroller_(microarchitecture)
170[TeraScale 3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeraScale_%28microarchitecture%29#TeraScale_3
171