Una actualización menor que tenía entre mis tareas pendientes y que también puede interesar al personal, las décimas, en ocasiones, también cuentan (a Fernando Alonso incluso las milésimas)

Os dejo el enlace a la revisión que le hicimos a la 3.4, la 3.5 puede ofrecer programas actualizados y algunos detalles importantes en los que el usuario al que está destinado esta distribución, no experimentado en sistemas operativos ni en GNU, que ni es informático ni geek ni nadená, ni se fija ni le importan. Está cargada de programas, en español, es bonita, sencilla de configurar y de usar y reconoce un montón de hardware, ¿qué mas quiero? ¡Ay si todo fuera tan sencillo en esta puta vida!

Hay versión para 32 y 64 bits, DVD con todo el software del mundo y soporte multilenguaje o versión "ligera" desde CD con algún programa menos y en inglés pero más asequible para anchos de banda poco "anchos".

Yo la pega que la pongo es lo que valoran otros, que contiene software privativo y/o no licenciado bajo GPL, como drivers para tarjetas Nvidia, ATI, soft de Google (qué majos son los de google, no se casan con nadie pero al final nos van a joder a tod@s ;) )

No hay capturas, no la he probado ni la pruebo, al menos de momento, ya me contaréis ;)

Píllate un:

Sabayon 3.5 (32 bits) - LiveCD

Sabayon 3.5 (32 bits) -LiveDVD

Sabayon 3.5 (64 bits) - LiveCD

Sabayon 3.5 (32 bits) - LiveDVD

Nivel de software libre: – % Valoración final: Buena

Las distribuciones se califican globalmente según sean desastrosas, insuficientes, aceptables, buenas, exóticas, muy buenas o formidables.

]]> http://librenet.wordpress.com/?p=388 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:57:53 +0000 andreskru http://librenet.pl.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/las-distribuciones-en-imagenes/ Así es, para el agrado de sus ojos en este post les traigo algunas imágenes de distribuciones que están dando vueltas. Veamos!

1.- Debian: Aunque podemos elegir el entorno gráfico que imaginemos, en un principio se trata de un distribución espartana, no enfocada a tener un look espectacular, sino a tener una alta estabilidad y adecuación a nuestras necesidades. En esta imagen vemos la ultima versión (Lenny) con Gnome como escritorio. (www.debian.org)

2.- OpenSuse: La versión comunitaria de Suse, con excelente herramientas para la configuración (Yast) un muy logrado soporte de hardware y completísima documentación, la versión 11 con KDE 4.0 como escritorio se ve así. (www.opensuse.org)

3.- Fedora: Antes Fedora Core, es una versión comunitaria de Red Hat, quizás no sea muy amigable con usuarios noveles pero maneja de manera muy eficiente el tema de codecs multimedia, excelente prestaciones y seguridad así como actualizaciones permanentes. En la imagen estamos eligiendo un protector de pantalla en Fedora 9 con Gnome. (www.fedoraproject.org)

Ubuntu: La distrubucion del momento, desde hace ya algún tiempo, su creador pretende que sea la vanguardia en lo que respecta a esperiencia de usuario. Su look altamente customizable es un ejemplo seguido por muchos. (www.ubuntu.com)

DSL (Damn Small Linux): Dirigida a computadoras con escasos recursos de hardware corriendo en cualquier cosa que tenga más memoria que una paloma, su instalador ocupa tan solo 50 MB! (pendrive viejo) y conteniene todo lo que un usuario común puede necesitar. Quizás no tenga el "super look" pero se defiende. Mirá esa hoja de cálculo! (www.damnsmalllinux.org)

Sabayon: De lo más lindo que he visto, basada en algo "raro" de Gentoo. Todo en esta distribucion es para ostentar apariencia, Compiz, KDE y el buen gusto están a la orden del día. Miren esta imagen... (www.sabayonlinux.org).

Elive: Basada en Debian y con Enlightenment como escritorio, se basa entre un delicado equilibrio de belleza y consumo, pudiendo correr en equipos sumamente modestos y con una apariencia sumamente pulida. (www.elivecd.org).

Se que se podrian poner muchas más, pero me concentré en las que más me gustán a mi :)

01 Ubuntu
Ubuntu é um sistema operativo Linux completo p/ desktop, livremente distribuido com dois tipos de suporte: comunitário e profissional. A comunidade Ubuntu assenta em ideias enraizadas no Manifesto Ubuntu : o software deve ser disponibilizado sem custos, utilizado por todos em cada linguagem, mesmo quem tem algum tipo de deficiência e que todos devem ser livres de personalizar e alterar o seu software seja de que forma for que melhor se adapte a si. "Ubuntu" é uma palavra anciã do mundo Africano que significa "humanidade para com os outros". A distribuição Ubuntu traz esse espírito para o mundo do software. ♣♣♣♣♣

02 OpenSUSE
OpenSUSE é um projecto comunitário patrocinado pela Novell que visa a promoção da utilização de Linux em todo o lado, acesso livre e fácil numa distribuição completa. Este projecto tem 3 objectivos: fazer do openSUSE o Linux mais fácil, ter o maior número de utlizadores, aumentar a colaboração open source para que seja o mais usável tanto a nível de iniciantes como de utilizadores experientes, simplificar dramáticamente o desenvolvimento e processos de instalação para que seja a plataforma escolhida pelos desenvolvedores e comerciantes de software para Linux. ♣♣♣♣

03 Fedora 
Este Projecto desenvolvido pela Red Hat está aberto a todos para participação geral, liderado por meritocracia, segue um conjunto de objectivos. O principal é trabalhar a par com a comunidade Linux para construir um sistema operativo polivalente, completo, exclusivamente a partir de open source software. O desenvolvimento será feito em forúns públicos e produzirá lançamentos periódicos do Fedora (cerca de 2-3 vezes por ano, com data prevista de distribuição). A equipe de engenheiros da Red Hat continuará a participar na sua programação e irá convidar e encorajar mais participação e exterior. Utilizando este processo mais aberto, esperam fornecer um sistema operativo mais em conta com os ideais do software livre e mais apelativo à comunidade open source. ♣♣♣♣

04 Mint
Linux Mint é baseado na distro Ubuntu e o seu objectivo é fornecer uma experiência out-of-the-box mais completa, includindo browser plugins, media codecs, suporte para DVD playback, Java e outros componentes semelhantes. Adiciona também um personalização ao desktop, menus, e vários utensílios únicos de configuração, o interface de instalação é baseado na web. Os repositórios são compativeis com os do Ubuntu. ♣♣♣♣

05 PCLinuxOS
O Live CD de PCLinuxOS existe apenas em Inglês e é basedo no Mandrake Linux que corre inteiramente a partir de um 'bootable CD'. Os dados são descomprimidos em tempo real, permitindo para cima de 2GB de aplicações incluindo um X server completo, ambiente KDE, OpenOffice.org e muitas outras prontas a utilizar Em adição podemos instala-lo no disco duro de forma bastante rápida e simples. Podem ser adicionados ou removidos programas a partir do apt-get, via Synaptic. ♣♣♣♣

06 Debian
O projecto Debian é uma associação de individuais que partilham a mesma causa a fim de criarem um sistema operativo livre chamado Debian GNU/Linux. Actualmente utilizam o kernel Linux (parte de código criado por Linus Torvalds e mantida por milhares de programadores à volta do globo). Claro que aquilo que os utilizadores querem são aplicações: programas que os ajudem a obter o que pretendem realizar, desde edição de documentos até à gestão de negócios, passando pelos jogos e pela criação de mais software. Debian vem com mais de 20,000 pacotes (software pre-compilado reunido num formato de fácil instalação) - todo ele livre. Tal como um torre que tem o kernel como base. Um nível acoma encontram-se os utensílios básicos para de seguida se posicionar todo o software que corre no nosso computador. No topo da torra está o Debian - cuidadosamente a organizar e a orientar todas as peças para que a seja um conjunto que funcione suavemente.  ♣♣♣♣♣

07 Mandriva
Mandriva Linux (inicialmente Mandrakelinux) foi criado em 1998 com o objectivo de tornar o Linux  mais acessível a todos. Na altura era já bastante conhecido, poderoso e estável mas necessitava de forte conhecimento e técnica, tal como uso extensivo da linha de comandos; A MandrakeSoft via assim uma oportunidade de integrar no Linux, o melhor ambiente gráfico que desenvolvera, contribuindo com as suas próprias utilidades de configuração para se tornar famosa por definir um standard na facilidade de utilização e funcionalidade. Esta aproximação inovadora ofereceu todo o poder e estabilidade do Linux, tanto a utilizadores comuns como aos profissionais num ambiente amigável e agradável. Milhares de novos utilizadores descobriam assim o Linux, encontrando-se um substituto à altura do seu anterior sistema operativo. Um Linux como servidor ou estação de trabalho sem razão para ter ciumes de quaisquer outros sistemas operativos estabelecidos e aceites. ♣♣♣♣

08 Dream Linux
Dreamlinux é uma distribuição brasileira baseda em Debian GNU/Linux. Um live CD com opção de instalação que arranca directamente para um gestor de janelas Xfce ou GNOME e que permite acesso a uma boa colecção de aplicações para desktop, tak como um painel de controlo para confuguração de sistema. ♣♣♣

09 Sabayon
Sabayon Linux é um live DVD desenhado para transformar um computador num poderoso sistema Gentoo Linux em menos de 5 minutos. Gentoo Linux é uma distro apoiada por um gestor de instalação de software denominado "Portage". Além de funcionar como live DVD, pode também ser instalado no disco duro e inclui uma variada quantidade de gestores de janelas e de aplicações open source software tais como KDE, GNOME, XFce, Fluxbox, KOffice, OpenOffice.org, FreeNX, amaroK, Kaffeine, etc. ♣♣♣♣

10 Damn Small
Damn Small Linux empresarial tem o tamanho de (50MB) em live CD. Apesar do seu tamanho minúsculo pode orgulhar-se de ser funcional e intuitivo, um completo desktop, inclui XMMS (MP3 e MPEG), cliente FTP, browser links-hacked, folha de cálculo, cliente email, dicionário (Inglês), processador de texto, 3 editores (Nedit, nVi, Zile [clone de emacs ]), Xpdf, Worker (gestor de ficheiros), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, SSH/SCP servidor e cliente, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE, servidor web, calculadora, gestor de janelas Fluxbox , monitorizador de sistema, suporte USB e brevemente terá também suporte PCMCIA. A melhor escolha para hardware pouco recente.  ♣♣♣♣

Sabayon, distribuzione sviluppata in italia, deriva da Gentoo e credo che della madre abbia ereditato soprattutto la stabilità (ho provato Gentoo in passato). Il riconoscimento hardware, come ubuntu, è ottimo: ha riconosciuto da subito la mia configurazione hardware e non ha richiesto smanettamenti aggiuntivi. Mi piace soprattutto perché segue un po' la filosofia di ubuntu: Installa -> Funziona! Dopo l'installazione è già pronta per ogni tipo di uso (forse anche più di ubuntu), con una miriade di software installati, Giochi come SecondLife o Battle for Wesnoth (oltre ai giochi predefiniti di un po' ogni distro), software di ogni genere, Google Earth, Amarok, Elisa Media Center, digiKam, Firefox 3, Ardour, Audacity, soundKonverter, k3b, kaffeine, RealPlayer, SMPlayer, Mplayer, VLC, Programmi di intrattenimento, sviluppo e ovviamente OpenOffice.org; fin da subito è pronta per il desktop 3D con l'ultima versione di compiz-fusion (che funziona con quasi tutte le schede video, a quanto pare), pronta con i driver proprietari AMD/ATI e NVIDIA, già installati i codec per i formati proprietari come Flash, Java, MP3, WMA; Gnome 2.22, KDE 3.5.9 (KDE 4.0.5 installabile da respository), Xfce4, Fluxbox a scelta per l'installazione... Insomma PRONTISSIMA all'uso :)

Beh, sicuramente da provare :)

Not declaring war on everybody, providing humanitarian aid to the countries the United States has finished pulverizing for no reason, and a model for human rights, not to mention real maple syrup!

There are many things our neighbors to the north should be praised for, but I found yet another one...saving us from this...

Apparently they need you to have Microsoft Silverfish Silverlight (a second rate Flash knockoff) to watch the games, and this is only for Windows and Mac.

Of course there is a version for Linux that you can compile yourself, with all needed codecs which should be up to the challenge, called Moonlight.

Unfortunately you also need to spoof Firefox as Firefox on Windows Vista to even make it through the sniffer, at which point the video feed crashes the browser.

Canada to the rescue!

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has coverage of the Olympics in very good quality, requiring only the Gstreamer codecs and browser plug in (if that doesn't work for you, try mplayer) and Flash, it should work on any OS that has the codecs.

MSNBC also locks out non-Americans from watching their feed, where CBC doesn't.

Canada...not just for cooler heads prevailing, non-discrimination, and real maple syrup.....you guys are awesome!

We all know that Microsoft Windows takes the cake for the most used operating system in the world.  Everyone who's used a computer have been exposed to Windows in some way.  Are we happy with using Vista or XP?  Working with computers for more than 8 hours of my day, I always find myself reformatting my computers between various linux and windows operating systems.  Windows XP is the familiar operating system with no surprises.  Actually, when I worked as a computer technician years ago I had customers who wanted to use Windows 98SE on new computers that came with Windows XP!  Vista is the newest OS from Microsoft with a better visual on top of a similar XP feel.  On the linux side of things, I've used Suse, Vector Linux, Slax, Sabayon Linux, and Ubuntu.  Ubuntu is one of the most popular linux distributions.  I've used it for many months and I'm sure some of you have used it or tried to install it.  After customizing all of these operating systems to my liking I always find myself reformatting and reinstalling back and forth...until I installed Mac OS X on my PC (insert hackintosh).

Technobabble ahead.  Feel free to skip after this paragraph.

Mac OS X can be installed on a machine with an Intel CPU or even an AMD CPU, an ATI or an Nvidia graphics card, and using a SATA or IDE hard drive.  Even though it's not designed to work on AMD and Nvidia hardware many people are hard at work to have the latest models supported using patched DVDs with custom drivers.  Your CPU should have support for SSE3 which usually means you're safe with a dual core Intel or AMD CPU.  From my experience, I have to disable one core (cpus=1) to have my network working 100%.  Also, installing the OS on an IDE hard drive works better than SATA.

There are many different DVD releases that can install Mac OS X on your PC so after doing some research you can find out which one could fit well with yours.  After a few hours of reading, trial and error, I finally had my computer up and running.  There are still some issues I can't get around but it is definitely more than usable as my home theatre PC.

With all of this hype about the iPhone, I know I've definitely come to love Apple software.  Even with a few minor downfalls, it's still both beautiful and functional.  I don't feel any need to use format c:...yet.

Links

Lifehacker's Build a Hackintosh Mac for under $800

Insanelymac

Dear Ryan,

Sorry to hear and see that, that is really a terrible/worst comments to
break the almost clamming down situation.
I believe that is new guy just joined to Foxconn, and he knew nothing about
this. Please just ignore him.
I am so sorry about that.

I still need to say sorry again (hopefully it is the last time I say sorry
for one Foxonn Guy's bad comments/attitude)
I promise here, there won't be any guys who is working for Foxconn say like
that again.
And there are only me and Carl Brunning can be the reprentative of Foxconn
for this issue.

And I updated the issue solving status to you.

Yesterday evening and this morning we con-called with AMI, so far they
already saw the terrible status on Linux, and try to find any way which can
help this issue. They already put this issue status on the highest
priority.

Maybe there are lots of confusion on the terrible status on the Linux
using. Carl already took phone-call with Mr. Matthew Garrett from Redhat
who in control of the ACPI/APM code in the linux kernel.
But now he is in business trip, and he will be back on next Tuesday. We
will ask his help also, co-working with this issue.
And our Mr. Brunning will send him a board to ask his help check code. I
think it maybe is another effective way to do that.

Anyway, we are still co-work with AMI, trying to find some solution for
this issue. That is what our Foxconn really and exactly need to do first
and it is our priority task.

Sorry again! Thanks for your email informing me this & we desire you can
forgive us again.

**********************************
Best Regards & All the Best! *^_^*

SELAMAT DATANG KE YANTAI

Heart J. Zhang  Z
Channel Innovation Service Group/通路行N事II

-------------

From Me:

Heart,

Apology accepted, if your people can attack the technical merits of these issues then I welcome that.

All that I want is to get to the bottom of this.

I don't believe these problems have any chance of being addressed until someone with a good working knowledge of BIOS design and proper OS behavior can make a complete and impartial analysis of the situation, and I thank you for making an honest effort to see this happens.

I had hoped there would be a minimal amount of dragging names through the mud after it was confirmed to be an issue you were working on.

I believe that everyone that works for a company is a representative of that company, and takes complete personal responsibility for maintaining that company's image.

I've been in management positions from time to time and that was the first thing I emphasized with my employees.

Again, thank you for making your company position clear on this matter.

-Ryan

Entonces! ¿Cual es el problema? ese mismo es el problema! no se realizo ninguna compilación solo se descargaron unos paquetes binarios, precompilados con unas opciones por defectos y genericas, y se instalaron en mi sistema! donde esta mi libertad de elegir si deseo optimizar mis paquetes? y si quiero cambiar las opciones de cada paquete individual?

La respuesta es o uso Portage y compilo todos mis paquetes o Entropy e instalo solo binarios, pero debo tener mucho cuidado en no mezclarlos.

Entropy no esta del todo mal, esta organizado y le facilita las cosas a los nuevos usuarios, pienso que lo crearon con ese fin, atraer nuevos usuarios que no necesariamente tengan mucha experiencia. Pero deberían pensar también en los usuarios que terminamos en Sabayon por tener el alma de Gentoo y deberían incluir en Entropy la opción de instalar el binario o compilarlo, o en su defecto hacerlo realmente más compatible con Portage.

En mi opinión Sabayon está dejando de ser un Gentoo para convertirse en una distribución independiente.

UPDATE: Heart Zhang from Foxconn has gone to Ubuntu Forums and is linking to the development version of this BIOS, it’s working great for me, so if you happen to have the G33M or G33M-S motherboard and these issues are affecting you, and you don’t want to wait for the official BIOS release, you can get it on Foxconn’s FTP server: (Heart says all affected Foxconn motherboards will be fixed soon)

http://wft.foxconn.com/wft/Login.aspx

Username: enduser

Password: 123456

BIOS name: 772F1D43
You can unzip the file, just run flash.bat on DOS mode to flash the BIOS.

You can get the Windows Server 2008 eval edition and Fox Live Update tool (Just point it to the ROM file and let it do the rest) if you don’t want to mess with DOS, otherwise to make a FreeDOS bootCD with the BIOS flash, I’ve found a HowTo here:

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-flash-motherboard-bios-from-linux-no-dos-windows-no-floppy-drive.html

See the Ubuntu Forum thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=877721

Again, thanks to Foxconn for responding to this so quickly!

—————–

I've received lots of everything over the last few days regarding Foxconn/AMI/ASUS/MSI BIOS scandal:

But in the end, I believe I was right.

It's very sad that these companies would obviously bury their heads in the sand than listen to the people that write their paychecks, and if you are reading this on a computer right now, you have probably signed a paycheck for one of the parties responsible. ;)

When I buy something that says it is standards compliant, I want something that is compliant with the standard, as they claim, not something that has a certain company's arbitrary "We only give a shit about Product X, but we'll gladly rubber stamp this!" seal of approval.

Anything that deviates from that is false advertising and exploitation of the consumer.

This is not about being a Linux fanboy or a Microsoft hater, (Windows users should be just as outraged at the parties responsible for a cargo cult BIOS!) it's about "I want what you sold me, not this turd I've been handed", I've not been as scathing of Microsoft, _ever_ until this point. (more on that in a moment!)

What would you do if you bought a car and they sold it to you with headlights, but the headlights only worked during the day? And when you flipped the radio on, it caused the windshield wipers and the horn to activate.

And when you stepped on the brakes, the car didn't stop, it said "Thank you for buying this car, we don't care that you just got ripped off with something that doesn't work, but thanks for buying this car! Please avoid driving at night, turning the radio on, or stepping on the brakes if you don't like this behavior"

It's obvious what would happen, nobody would buy their car, they would be a short lived business!

Unfortunately when Microsoft does this with software, you have no such luck, I've already stated that this BIOS is heavily and intentionally reliant on Windows Hardware Error Architecture (a thinly veiled Microsoft-proprietary ACPI) to function, so while it has ACPI-like features, it is not compliant with the published standards.

And there's very little that one person could do about that, actually nothing that could be done about that, because Microsoft is a convicted monopolist that uses it's weight to subvert open standards, through threats, bribes, and horse trading, Power gets what Power wants.

Doesn't change the fact that I was cheated, or that millions of other people were....conned into buying these defective products.

Microsoft ACPI is the Microsoft Internet Explorer of power management:

Remember when all those websites said "Come back with Netscape" or "Come back with MSIE on Windows"?, Microsoft still does...

It was horrible trying to use the internet back then, Internet Explorer 4 was buggy and crash prone and still gets 1.2 security patches a second (slight exaggeration), but the worst part was that consumers had no choice, Netscape had to resort to those dirty tricks to try to keep customers.(Which is why Linux tries to masquerade itself to the BIOS as Windows, even though Windows' behavior is incorrect)

Windows Hardware Error Architechture and the Microsoft BIOS assembly tools are no different from MSIE and MS Frontpage, which were a defective browser, and a defective web page editor that made pages that only worked in the defective browser.

Microsoft is a monopolist using filthy stinking lies and underhanded business decisions to keep ahold of that, and the United States is unlikely to intervene because it's "Good for the economy", and the politicians in office essentially pardoned these rapacious sharks because of that reason.

I have no reason other than Microsoft to hate Microsoft:

Regardless of Microsoft's level of participation in this particular episode (which I believe was quite high), the fact remains that Microsoft is a bad neighbor, one that plays deafening music at 3 AM, and comes over every chance it gets to dump garbage in your front lawn.

So just remember who the real bad guys are!

Thanks for your email//information, we still need to say sorry again
about our fault that one of our colleague who took care of your question
took a very bad/wrong attitude to you.

And also we need to appreciate you again that you found our lack of
Linux-Level Motherboard testing. You gave us lots of good suggestions on
the BIOS part.

So far we already passed this issue to AMI BIOS company since the ACPI
table source code are all from them, and some customers also tested
their motherboard with AMI BIOS, they got the  same problems.
such like Asus P5K-E,
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=871311&page=2
such like MSI P965 Platinum's
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=118715.0

So far we found this issue happened on Intel Platform MB with AMI BIOS,
for Award BIOS, we tested several MB like Foxconn G31MX-K, G31AX-K MB,
there is no such issue.
Suspend/Reboot works fine.

We already ordered AMI to fix this issue as the highest priority, so far
they are still searching on where  the root cause is.
Anyway, we will continue to push AMI and also we are trying to find the
root cause of this issue.

We are very glad to hear any words // receive any emails / phone-call
from you about improving anything on our MB whatever it is for Linux or
other operating system.

If you have any words want to tell me, please send email to
(removed by Ryan)
Thanks again

--- Foxconn FAE Heart Zhang in China

----------
Heart,

I want to apologize for the brash tone that I took, as I have explained
previously, I felt extremely offended/stonewalled, and again, please
accept my apologies if I have been out of line in any way in this
ordeal.

I sincerely appreciate that you are taking this seriously, and are
working to resolve this, if it had been a smaller company that I was
dealing with, I probably just would have had Newegg RMA the thing and
gone on, but I know you guys pass a lot of stuff on to Tier 2 and OEM's
such and OEM's such as Dell and Hewlett Packard, and this has obviously
crept into a lot of that too, I am primarily concerned with the vast
number of customers of Foxconn, ASUS, MSI, (and others?) that would go
to run a non-Windows system and be out-of-luck, and since this has been
publicized, there has been an uproar in people emailing me asking how to
fix your products and your partner's products, and all I can do is give
them a partial workaround, so I feel that my intentions are good, even
if I executed them in an unorthodox fashion.

I've been trying to calm people down/assure them that help is
coming/keeping the tracking bugs at Canonical and Red Hat updated so it
doesn't just point to you guys anymore, and for whatever reason,
everybody got a raw deal here.

Remember that there are almost 7 billion people on the planet, many of
them interact with a computer, and 1-2% (Desktop users) of say a couple
billion, is still *a lot of people*, and as this stuff is our primary
source of information, it scares the hell out of me to think that a
place like Microsoft could control that, when they obviously love
DRM/so-called "Trusted Computing".

Anyway, to wrap it up, it's easy to see this in an extremely bad light,
and I'm glad that this was probably just a misunderstanding. ;)

-Ryan

Carl,

While we have a dialog, I would like to mention that there's no reason
you can't keep your boards Linux-compatible without it costing your
company a fortune, remember that you're not dealing with Microsoft and
the specifications are totally available to you with no gimmicks
attached, and you don't have to pay any third party to sign off on your
work, all it would really require your company to do is maintain a
presence on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, many many manufacturers keep
a presence there, and as for your chipsets, AMD and Intel are even doing
all the driver work and incorporating them into the kernel, your
responsibility basically lies with making sure the BIOS hands everything
over to the operating system properly, and you guys can do that by
keeping pressure on this AMI outfit and doing a basic check on all
important related functionality before the equipment heads out the door.

If you're handing everything over to an OEM, which as I understand it is
what Foxconn mainly deals with, and it doesn't work well with Linux,
then sadly that is mostly on the customer and the OEM, there's no reason
why your Tier 2 and OEM partners should receive damaged goods from you,
but that does take some of the culpability from your company.

But as you are doing business under your own brand, and marketing your
own hardware, then the customer building their own PC should have a
reasonable expectation that any OS which where the chipset works with
your features should boot up and run properly, it just comes with the
territory.

There are also other BIOS providers?

If AMI won't give you this, there's Phoenix, Award, and I don't know who
else, but there are options, hold it over AMI if you have to, play them
against one another, it's what business does.

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/lkml/ (Come on, they'd love for you
guys to participate!)

-Ryan

On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 16:25 +0200, Carl Brunning wrote:
> Don't worry that not a problem
> Its shame you did not come to me
> As you can see I like to give better support
>
> I will say the person who answer you has to give a report of why he answer like that back to china and me.
>
> If you come across any other Foxconn boards (our boards not dell or intel)
> Please email to me and I be happy to get the problem sorted or give a reason why we can not
> So you be a lot happy with the correct information.
>
> Like I said been using linux now coming up to 14 years, but do a lot of my working on Slackware
> Or now days more LFS
>
>
>
> Kind Regards
> Carl Brunning
>
> Technical Manager for UK and Ireland
> Foxconn CSDEU B.V (UK)

UPDATE: Heart Zhang from Foxconn has gone to Ubuntu Forums and is linking to the development version of this BIOS, it’s working great for me, so if you happen to have the G33M or G33M-S motherboard and these issues are affecting you, and you don’t want to wait for the official BIOS release, you can get it on Foxconn’s FTP server: (Heart says all affected Foxconn motherboards will be fixed soon)

http://wft.foxconn.com/wft/Login.aspx

Username: enduser

Password: 123456

BIOS name: 772F1D43
You can unzip the file, just run flash.bat on DOS mode to flash the BIOS.

You can get the Windows Server 2008 eval edition and Fox Live Update tool (Just point it to the ROM file and let it do the rest) if you don’t want to mess with DOS, otherwise to make a FreeDOS bootCD with the BIOS flash, I’ve found a HowTo here:

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-flash-motherboard-bios-from-linux-no-dos-windows-no-floppy-drive.html

See the Ubuntu Forum thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=877721

Again, thanks to Foxconn for responding to this so quickly!

—————–

In the fallout of this Foxconn disaster, I believe all parties involved have screwed up in some way or another, here's how this played out:

1. I bought the G33M-S motherboard, it is correct that there was nothing stamped "works with Linux".

What motherboards or other computer products do you see that do this? None? Few and far between?

This is largely because if the company is on the up and up, they never should have to stamp their product like this, if they follow "industry standards" it should work on any operating system that follows those standards, not just "Microsoft told us A-OK!"

2. I emailed Foxconn about this, opening a Linux support ticket, their support system in fact has these.

3. Their support rep was a complete jerk, and said "This board is only compatible with Microsoft Vista or XP" and told me to go get one of those and come back if their bad BIOS was still interfering with those features, which of course it wouldn't cause Microsoft has given them the WHQL rubber stamping, which knowing Microsoft, probably was designed to make life hell for Linux, the only reason this BIOS works in XP and Vista is because of Windows Hardware Error Architecture, which Microsoft describes thusly.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/WHEA/wheaintro.mspx

Provides mechanisms for recovering from hardware errors to avoid bugchecking the system when a hardware error is non-fatal.

Deweaselized, this means "Write a piss poor BIOS that hardly works, Windows XP/Vista have your ass covered, no need to fix it so that it works with anything but Windows."

So Microsoft did have a hand in this, but probably wasn't collaborating with Foxconn, AMI on the other hand may be in a Microsoft deal, but more likely their BIOS team was a bunch of wankers and decided that it was good enough for Vista, so what the hell?

So it's as if Foxconn sold me a square peg certified for square holes, then I go to stick the square peg in the square hole, and it turns out they really sold me a round peg and want me to go out and buy a $250 round hole instead of whining about what kind of peg they sold me.

I also want to be perfectly clear that while Vista will go out of it's way to compensate for a corrupt BIOS, that does not mean the BIOS isn't corrupt, you shouldn't have to trust your data to this even if you use Microsoft products.

4. Their support representative got snarky with me and told me essentially "Go buy Vista".

According to senior Foxconn management, this is not their policy (After being plastered all over the news) and that AMI (American Megatrends) sold them a crappy BIOS.

Ass covering? Just a little.

Mostly true? Yeah, that too.

5. They didn't watch what they actually shipped, it contained a trigger that made Linux break.

This can be interpreted several ways, here's what I believe happened:

Linux should not have responded to it, so there is a bug in Linux just for the reason that it even responded to the request to use the corrupted DSDT data, the kernel developers should look into this, if Matthew Garrett would kindly do that instead of attacking me for being a user that bought hardware that bumbled into that.

This can easily be worked around in the BIOS by simply removing all references to Linux and let Linux tell the BIOS it's got the capabilities of Windows, which is how Linux is designed to function.

The remaining crashers (those which baffled me) on the other hand are in fact a corrupted BIOS, and this is on Foxconn, and therefore, AMI.

I may have been able to do something if I had their source with commenting, but in the state it's in after being disassembled, I really don't want to poke around like an Aborigine in a jet fighter.

(And as a customer, I should not have to)

Again, a corrupted BIOS is not a good thing, and even Windows users should be angry that it shipped like this.

6. So to condense this situation:

I was mostly correct over this ordeal, and whenever I was wrong, I would like to thank the following groups that gave me enough rope to hang myself.

Microsoft

Foxconn

AMI (American Megatrends)

The way the Linux kernel handles ACPI, there are likely bugs in Linux that have laid dormant because you have to have this perfect storm to trigger them

And finally myself, for knowing enough to be dangerous but not really knowing where to focus my angst, and if this is a conspiracy, thats *just* how the conspirators would want it.

But for what this is worth, if this was not Foxconn's doing, they have my sincerest apology.

I don't know if they will ever explain fully what just happened (they may even not know all the details), thats the thing about a conspiracy, just who's black helicopters are these anyway?

I will tell you that I've spent the last few days working feverishly to try to bring some attention to bear on this issue, and have dealt with the Preschool Equivalents over on a "Linux hater's blog", who are likely "Monoposoft" employees or lackeys, either way if you support Microsoft's subterfuge and actually enjoy their DRM and handcuffware, congratulations, you're a moron.

I've also dealt with everyone and their mother telling me crashing, bad checksums errors, ACPI warnings in my kernel logs, etc were not bugs, because every group implicated in this will be damned if they'll accept any blame.

For what it's worth, I accept my share, I thank Heart Zhane, Carl Brunning, and everyone at Foxconn for working expeditiously towards repairing the BIOS, hopefully we will have a patch within the week, which I will immediately post a link to on all bug reports I've opened in the various Bugzillas and the Ubuntu Launchpad to resolve them, and on this site.

This issue affects some models of ASUS and MSI motherboards as well, so if you experience the problem (try suspend, resume, reboot and have it hang, is the easiest way to trigger some of the behavior), please email them and ask for this patch.

Comments welcome.

-Ryan

UPDATE: Heart Zhang from Foxconn has gone to Ubuntu Forums and is linking to the development version of this BIOS, it’s working great for me, so if you happen to have the G33M or G33M-S motherboard and these issues are affecting you, and you don’t want to wait for the official BIOS release, you can get it on Foxconn’s FTP server: (Heart says all affected Foxconn motherboards will be fixed soon)

http://wft.foxconn.com/wft/Login.aspx

Username: enduser

Password: 123456

BIOS name: 772F1D43
You can unzip the file, just run flash.bat on DOS mode to flash the BIOS.

You can get the Windows Server 2008 eval edition and Fox Live Update tool (Just point it to the ROM file and let it do the rest) if you don’t want to mess with DOS, otherwise to make a FreeDOS bootCD with the BIOS flash, I’ve found a HowTo here:

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-flash-motherboard-bios-from-linux-no-dos-windows-no-floppy-drive.html

See the Ubuntu Forum thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=877721

Again, thanks to Foxconn for responding to this so quickly!

—————–

Edit: If this interests you, please also read http://izanbardprince.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/open-mouth-insert-foot-invite-all-parties-to-do-same/

Dear Ryan,

Today we verified several times focus on the ACPI table.
Because all the ACPI source code, we got from AMI BIOS company.
We already reported this issue to AMI, if we get any updates, we will let you know at first time.

Thanks for your effort!

Zhang Heart

---------------------------

So the corrupted BIOS is either AMI (American Megatrend's fault) or Foxconn is pinning it on them, in either case, it's busted, someone needs to clean it up.

I reiterate:

Do not buy a Foxconn motherboard until you see them explicitly issue a BIOS update for this problem!

Update:

I fired off an email asking for a time frame, got this:

I can not give you any promise about the schedule. But I am sure tomorrow I
will give you the updated status on this.
We will push AMI and co-work with AMI about this issue.

Thanks

-Heart from Foxconn China

Update AGAIN!

Should have a some answer tomorrow from them

We have found the asus and msi board that have ami have the same problem
If the bios is award on the same chipset its fine

So we are working on it and the bios writer are working at home as well.

I would love to say we have a fix tomorrow but am unable to
As this could be fixed tomorrow or take a few days
It's more like how bad is the ami source code we use is and how much rewrite is there

Sorry about this

But keep smiling we will get there

Thanks

Kind Regards
Carl Brunning

Technical Manager for UK and Ireland
Foxconn CSDEU B.V (UK)

UPDATE: Heart Zhang from Foxconn has gone to Ubuntu Forums and is linking to the development version of this BIOS, it’s working great for me, so if you happen to have the G33M or G33M-S motherboard and these issues are affecting you, and you don’t want to wait for the official BIOS release, you can get it on Foxconn’s FTP server: (Heart says all affected Foxconn motherboards will be fixed soon)

http://wft.foxconn.com/wft/Login.aspx

Username: enduser

Password: 123456

BIOS name: 772F1D43
You can unzip the file, just run flash.bat on DOS mode to flash the BIOS.

You can get the Windows Server 2008 eval edition and Fox Live Update tool (Just point it to the ROM file and let it do the rest) if you don’t want to mess with DOS, otherwise to make a FreeDOS bootCD with the BIOS flash, I’ve found a HowTo here:

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-flash-motherboard-bios-from-linux-no-dos-windows-no-floppy-drive.html

See the Ubuntu Forum thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=877721

Again, thanks to Foxconn for responding to this so quickly!

—————–

Picked this up on the Ubuntu Forums this morning, posted 3 hours ago, from user Arvi Pingus.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5473017&postcount=23

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sir,
Thank you very much for your attention with Foxconn.
With regard to this issue posted on Ubuntu forum, we are trying to resolve it and we would like to state here that Foxconn will never reject Linux.
If you meet similar problems, please try to provide your detailed configuration, (including cpu, memory, hdd, Linux version and its kernel, etc.) and the symptom so that we could test in our bed and analyse to resolve this.
It is really a pleasure to be of service to you, Sir.
Thanks and best regards,
Foxconn Technical Support

Dear Ryan:

This board was never certified for Linux. It is only certified for Vista. See URL below. So please test under Vista. Does this issue also occured under Vista or Winxp?

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/certification.aspx

And quite frankly, I respectfully disagreee with *some* of what Matthew Garrett has said.

First off, this has to be a BIOS issue, it's only affecting Foxconn-made boards, on several different chipsets (whereas the Intel-branded equivalent works fine, as well as many manufacturers with the same specs, that I believe demanded a Linux-compatible BIOS), the BIOS in all cases is a similar customized AMI (American Megatrends), and I still think it's quite possible that either they, or Microsoft's BIOS compiler, or American Megatrends has slipped Linux some poison, I will reiterate that Matthew has only seen the DSDT table, with none of Foxconn's commenting intact, and he has said it should not be doing what it is, and that there are several weird things in it, including telling the CPU to execute code hidden from the operating system, Matthew's summary boils down to "it may be a kernel bug", and I say it may be Santa Claus, I do not know everything, he knows a lot more, but still far from the whole story, and even though he says it shouldn't do this, I have the hardware, and it *does*, as several others have corroborated.

"Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

I find that with this being the one connecting factor, that the BIOS is responsible for this nightmare, AMI/Foxconn/(Microsoft?) are doing something they shouldn't be, for reasons unknown, this is where "Microsoft and the black helicopters" comes in".

Did I say this was the case? No.

Is this what I strongly suspect?

Yes. Why would they go out of their way to sabotage Linux otherwise?

Saying they've triggered a Linux bug later, when they've been found out, is the perfect cover story, (and at this point, I give 50/50 odds between a patch and more "Go Buy Vista" cowbell) and mjg59 is giving them all the ammunition they need to make this crap fly, should it be their intention.

If this is the fault of American Megatrends and/or Microsoft, and Foxconn simply shipped it without knowing what they were doing, I can also accept that, as long as explanation and acceptable BIOS patch are provided, and in such case, will gladly apologize to Foxconn for this entire situation.

This is also conceivable, in a rush to ship Vista-compliant stuff, they really might just not have cared about anyone else, and didn't worry about clobbering Linux, and AMI and/or Microsoft could have easily taken advantage of that.

Matthew Garrett said on his blog:

Anyway. Accusing companies of conspiring against us when the most likely explanation is simply that they don't care is a fucking ridiculous thing to do and does nothing to get rid of the impression that Linux users are a bunch of whining childish hatemongers. Next time, try talking to someone who actually understands this stuff first?

---------------------

Here is an email I have sent to Carl Brunning of Foxconn (He seems to be one of the cooler heads there), among many others trying desperately to help provide them with information they need to get Linux to work with their BIOS, including the guide from Novell about what to do, and what not to do when dealing with Linux ACPI:

(To put this in context, he had asked me about my experience with their rude/incompetent tech support so that this "will not happen again")

Carl,

I used the website, and I did not appreciate any of that at all, actually I was quite horrified that a motherboard manufacturer as large as Foxconn has just totally torpedoed Linux and then blows off customers that are angry about it.

I will be more than happy, and in fact I am looking forward to writing a thorough and detailed review of your repaired BIOS, if it works reasonably well with operating systems that are not Windows, I will give it a glowing review, everywhere I have been thus far.

Furthermore, I think it shows a complete lack of professionalism, to treat millions of users, and potential customers (who may or may not be now) in this way, I know that if this issue is not resolved, I will not be the only one going to great lengths to avoid purchasing your company's products, Phoronix, Slashdot, and Digg, are probably the three places you guys really don't want to be, because people that buy products such as yours (including your line of Nvidia video cards, very popular with Linux users) read things like this and associate that with your brand.

So just telling 8% of the market, who does not use Windows to go kindly screw themselves is probably not the best thing you guys can do.

Now, I know you guys probably realize everything I've just said, I was throwing it ou there to make an example and for you to actually think about that when your boss is asking you why in the hell this justifies an expenditure, I certainly don't mean to be disrespectful, rude, or hostile, had I received any help without taking it to this level, I would have gone about my business.

UPDATE: Heart Zhang from Foxconn has gone to Ubuntu Forums and is linking to the development version of this BIOS, it’s working great for me, so if you happen to have the G33M or G33M-S motherboard and these issues are affecting you, and you don’t want to wait for the official BIOS release, you can get it on Foxconn’s FTP server: (Heart says all affected Foxconn motherboards will be fixed soon)

http://wft.foxconn.com/wft/Login.aspx

Username: enduser

Password: 123456

BIOS name: 772F1D43
You can unzip the file, just run flash.bat on DOS mode to flash the BIOS.

You can get the Windows Server 2008 eval edition and Fox Live Update tool (Just point it to the ROM file and let it do the rest) if you don’t want to mess with DOS, otherwise to make a FreeDOS bootCD with the BIOS flash, I’ve found a HowTo here:

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-flash-motherboard-bios-from-linux-no-dos-windows-no-floppy-drive.html

See the Ubuntu Forum thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=877721

Again, thanks to Foxconn for responding to this so quickly!

—————–

He's a kernel developers who works on ACPI apparently, so while I acknowledge that he knows a lot more about how ACPI is supposed to work, he does NOT have my BIOS, and he has not seen what a piece of crap it is.

Matthew, if you read this, I offer you this, I'll give you my DSDT tables and since you're so good at telling everyone what's wrong with them without even having seen them, maybe you can give us an even better insight after having taken a look.

I don't _care_ about how Linux is "supposed" to respond to a challenge from the BIOS, I _know_ what it *IS* doing, so you maybe can come over to my house, we'll kick back some beers, and you can tell me why you're this amazing psychic that can debug a BIOS table he's never even seen.

Yes, Linux responds to _OSI requests as every version of Windows there ever has been, simultaneously, but that is NOT what the Foxconn BIOS is doing, it's using non-standard, and undocumented methods to FIND OUT that Linux is Linux, and then deliberately giving it a bad DSDT table, if Linux responded as you claimed, it still has the potential to cause extreme problems, because it will get every version of the DSDT table for every version of Windows there is, at once.

But it doesn't even do that.

So if you will kindly stop badmouthing me, maybe the biggest hardware maker in the world will clean up their act, and YOUR JOB will be easier, because the kernel will be dealing with better BIOS code.

If I had to pass out blame, I would say 50% Microsoft, 49% Foxconn, 1% Linux (For trying to work around malicious software companies, and the buffoons at the hardware makers), but you guys are so eager to jump up and down shouting "Not us, not us!!!!", pull your head of of the nether region please, and look at the bigger picture.

This post is mainly to deal with people accusing me of how I approached Foxconn in the first place.

---------------------------------

I've been going down the comments of several blogs and news sites that link to my post on Ubuntu Forums regarding Foxconn's (I believe) willfull and intentional sabotage of Linux:

We'll start with me contacting the company after experiencing a problem with every Linux kernel and distribution I have tried, some may say that I should have approached them better, I would say I've been more than generous, my initial contact with them was around the 18th I believe, or over a week ago.

After several rounds of e-mail exchanges, with an incompetent technician that the company later admitted didn't know Linux from next Tuesday, who thought that my problem was relating to some kind of BIOS error that was preventing my computer from starting, even though I gave him a list of the loggings from /var/log/messages detailing the kernel errors and the invalid checksum of the DSDT table their BIOS passes to Linux.

I might add that their support ticket system lists many different varieties of LINUX, and I noted that I was using Linux, their support system lets you create Linux incidents, why am I to think that they don't support Linux? Sure they have shit plastered up everywhere that says "Certified for Vista", what hardware maker doesn't?

And they shouldn't have to support any particular OS, the BIOS's job is to bootstrap the PC, hand the OS various information that is supposed to be operating system agnostic, then kindly buggar off.

So why am I angry with Foxconn?

As I have stated repeatedly, I do not feel that there is any way that this was not intentional, they went to great lengths to sniff for Linux, and hand it it's very own DSDT table, which was not only inappropriate for the hardware on the board, but also failed a checksum test, had multiple compiler warnings, and so on.

Passing it the DSDT table Vista gets is far from perfect solution, but still works better, so why did they write a table for Linux, write it poorly, and then break it intentionally in several spots, the compiler toolkit by Microsoft or Intel even gives you tools to alert you if the compiled BIOS failed a checksum test, it's not something you're going to overlook.

*IF* Linux got the Vista/XP table and broke, I would assume Foxconn was just another stupid motherboard maker over in the Windows world masturbating itself instead of following the ACPI specification.

But it is quite obvious to me that Foxconn went very much out of it's way to give Linux multiple problems, and generally make Linux look like a total pile of crap, there is no other explanation.

Occam's Razor states that the simplest answer is often the correct one.

Would the "broken BIOS from stupidity/negligence" answer pass this test given what I have stated?

Absolutely not!

How about:

Item 1. Foxconn makes a lot of motherboards, with good hardware specs (sans BIOS), and sells them pretty cheaply, this comprises the bulk of the PC market.

Item 2. Linux is a free operating system, you can download it and use it without paying for anything but the CD to burn it to.

Therefore Foxconn boards and Linux seem to be a very good combination, economically speaking, based on advertised specs of Foxconn's board.

So:

User (like me): Purchases Foxconn board to use with Linux, most users don't know what the BIOS is I'll bet, in the past Linux was a lot more difficult to figure out, now Ubuntu and other distributions are easy as pie.

Microsoft takes notice, and has already had a history of trying to subvert Linux, and Bill Gates said in a set of e-mails with other Microsoft guys that they'd love to make the ACPI spec break with any other OS besides Windows.

So Microsoft comes over and dumps truckload of money/kickbacks/incentives/crate of Cuban cigars signed by Fidel freaking Castro on Foxconn.

Foxconn then breaks their BIOS so that Windows will load and work fine, but Linux is fucked.

New users, likely booting up Ubuntu will see how "unstable" it is, just assume that Linux is crap, and run back to Windows over this problem that Microsoft and Foxconn have in fact, concocted.

I'm not so angry with their non support of Linux, as them (1) Going out of their way to break it, (2) Selling their motherboard as ACPI compliant when it is NOT, (3) Having Linux support tickets just to tell the user that has ALREADY GONE THROUGH THE TROUBLE of having the damned thing paid for, shipped, and put into his/her computer to "go get Vista", or "Ship the thing back"

DAMN IT! I will _NOT_ just "ship it back" or "buy Vista"

Foxconn lied about the ACPI specification support (it relies on Windows error handling because it's not ACPI compliant), they go out of their way to break Linux, they admit that they have people writing their BIOS code that are basically intern-level and don't really know what they're doing, and they have also admitted to leaving debugging code in the final product that doesn't actually do anything, except sit there and maybe cause even more errors because they forget to remove a reference to it here or there.

I will _ALSO_ not shut up until it is fixed, because I think many other Linux users might buy this product and face similar problems.

It also became obvious that I was getting nowhere with their representatives, and that I may have to resort to other methods, to bring this to their superior's attention.

Their behavior towards me, as a customer, as a customer having difficulties with features that they proudly proclaimed "industry" level compliance with, that Linux would have no trouble with if they really were implemented to spec, is totally unacceptable, and I defend my attitude towards Foxconn on that.

Who knows? Maybe even Windows users will get a better BIOS out of this?

Edit for Fake Steve Ballmer (in the comments):

I am writing to inform you that Foxconn, one of the biggest manufacturers of computer motherboards is currently shipping boards with a BIOS that seeks out and attacks Linux with an intentionally broken DSDT table, this effectively cripples Linux's power management features, and makes it terribly annoying and crash prone, I've dissected part of their BIOS that proves this:

http://izanbardprince.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/foxconn-bios-sabotaging-linux-change-of-plans/

or

http://ubuntu-virginia.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249

I've already complained to the FTC and the Better Business Bureau over this, but I feel that backing the customer into the corner of using Windows, from a company that violates the user's trust is a horrible thing to do, if there is anything you can do to help in this matter, it would be greatly appreciated.

-Ryan F.

UPDATE: Heart Zhang from Foxconn has gone to Ubuntu Forums and is linking to the development version of this BIOS, it’s working great for me, so if you happen to have the G33M or G33M-S motherboard and these issues are affecting you, and you don’t want to wait for the official BIOS release, you can get it on Foxconn’s FTP server: (Heart says all affected Foxconn motherboards will be fixed soon)

http://wft.foxconn.com/wft/Login.aspx

Username: enduser

Password: 123456

BIOS name: 772F1D43
You can unzip the file, just run flash.bat on DOS mode to flash the BIOS.

You can get the Windows Server 2008 eval edition and Fox Live Update tool (Just point it to the ROM file and let it do the rest) if you don’t want to mess with DOS, otherwise to make a FreeDOS bootCD with the BIOS flash, I’ve found a HowTo here:

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-flash-motherboard-bios-from-linux-no-dos-windows-no-floppy-drive.html

See the Ubuntu Forum thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=877721

Again, thanks to Foxconn for responding to this so quickly!

—————–

Ubuntu Forums has decided to freeze my post while it's reviewed, here is the whole damned thing:

-----------

Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI

You need to put in an email, and then it will bring up a form, choose Complain/Suggest.
------------
I disassembled my BIOS to have a look around, and while I won't post the results here,I'll tell you what I did find.

They have several different tables, a group for Windws XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX.

The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation, causing weird kernel errors, strange system freezing, no suspend or hibernate, and other problems, using my modifications below, I've gotten it down to just crashing on the next reboot after having suspended, the horrible thing about disassembling any program is that you have no commenting, so it's hard to tell which does what, but I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a copy of Vista just to get the crashing caused by Foxconn's BIOS to stop, I am not going to be terrorized.

For those wondering, the board is a G33M-S.

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?ID=en-us0000327

-----
How to fix:

Get Intel's BIOS ACPI source compiler:

sudo apt-get install iasl

Dump your DSDT table:

sudo cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > dsdt.dat

Disassemble it:

iasl -d dsdt.dat

Open it in Gedit:

gedit dsdt.dsl

Fix Foxconn sabotage:

Find, the section that starts out with

            If (_OSI ("Windows 2000"))
            {
                Store (0x04, OSVR)
            }

Go down til you get to the first

        }
        Else
        {

Past that you should see Linux alongside Windows NT, which is above another Else that leads to Windows Me.

Should look like:

            If (MCTH (_OS, "Linux"))

            {
                Store (0x3, OSVR)
            }

Change it to:

            If (_OSI ("Linux"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }

Copy the section, and remove it and the other characters (CAREFULLY PRESERVING SYNTAX!!!!)

Then move the Linux section to right underneath Windows 2006 section.

It will look about like this now:

Name (OSVR, Ones)
    Method (OSFL, 0, NotSerialized)
    {
        If (LNotEqual (OSVR, Ones))
        {
            Return (OSVR)
        }

        If (LEqual (PICM, Zero))
        {
            Store (0xAC, DBG8)
        }

        Store (One, OSVR)
        If (CondRefOf (_OSI, Local1))
        {
            If (_OSI ("Windows 2000"))
            {
                Store (0x04, OSVR)
            }

            If (_OSI ("Windows 2001"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }

            If (_OSI ("Windows 2001 SP1"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }

            If (_OSI ("Windows 2001 SP2"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }

            If (_OSI ("Windows 2001.1"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }

            If (_OSI ("Windows 2001.1 SP1"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }

            If (_OSI ("Windows 2006"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }

            If (_OSI ("Linux"))
            {
                Store (Zero, OSVR)
            }
        }
        Else
        {
            If (MCTH (_OS, "Microsoft Windows NT"))
            {
                Store (0x04, OSVR)
            }
            Else
            {
                If (MCTH (_OS, "Microsoft WindowsME: Millennium Edition"))
                {
                    Store (0x02, OSVR)
                }
            }
        }

        Return (OSVR)
    }

Don't recompile it yet, or this will happen:

dsdt.dsl  6379:             Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8)
Warning  1103 -                                 ^ Possible operator timeout is ignored

dsdt.dsl  6393:             Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8)
Warning  1103 -                                 ^ Possible operator timeout is ignored

dsdt.dsl  6408:             Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8)
Warning  1103 -                                 ^ Possible operator timeout is ignored

dsdt.dsl  6423:             Acquire (MUTE, 0x0FFF)
Warning  1103 -                                 ^ Possible operator timeout is ignored

dsdt.dsl  6437:             Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8)
Warning  1103 -                                 ^ Possible operator timeout is ignored

dsdt.dsl  6452:             Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8)
Warning  1103 -                                 ^ Possible operator timeout is ignored

dsdt.dsl  6467:             Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8)
Warning  1103 -                                 ^ Possible operator timeout is ignored

Compilation complete. 0 Errors, 7 Warnings, 0 Remarks, 77 Optimizations

These are bogus mutes that are harmless to Windows (it ignores them), but crash Linux sporadically, soooo....

Find and replace all seven occurences of Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8) and replace with Acquire (MUTE, 0xFFFF), it appears they're trying to crash the kernel by locking a region of memory that shouldn't be locked, but without access to their source code comments, I can only speculate, this tells it to lock a memory address that is always reserved instead. ;)

Now compile it

iasl -tc dsdt.dsl

(You shouldn't get any warnings,there are any warnings or ERRORS, go find out what you did wrong!)

And install it and configure the kernel to use it:

sudo cp dsdt.aml /etc/initramfs-tools/DSDT.aml

sudo update-initramfs -c -k all

All future kernels should automatically find it there and build it.

REBOOT
--------------

This doesn't seem to help much except get rid of the suspend/resume and then reboot issue, but it appears to fix the rest, their BIOS is damned sloppy it's hard to really even tell what you're doing in there.

Use this advice at your own risk.

So there you have it!

Edit: Complained to the Federal Trade Commission

http://www.ftc.gov

Foxconn
458 E. Lambert Road Fullerton
Fullerton, CA
92835

FOXCONN PHONE NUMBER: 714-871-9968

Company sold me a computer motherboard, model G33M-S, claiming that it was compliant with ACPI versions 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.

Linux and FreeBSD do not work with this motherboard due to it's ACPI configuration, using a disassembler program, I have found that it detects Linux specifically and points it to bad DSDT tables, thereby corrupting it's hardware support, changing this and setting the system to override the BIOS ACPI DSDT tables with a customized version that passes the Windows versions to Linux gives Linux ACPI support stated on the box, I am complaining because I feel this violates an anti-trust provision in the Microsoft settlement, I further believe that Microsoft is giving Foxconn incentives to cripple their motherboards if you try to boot to a non-Windows OS.

We have received your complaint.

Thank you for contacting the FTC. Your complaint has been entered into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies worldwide. Your reference number is:
19642372

Edit: Full correspondence with Foxconn

Me:

ACPI issues, cannot reboot after having used suspend

Jul 22 08:37:53 ryan-pc kernel: ACPI: FACS 7FFBE000, 0040
Jul 22 08:37:53 ryan-pc kernel: ACPI: FACS 7FFBE000, 0040
Jul 22 08:37:53 ryan-pc kernel: ACPI: FACS 7FFBE000, 0040
Jul 22 08:37:53 ryan-pc kernel: ACPI: FACS 7FFBE000, 0040
Jul 22 08:37:53 ryan-pc kernel: ACPI Warning (tbutils-0217): Incorrect checksum in table [OEMB] - 70, should be 69 [20070126]

I get these messages in my system log at boot, I also fail to reboot after having used suspend in a session, it hangs and plays a continued beep on the PC speaker.

Foxconn:

Dear Ryan:

Do you get the same beep codes if you were to remove all RAM out and then turn the system ON again?

Me:

No, because then I wouldn't be able to boot into Linux, suspend to RAM, to get the ACPI failure, have syslogd pollute my /var/log/messages file with it, or read about it in my system log.

In particular, the number of quirks that the kernel has to use, and this invalid checksum are what has me nervous.

If you need me to attach the full contents of /var/log/messages, I can do so.

Foxconn:

Dear Ryan:

This board was never certified for Linux. It is only certified for Vista. See URL below. So please test under Vista. Does this issue also occured under Vista or Winxp?

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produc...ification.aspx

Me:

Well, this is a replacement for a dead Intel board (a 945g that fully supported ACPI), Vista was never really up for consideration, and I'm not about to go buy a copy to find out.

The ACPI specs are there for a reason, and broken BIOS's like what is in this motherboard are the reason standard ACPI does not work, I've taken the liberty of filing the report in kernel.org, Red Hat, and Canonical's Ubuntu bug tracking systems, and posting the contents of my kernel error log on my blog, which is in the first several results if you Google search "Foxconn G33M" or "Foxconn G33M-s", "Foxconn Linux", etc, as well as prominently in other search formats, so hopefully this will save other people from a bad purchase, and hopefully kernel.org can work around your broken BIOS in 2.6.26, as I understand that kernel is more forgiving of poorly written BIOSes built for Windows.

I've already gotten several dozen hits on those pages, so you guys are only hurting yourselves in the long run, by using bad BIOS ROMs, as people like me are quite vocal when dealing with a bad product.

Foxconn:

Dear Ryan,

Making idle treats is not going to solve anything.

As already stated this model has not been certified under Linux nor supported.

As you are unhappy with the product- using a non-support operating system nor certified, please contact your reseller for a refund.

Me:

Yeah, well, I allege that you guys thoroughly suck.

Learn how to write a BIOS before you go selling hardware with falsified specs.

Me:

I've been debugging your AMI BIOS, and the ACPI support on it is far from within compliance with the standards, I've dumped out the debugging data into Canonical's Launchpad bug tracking system so that we may be able to support some sort of a workaround for the bad ACPI tables in your BIOS, I would hope that you will be part of the solution instead of the problem, alienating customers and telling them to go buy a copy of Windows Vista is not service, your product claims to be ACPI compliant and is not, therefore you are falsely advertising it with features it isn't capable of.

I would ask that you issue an update that doesn't make it dependent upon Windows Hardware Error Architecture, but that decision is up to you.

Please find all relevant data here:

Bug #251338 in Ubuntu: “Bad ACPI support on Foxconn G33M/G33M-S motherboards with AMI BIOS”
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/251338

I appreciate your consideration in this matter.

-Ryan

Foxconn:

Dear Ryan,

You are incorrect in that the motherboard is not ACPI complaint. If it were not, then it would not have received Microsoft Certification for WHQL.

Refer to:
http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/Pro...33M-S&oid=3179

As already stated, this model has not been certified under Linux nor supported.

It has been marketed as a Microsoft Certified Motherboard for their operating systems.

Me:

I've found separate DSDT tables that the BIOS hands to Linux specifically, changing it to point to the DSDT tables Vista gets fixes all Linux issues with this board.

So while I accept that you've gotten some kind of Microsoft Certification (doesn't surprise me), that does not make your board ACPI capable, just that Windows is better at coping with glitches custom tailored to it, for this purpose.

Foxconn:

Dear Ryan,

Stop sending us these!!!

Me:

Your BIOS is actually pretty shoddy, I've taken the liberty of posting everything that's wrong with the DSDT lookup tables and how to fix some of it so the community that has already purchased your filth can make do with it, also, it's now pretty much impossible to google Foxconn and Linux in the same sentence without getting hit by the truth, that your boards aren't good enough to handle it.

Have a very nice day.

Foxconn:

Dear Ryan,

Surely this is the way to ask for us to attempt to fix something that is not supported in the first place.

Me:

Would it be so difficult? I mean really? I suppose you've never heard of building a happy customer base vs. just angering everyone that deals with your products to the point they make sure others don't make the mistake of buying them.

You know, I have several computers, and they all support any OS I want to put there, as well they should, if you can't fix the damaged BIOS you put there intentionally, can you at least put a big thing on the site that says no LInux support so people won't make the mistake of buying your stuff?

Your DSDT table looks like it was written by a first year computer science student, it is scary, I will not just shut up and go away until I feel like I've been done right, this can end up on Digg, Slashdot, filed with the FTC that you are passing bad ACPI data on to Linux specifically.

I saw you targeting Linux with an intentionally broken ACPI table, you also have one for NT and ME, a separate one for newer NT variants like 2000, XP, Vista, and 2003/2008 Server, I'm sure that if you actually wrote to Intel ACPI specs instead of whatever quirks you can get away with for 8 versions of Windows and then go to the trouble of giving a botched table to Linux (How much *is* Microsoft paying you?) it would end up working a lot better, but I have this idea you don't want it to.