wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> Does someone know definitively what bmp/gif file format is the correct
> one to be used with MyLogo2 enabled motherboard?
>
> I have two types of ASUS motherboards, a P5B-Deluxe WiFi (
> http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?mo...3&l2=11&l3=307
> ) and a P5N-EM HDMI ( http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...36&modelmenu=1
> ) according to all the specs and details in the manual they are both
> "MyLogo2" enabled.
>
> When I try to use the MyLogo software, I am unable to get any images
> loaded. The software does show me some thumbnails of the images
> available, but none are loadable. I have tried 16 color(8bit), 8
> color(4bit) at 640x480 resolution in BMP, AWBM, GIF89a, GIF87a, GIF,
> PCX,TIFF and JPEG formats.
>
> PCX and TIFF were not recognized by the MyLogo Software.
>
> With AWBM, GIF and JPEG the MyLogo2 software crashes when it goes to
> load the image. With the 8bit and 4bit BMPs the image is at least
> displayed but when I go to write it to the bios file it errors with
> "image size too large" ( I have tried with file sizes ranging from
> 150K to 600K, with 300K being tried the most).
>
> The manual refers to file formats called mGIF and mJPEG (the "m" is
> for mobile I think) but I am unable to find any software that would
> facilitate the creation and/or manipulation of that file format.
>
> The only other utility I could say that as been anywhere close to
> helpful is called awdbedit(http://awdbedit.sourceforge.net). This
> application allowed me to view, extract and replace the image loaded
> by default on the BIOS however, when I take and install the altered
> BIOS on to the target motherboard and it reboots, it fails to initiate
> the screen and emits a seires of beeps from the POST. I recover with
> the utility disk that came with my motherboard, which still has the
> old logo that I want to get rid of.
>
> If the motherboards support the feature MyLogo2 then shouldn't this be
> easy and spelled out in simple english someplace?
>
> Im sorry to come off frustrated but this is really driving me crazy. I
> would appricate any help, insight or direction anyone can provide.
>
> TIA
> Beau
There is actually plenty of room in the flash ROM on the P5N-EM HDMI.
I didn't check the other board's BIOS.
The existing logo on the P5N-EM HDMI is a 640x480 image, using a byte
per pixel, plus a small header. It is compressed, like the other modules
in the Award BIOS, with LHA (or at least LHA.exe knows how to decompress
the thing). The 640x480 logo shipped in the BIOS only
takes about 40K bytes or so. And the reason for that, is cartoon
like (solid color) images, would compress really well.
I would start with a simple graphic, like a 640x480 image consisting
of a single color, and try the exercise that way. Then, examine the
generated BIOS file with a hex editor, and see where the stupid Asus
tool, has placed the logo. The thing is, there are three chunks of
space in the P5N-EM HDMI BIOS. In principle, the Mylogo software
should be able to move the modules around, for best space usage.
64K_free ------ Default_logo --------- 400K_free ----- (end)
~ 40K
There are the three chunks of space. If the Default_logo was erased,
that frees up the 40K or so. If the Mylogo software doesn't move
the modules around, it may not be taking advantage of the 400K
or so of space in the other chunk. By experimenting with the
software, and comparing the BIOS file created by it, you'd get
a better idea of why the software is failing.
Based on your symptoms, your image is going to have to compress to
fit the 40K space. That is my guess as to what is happening.
The module layout in the BIOS, consists of multiple items beginning
with "-lh5", and that is a declaration of a compressed "thing" in the
BIOS. The module name appears close to that string, which is why I
search for that string in the BIOS.
Towards the end of the BIOS, the BIOS is "unstructured". The "modules"
are at the beginning of the BIOS, so in effect it is like a
miniature flat file system. Near the end, is the DMI, ESCD, boot
block code and so on. There may be a small amount of free space
between some of those items. The Boot Block starts at a well defined
address, but the others, I have no idea what pointers are used to
identify them.
The BIOS could have been put together a bit better, such that the
500K of space was all "near" the default logo. Then, there would
be no problem taking the most incompressible logo and storing it
in the flash chip.
There have been motherboards in the past, that had nearly no free space
in the BIOS, and the logo feature would not work, because there was no
room to put the image. In your case, there is a ton of room, but
it looks like the free space was not intelligently set up. Maybe the
P5B Deluxe is a bit different.
The CTMC package from heise.de , has a couple programs for use with
Award BIOS. The "splitawd.exe" program will separate the modules
and dump them into a folder. The program is quite old, and doesn't always
extract all the modules in the BIOS. That is why I check the BIOS by
hand some times, to see what CTMC is missing out on. After splitawd
splits up the BIOS, a copy of LHA.exe is used to decompress each
numbered module. A named file is the result. That causes the logo P5N-EM.BMP
to be deposited, as a 307,980 byte file (640x480 + header). But compressed,
it is 41,666 bytes. I'd at least aim for a compressed version of your
logo, to fit within 41,666 bytes of space, in case the program is
too dumb to handle free space properly.
Another possibility, is there is more than one program available
for doing this. The last time I experimented, I thought I used
some other Asus program, and "Mylogo" was just part of that
program. You may want to check that you're using the right program
for the job. There is even a Mylogo3 as far as I know, but I cannot
find out what the features are. Mylogo is for 16 color images.
Mylogo2 is for 256 color images. I don't understand what they could
have added, to make a Mylogo3, as there isn't room in the BIOS
chip to put crazy big pictures.
It is a wonder you haven't bricked the board by now :-)
It means, whatever method you've been using, has not
erased the boot block.
Good luck,
Paul
Linear Mode
