Re: [Etherboot-users] etherboot - integrated nic

[<prl...@sy...>]

> I have a Dell gx150 with a integrated 3c905c-tx nic.
> 
> It seems that I cannot program it and when I run vortex-diag -B
> it says:
> hmm, no response to ID
> may not be a programable flash device..

Probably. Integrated chips are under the control of the mobo designer
(in this case Dell) more than nic designer (3Com). NB, there is an known
issue with flashing some (non-integrated) 3C905c NICs, but I don't think
that's what you are seeing here.

Though integrated systems usually do not have a flash part dedicated to
the NIC, the good news is that there is frequently a BIOS utility (look
at the Dell maintenance CD / floppy) to load a boot image into the BIOS
flash which then appears as an extra boot option when the system
restarts.  It is cheaper to do this than add a separate flash rom just
for the NICs (and perfectly safe, by the way; this is NOT rewriting the
BIOS, just adding another boot method).  If you see e.g. "Award Modular
BIOS" or similar when you start the box, you almost certainly have this.

Or you can use PXE (which will almost certainly be available, though you
may have to select it as the default) to chain either an Etherboot zpxe
(c.f. zrom) image or pxelinux.0 (see the LTSP pxestuff kit). If you want
Etherboot (e.g. you have a working config) then Etherboot via PXE is,
once running, identical to Etherboot from rom/fdd/hdd. OTOH PXE also
lets you use the thin client for Windoze etc environments, and may
reduce the setup overhead per-client at the expense of some extra server
side complexity; this becomes an issue if you have more than a few
clients, or they are outside your administrative control.

If opening the box is an option, and you have a spare PCI slot, some
people have found it easier to add a cheap network card simply as a boot
rom carrier, containing an Etherboot image with the driver for the card
you want to use (the integrated one), not the PCI nic.  This isn't
highly desirable, but it may be a cheap fallback.

Your Mileage May Vary - different sites have different requirements -
there is no one "right" way.  Just beware that people tend to recommend
the flavour that worked for them as the only one...