RE: [Etherboot-developers] Building a ROM

[Marty C. <md...@th...>]

Are you on the Etherboot developers list?  I'd prefer to hold this 
conversation on the list if possible, because if someone else has the 
problem the answer may be heard by them.

On 2/4/2001 10:30 AM Wolf, Paul Wo...@Ul... wrote:
>I have not made any changes yet to the source code, I am just trying to
>build the project.  I reloaded the 4.6.12 code just to make sure I have good
>copy.  I am not sure what gcc and distribution is? I am building this on a
>LINUX box with 6.x revision. (I am home right now don't know the revision).

What kind of Linux?  You mean Red Hat, Suse, Mandrake?

gcc --version

will tell you the version of the compiler.

>Just a little history, We are a POS (point of sale) hardware manufacture.  I
>have been working with a major retailer to create a Linux kernel that will
>load onto a diskless PC to run a browser.  They have a AIX Unix host.  We
>have been successful doing this with PXE. But I would like to use
>EtherBoot. 

>I have used ROM-O-Matic to build a ROM for RealTek 8139B and the
>Bios does not detect it.  But it does detect the PXE if I append it to the
>BIOS or use the BOOT ROM on the integrated network card.  

What BIOS is it?  How old is the BIOS?  Is it a PnP compatible BIOS?
And how long ago did you get the ROM from ROM-o-matic.net?  If it has 
been more than a week, please try again.  I added a PnP patch, which 
should help with detection.

>I have looked at
>the header data in PXE and EB.  They have some differences.  So what I want
>to do is rebuild the EB with some header changes.  But I cant get the raw
>code to rebuild if I enable the ASM flags. 

Would you kindly stop describing the problem and simply supply actual 
output?
With due respect, messages saying "I did everything right and it doesn't 
work" without debugging output are both pointless and irritating.  If you 
could show us your Makefile and the output of make, we could try to 
reproduce your problem.  You could have a simple typo -- we all make 
mistakes.  You could be trying to use a known bad version of GCC or AS86. 
Send input, output, and tool versions, please!

>Also I created a COM file with EB and moved it to a floppy and it works
>great, so I know it will work if I can fix the header up.

It does sound like a PnP header problem.  On my RedHat 6.2 and 7.0 
systems, I am able to recompile Etherboot without problems by 
uncommenting the single AS86 define in the Makefile which says us 'as86'.

What you might try is downloading 4.7.18 from etherboot.sourceforge.net 
and seeing if that fixes your problem.  4.6.12 does not have the PnP 
patch included, and so you have to apply it manually by getting the patch 
from the patch manager on sourceforge and applying it manually.

I applied the patch to rom-o-matic's 4.6.12 and 4.7.17 about a week ago, 
so they should be generating PnP compliant ROMs.  Compare a 4.6.12 ROM 
from ROM-o-matic.net to what you have now.

You also need to run the RSET8139.EXE DOS (or equivalent) program to 
configure your 8139 (even if it is on the motherboard).  This program 
allows one to enable the ROM and set the size of it.  Unless you do this, 
the BIOS will not detect it.

I hope this is of some help to you.  I hope also you understand my 
frustration at trying to help you debug without any hard data.  Let us 
know how it goes...

Marty

---
    Try: http://rom-o-matic.net/ to make Etherboot images instantly.

   Name: Martin D. Connor
US Mail: Entity Cyber, Inc.; P.O. Box 391827; Cambridge, MA 02139; USA
  Voice: (617) 491-6935, Fax: (617) 491-7046 
  Email: md...@th...
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