[Netboot-general] Intel E100B "NDIS environment invalid" Error

[Jarrett R. <jar...@ya...>]

Hi folks... been at this for 2 days straight, trying everything I can think of.
 Now I'm out of ideas.  Can anyone here help?

I'm trying to get an Intel PRO/100B PCI card (type 80 on makerom menu) to work
with netboot (I have version 0.9.1).  So far I am still trying with the floppy
image.  When I try with the netboot-provided packet driver, everything loads
just fine (correct MAC address, etc), but then hangs at the point where it says
"Found packet driver at int 62, irq 0A", right before the BOOTP attempt. 
Sometimes, if I unplug the network cable and plug it back in again, then
"BOOTP:" appears, but I don't see "Sending request..." and no connection is
made.

So then I tried to use an Intel-provided NDIS driver (e100b.dos) as I can't
seem to locate a packet driver for this card.  With NDIS, I see the driver load
(v4.27), but then it says "Failure: Driver did not load, NDIS environment
invalid".  I'm using a protocol.ini file that looks like this:

[E100B_NIF]
drivername = E100B$

"E100B_NIF" is the protocol.ini name listed for this card by Intel, and a
strings on e100b.dos shows this name as well.  However, makerom will not accept
the "E100B_NIF" section name without modifications.  It does not like the
underscore.    After the modification to accept the underscore, makerom is
happy, but then I get the afore-mentioned "NDIS environment invalid" at load
time.

(Background info:  I'm using an isolated network, 2 machines on a hub, the
server running Linux with dhcpd and tftpd.  I have tested both dhcpd and tftpd
and they work just fine outside of netboot.  In fact, using netboot with a
linksys etherfast 100 PCI card, I get the correct IP address from dhcpd and I
also get the correct tftp filename.  However, it then hangs trying to get the
file (UDP-read-timeout).  However, in the same environment with my netboot
client running linux on a local disk (no netboot), I can easily tftp the same
file.)

Anybody have any ideas on any of this?  Thanks VERY MUCH for your time...


=====
Jarrett L. Redd (KG6ELZ)

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