Use Intel NIC PXE image mod for 2.1 SLIC?

Discussion in 'MDL Projects and Applications' started by SirSilentBob, Aug 25, 2009.

  1. psyco

    psyco MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2009
    13
    0
    0
    #261 psyco, Dec 19, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2009
    I've tried on a PRO100+ and work fine. Great work!
    Is it possible to add SLP1.0 for XP OEM activation too? :) TNX
     
  2. Apokrif

    Apokrif MDL Addicted

    Dec 7, 2008
    542
    35
    30
    It doesn't work on ANY Dell yet - TIJ works in it now! ;)
    I got Dell Precision 350 - I'm not sure if it'll work ever - mine has ancient ACPI...
     
  3. truthinjection

    truthinjection MDL Member

    Aug 27, 2009
    247
    46
    10
    Your Dell recomposition project is a lot more interesting, but WindSLIC should work on even ACPI 1.0 boards. The QEMU emulator is a 1.0 board virtual machine. It all comes down to where the RSDP is located at the moment. Putting it into the EBDA should solve most of the problems. I've been distracted lately by all the great-value holiday sales on PC games. :)

    This may be difficult, depending on where the SLP 1.0 string has to appear in the BIOS. The F000 and E000 segments are marked read-only by the BIOS at boot-up, so it's difficult to unlock/change those. I've done it with Intel chipsets, where it's pretty easy (relatively-speaking), but I've had no luck with SiS, Via, or Nvidia chipsets, which don't have good Chipset datasheets available.
     
  4. Apokrif

    Apokrif MDL Addicted

    Dec 7, 2008
    542
    35
    30
    Right… :rolleyes:
    I’m stack with compression code. The Uncompress one is very simple.
    It’s obviously based on LZ77/LZSS. I’m trying to find similar C/C++/C# code sample, but no luck so far. I.e. there are lot's of them, but reading/understanding quite time consuming.
    Or, more likely, I’m not smart enough do do it quickly... :eek:
    Do you want to help? ;)
     
  5. jellysweep

    jellysweep MDL Novice

    Dec 4, 2009
    20
    2
    0
    If I mod a nic with this new flash, will it still be usable as a network card? Or does it stop working as a network card, and only functions for slic 2.1 info?

    Sorry if this has already been answered. I couldn't find it anywhere. Thanks for the help guys.
     
  6. ericchak

    ericchak MDL Junior Member

    Sep 3, 2009
    76
    0
    0
    It still working great for Lan function but only without bootrom features, you can even use both on board lan and this moded lan card together for dual lan.
     
  7. jellysweep

    jellysweep MDL Novice

    Dec 4, 2009
    20
    2
    0
    Thanks for the input. I just purchased a Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter. It'll take a few days to arrive, but I'll post my results after I upgrade the firmware.
     
  8. jellysweep

    jellysweep MDL Novice

    Dec 4, 2009
    20
    2
    0
    #268 jellysweep, Dec 31, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2009
    Well - not sure what's going on. I prepared the image to load to the network card, rebooted, and ran ibautil. IBAutil states "Rom type: Not Present". This is with an Intel Pro1000/MT Desktop Adaptor. It's listed in the original post as confirmed working. I tried getting the latest IBAutil version from Intel's site. It presents the same issue.

    I made sure to disable the onboard NIC, so the 1000/MT is the only detected adaptor.
    Also, after installing the adaptor, right after the bios boots the screen displays a brief countdown timer for network boot.
    I hit ctrl+s, and I'm able to select PXE and network card settings.

    Thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?
     
  9. Apokrif

    Apokrif MDL Addicted

    Dec 7, 2008
    542
    35
    30
    Strange.
    1. What kind of onboard NIC do you have - if it's Intel too, with onboard NIC enabled does ibautil show them both?

    2. On 1000/MT - do you see ROM chip?
     
  10. truthinjection

    truthinjection MDL Member

    Aug 27, 2009
    247
    46
    10
    #270 truthinjection, Dec 31, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    The ROM chips are relatively tiny (pair of 8-pin chips on the far right (away from the network jack) side) on the gigabit cards that I have used.

    Lots of Pro/1000 cards do ship with their flash disabled by default, I guess to prevent random issues for people that have no need/desire to have a PXE boot option.To enable the flash they make you have to use IBAUTIL from DOS.

    For a single card in a machine, use:

    Code:
    IBAUTIL  -FE
    
    or, if you have multiple Intel cards in one machine, you may have to use:

    Code:
    IBAUTIL -NIC=X -FE
    
    where X is the number of the NIC as reported when just running IBAUTIL without any parameters.

    Good luck! / Happy New Year!
    -tij-
     
  11. Apokrif

    Apokrif MDL Addicted

    Dec 7, 2008
    542
    35
    30
    Happy New Year to Y'all! ;)
     
  12. jellysweep

    jellysweep MDL Novice

    Dec 4, 2009
    20
    2
    0
    I really appreciate the helpful responses. The onboard NIC is realtek, but I disabled it to make sure there wasn't any conflict. I'll try enabling the rom, and investigate the physical card to see if I can spot the rom chips.
     
  13. jellysweep

    jellysweep MDL Novice

    Dec 4, 2009
    20
    2
    0
    #273 jellysweep, Dec 31, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2009
    Well - I'm stumped. I took the NIC out of the computer, and inspected it. There are definitely two small 8 pin chips on the right side like you described. I tried to force it to enable to rom, but it bounced back the following:

    Enabling boot rom on NIC 1...not supported
    The selected port on this adaptor is not bootable.
    NICNetwork AddressSeriesWOLBoot Rom TypeVersion
    1XXXXXXGigabitYESFLASH Not Present

    I then thought, maybe trying to do the flash from a USB stick was a problem. I pulled the card and put it in another computer with a floppy disk. Booted up off a win98 startup disk, then ran ibautil -fe. Same exact error. I also tried going into the menu for the NIC. Then switched it from PXE to RPL. Reattempted the flash - but it bounced back the same error. Thoughts?

    I will take pics of the card for you guys to look at. Maybe you'll see something I don't.

    Also, FYI: I just X'd out the network address in the example. There is a real number there on the screen.
     
  14. Apokrif

    Apokrif MDL Addicted

    Dec 7, 2008
    542
    35
    30
    Just post what's written on 'em! :)
     
  15. truthinjection

    truthinjection MDL Member

    Aug 27, 2009
    247
    46
    10
    Cool. I have that motherboard also, although that's not one of the 4 I used while testing.

    That's true. I don't have any kind of datasheet for non-Intel Chipsets, which would be required to figure out the right bits to twiddle to enable read-write in the F000 memory region. The good news is that, done right, it shouldn't be necessary to modify that region, since Windows first looks in the EBDA for the RSDP. The slightly worse news is that the EBDA is kind of rough-and-tumble with regard to how it's laid out.

    Yeah, that's a good idea. I left the debugging messages out for some things just because I didn't think of it, and that's one of the ones I never implemented. It's less about the message and more about the test, though. My new (if I ever find the gumption to actually finish it) code should include at least some rudimentary test for that, since I know it's now a problem.

    You too!

    -tij-
     
  16. truthinjection

    truthinjection MDL Member

    Aug 27, 2009
    247
    46
    10
    @jellysweep:

    You'll need a magnifying glass and a strong light at an angle to see the lettering on those chips.

    As for why the -FE isn't working, that's more of a concern. If everything else fails, we can probably do some relatively skanky linux-based ethtool utility-work to dump the EEPROM [which controls the enable/disable of the FlashROM] off the card, and then overwrite it with a working one from one of ours. Intel publishes the specs for the layout of the EEPROM, but it's kind of skanky with various checksums, so using the IBAUTIL is the best answer ... when it works.

    This is the first Pro/1000 that I've seen have this trouble (if I remember correctly). I know there was an issue with a Pro-100 (non-Plus) not having a chip at all, but as far as I have ever seen, the Pro/1000s have included the FlashROM chips. Yours has two, so it probably has the EEPROM (chip labeled: 93c46 on mine, I think) and the FlashROM (chip labeled: at25f1024 on mine) intact.

    Sometimes, I wonder how the average PC manages to boot twice in a row with all this variation in hardware that's ostensibly identical.

    Good luck!
    -tij-
     
  17. Apokrif

    Apokrif MDL Addicted

    Dec 7, 2008
    542
    35
    30
    #278 Apokrif, Jan 1, 2010
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2010
    AT25F1024 - 1 M-bit, SPI Bus Serial Flash
    IMO, could be just any chip with ehough space... I guess, it might be rather defective NIC/bad soldering. Those NICs meant to be updateable!
     
  18. ericchak

    ericchak MDL Junior Member

    Sep 3, 2009
    76
    0
    0
    mine are same as above (93c46 & 25f1024), modify without any problem.

    use 501 version of eeupdate /gui, you can choose to flash enanble or disable, size reported 128k.
     
  19. jellysweep

    jellysweep MDL Novice

    Dec 4, 2009
    20
    2
    0
    #280 jellysweep, Jan 1, 2010
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2010
    Alright. I followed your recommendations. The chips I have are marked with the following:

    Then, I tried using the eeupdate programs. I tried both versions of eeupdate. Each one lists the following menu. There is no enable flash option in either.

    I tested the eeprom, and it passed the test. I also choose to dump the full eeprom, because I wasn't sure if it would be helpful or not. I just took a look at the EEPROM dump. It's only 326 bytes?