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150 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
150 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
Subject: Look Mom, no PROM burner! (eepro100b flashing instructions) :-)
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Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 01:53:08 -0500
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x-sender: mdc%thinguin.org@cdi.entity.com
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x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, January 22, 1998
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From: Marty Connor <mdc@thinguin.org>
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To: "Netboot List" <netboot@baghira.han.de>
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Mime-Version: 1.0
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
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Message-ID: <1263512144-341319205@entity.com>
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Continuing the Etherboot World Domination theme, I noticed that there was
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a PCI ethernet card on my bookshelf that still contained the original
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vendor's code in its flash memory. The card virtually cried out to be
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flashed with Etherboot 4.4.1. :-)
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After having figured out how to flash the 3C905C last week, and owing to
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the fact that the temperature here in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA) has
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dropped well below freezing, I decided to explore the possibility of
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flashing the Intel eepro100b that was sitting on my bookcase.
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After determining that it was unlikely that one could flash the chip in
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user mode under linux like the 3C509C, I turned to other options. (the
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reason is that the flash is memory mapped to a place that causes a core
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dump if accessed. i suppose one could to patch the kernel to flash the
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card, or add a linux device driver, but... :-)
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By the way, If you are ever looking for Linux utilities for Ethernet
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cards, you may want to check out:
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http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/diag/
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which is a treasure trove of tools for manipulating and testing Ethernet
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cards, all with source, courtesy of Donald Becker.
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At this point, I felt it was time to make a virtual trip to the Intel
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site (http://www.intel.com/), and search for utilities that might work
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with the eepro100B. I found two candidates: FUTIL and FBOOT. I
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downloaded, decompressed, and transferred them to a DOS formatted floppy.
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Next I determined (after a few tries) that F8 will let me get to DOS
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instead of booting windows. (I tend to avoid Windows when I can).
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I first tried FUTIL.EXE. No good. It told me it didn't recognize the
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flash on my eepro100B. how unfortunate. and I had such hopes :-)
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Next I tested FBOOT.EXE (available at
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http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/pro100/100PBOOT.htm)
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This program did in fact recognize my eepro100b card.
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The thing about FBOOT however, is that it thinks it only can load certain
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files. I of course needed to load an Etherboot image. It appeared to
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have no option for doing that. Things looked grim.
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Then I noticed that FBOOT was kind enough to do the following dialog:
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Select Option (U)pdate or (R)estore: U
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I chose Update and it then offered to back up my flash rom for later
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restore:
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Create Restore Image (Y)es or (N)o: Y
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I chose "Y" and it proceeded to write a file of my flash memory, which
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contained the Intel code.
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Writing FLASH image to file... 100%
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It then erased the device:
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Erasing FLASH Device... 100%
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and then programmed it with fresh code (stored inside the program, no
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doubt):
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Programming FLASH Device... 100%
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So now I had a backup of the Intel boot code in a file strangely called:
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2794FC60.FLS
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Hmmmm, interesting name. The MAC address of the card is 09902794FC60.
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They just name the file with the last 4 octets of the MAC address and
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.FLS. The file is exactly 65536 bytes, which would make sense for a 64K
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Flash Memory device.
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Then I got to thinking, I wonder how carefully the "restore" part of
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FBOOT looks at what it is loading? What if I took an Etherboot .rom
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file, padded it with 48K of 0xFFs and named it 2794FC60.FLS. What if I
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then told FBOOT.EXE to "restore" that?
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Well, I guess by now, you know it worked :-)
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The card came up with the delightful Etherboot banner, Did DHCP, tftp,
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and started a kernel.
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The only unfortunate part is that you need to do this under DOS because
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you seem to need to be in real mode to program the card. Oh well,
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sacrifices have to be made :-)
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So, in summary, to prepare Etherboot image for flashing into the Intel
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EEPRO100B card with FBOOT, you need to first make an eepro100.rom file,
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as usual.
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Then, see how large it is, with an "ls -l eepro100.rom". the answer will
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probably be 16,384. You need to pad it with hex FFs to make it 64K for
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FBOOT. I used the following two lines to create the flash image file.
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$ perl -e 'print "\xFF" x 49152' > 48kpad.bin
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$ cat eepro100.rom 48kpad.bin > 2794FC60.FLS
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Next write it to a DOS Floppy:
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$ mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
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$ cp 2794FC60.FLS /mnt/floppy
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$ umount /mnt/floppy
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Now you need to get to DOS. You could actually use a bootable DOS floppy
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with FBOOT.EXE and 2794FC60.FLS on it. I started a Windows box and hit
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F8 right before Windows started, and chose option 5, "Command Prompt
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Only", which gives you DOS. This program can't run in a DOS window under
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Windows or anything like that. You need to be in real DOS.
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Next it's time to run FBOOT. It will detect your ethernet card(s), ask
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you which one you want to program, and let you choose it from a menu.
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now the fun part:
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Select Option (U)pdate or (R)estore: R
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Erasing FLASH Device... 100%
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Writing FLASH image from file... 100%
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Time to reboot and let Etherboot take over.
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So there you go, a way to make Intel EEPRO100Bs play nicely with
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Etherboot. Maybe we should put these instructions in the Etherboot
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contrib directory so people who have eepro100b cards will be able to
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avoid 3C905C envy :-)
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I hope this helps a few people out.
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Regards,
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Marty
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---
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Name: Martin D. Connor
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US Mail: Entity Cyber, Inc.; P.O. Box 391827; Cambridge, MA 02139; USA
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Voice: (617) 491-6935, Fax: (617) 491-7046
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Email: mdc@thinguin.org
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Web: http://www.thinguin.org/
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