Integrating bios module

[Ranmamez]

Hi.
I'm not so a bios guru, I just need assistance/support for what I want to do.
I have a Soyo motherboard, SY-5EHM v1.1, with Award BIOS 128 KiB large.
I bought a cheap Via sata raid vt6421a chipset controller, and found info about merging a rom file into motherboard bios for give it boot features. The file name is 6421v431.rom and I tried to use CBROM, several versions, AwardMod and AwardBiosEdit v1.0, but with no luck, as long as every one of this tools says that there's no enough space to include the module.
So what I need to know is how to make the motherboard bios file become a 256 KiB instead of the original 128 KiB size. The chip is a 29f001tpc-12 and it seems to be a 128 KiB chip: can I swap the original chip with a 256 KiB one, like the 29f002, to make all working?

[cp]

doesn't the sata raid have its own bios chip? if you will provide links to both bios files (motherboard and raid) then i'll take a look into it.

[Ranmamez]

doesn't the sata raid have its own bios chip?

This is a nice question.
The card have a soldered 29F010 chip, but the bios don't show up when booting, and I tried with another motherboard before the soyo: I used it with a MSI k7t266 pro2-ru mobo, but was impossible to boot from the sata raid card, in fact I used it just for data storage.
With the sata card came a mini-cd, where there is this .rom file, but no flash utility. And I tried to search info and such flash utility, but what I found is that this .rom file must be inserted in the mainboard bios to have it executed.

if you will provide links to both bios files (motherboard and raid) then i'll take a look into it.

Ok.
This is the link for the 3 available bios of the SY-5ehm v.1.1:
http://www.soyo.com/content/Downloads/1 ... &l=English

And this is for the raid rom file, zipped:
http://esasoft.narod.ru/6421V431.zip

[Ranmamez]

Any news, cp?

[cp]

there's not enough space left to patch it in. :(

hmm, since the card itself has a bios chip i don't see the point in patching it into the mainboard's bios. the controller card should be launched an initialized with all other pci cards. if the contents of the flash are as intended. any chance to verify this (flash/eeprom reader)?

[Ranmamez]

there's not enough space left to patch it in.

Eh, I knew that.

hmm, since the card itself has a bios chip i don't see the point in patching it into the mainboard's bios.

The real chip code is.
AM290F010
-90JC
Is a flash chip, no? So suitable for bioses...
Anyway I don't find any tool to flash or just check this bios chip. Maybe it just is already flashed with a non-bootable bios.

the controller card should be launched an initialized with all other pci cards. if the contents of the flash are as intended. any chance to verify this (flash/eeprom reader)?

The controller card I think is launched and initialized but maybe has no boot capabilities, and I can't verify it because as I said I don't find any software tool, and the chip is soldered on the board.
Is really a weird situation.
Anyway I read this post where I found how to merge the .rom file into the original bios .bin (and flash it afterwards, naturally).
I guess it can work with larger bioses, with space left. This is why I asked if I can convert a 128KiB Bios into a 256KiB one and flash it in a 256KiB chip like a EN29F002NT (that I already have from a dead motherboard).

[Ranmamez]

Hi.
I just tried to integrate the 6421v431.rom module in an Asus P2B (beta) bios, the 1014.003 (bios 1014 beta 3), but it won't work, as doesn't do anything after POST.
I found that this bios have an integrated Symbios module that works with bios-less pci scsi cards (I have an ncr card with the 53c810 chipset, w/o any bios chip and if I install it in the p2b, its bios shows the symbios boot lines after POST), so I was thinking to remove the symbios (pci32.rom) module and replace it with the vt6421a (6421v431.rom) module, using the same ID and the same name of the file/module.
Do you think it can work? If not, how can make the BIOS to startup the new module when the vt6421a card is inserted in one of the pci slot??
I hope anyone can help me now, because I'm a bit sad about it

[cp]

symbios logic is a spinoff of ncr and was later acquired by LSI. so their chipsets are (more or less) the same.
i just remove the original module from the bios and add the new one. you don't need to alter any filenames. just make sure they are 8.3
the pci id is stored within the module you are adding. so the id of the chip on the pci card (scsi, sata or any other card) has to match the id in the module.

[Ranmamez]

symbios logic is a spinoff of ncr and was later acquired by LSI. so their chipsets are (more or less) the same.
i just remove the original module from the bios and add the new one. you don't need to alter any filenames. just make sure they are 8.3
the pci id is stored within the module you are adding. so the id of the chip on the pci card (scsi, sata or any other card) has to match the id in the module.

Ah, ok. So, how can I check the pci id of the card? Is it the Vendor ID or the Device ID, listed after the POST?
And how about inside the module, how can I search it and eventually modify?
I have yet an hex editor to do this but I need to know where to search.
Thanks

[cp]

Vendor ID or the Device ID

both. vendor id is the maker of the chip (there's a big official list) and device id is the number the vendor has given the chip (every vendor can choose their own numbers).

how can I search it

search for "PCIR". the values are stored vendor id, device id. and they are stored in little-endian.
example:

Vendor: SIS
Vendor ID: 1039h

Device: SIS 330 integrated vga core
Device ID: 6330h

stored in the file like this:
39103063

[Ranmamez]

both. vendor id is the maker of the chip (there's a big official list) and device id is the number the vendor has given the chip (every vendor can choose their own numbers).

Ok, actually Vendor ID is 1106 and Device ID is 3249.

search for "PCIR". the values are stored vendor id, device id. and they are stored in little-endian.
example:

Yeah I know how little-endian works.
I found the PCIR string and the pci id is exact: 06 11 49 32 (in the hex side), so 1106 3249.
But still don't work
I can only think that the main part of the bios have to call the module, as it does when a real scsi card is inserted calling the symbios module.
Ah, I just did a try substituting the scsi module with the vt6421 module, but it only was called when the scsi card was inserted, not with the vt6421 card, so I actually see at least once the module working.
Now I can only guess that in the main system bios there's a subroutine checking only for scsi cards (the card I have have Vendor ID 1000 and Device ID 0001 as shown in the POST pci list): if I can modify this subroutine to check the sata pci id and call the module, maybe it'll work.
Even tho I don't understand how it worked just adding the module in other motherboards bioses like I read around in some Internet forums....

[cp]

yes, 1106 is VIA.
the bios should examine vendor and chip id and launch the included module if a card that matches was found. for in-depth information read this:
http://www.geocities.com/mamanzip/Artic ... _Tool.html

(i really love that site. so much useful info. thanks Pinczakko :))

[Ranmamez]

yes, 1106 is VIA.
the bios should examine vendor and chip id and launch the included module if a card that matches was found. for in-depth information read this:
http://www.geocities.com/mamanzip/Artic ... _Tool.html

(i really love that site. so much useful info. thanks Pinczakko )

This goes in a deep knowledge of x86 assembly that I don't have
I wonder if there was someone else that had achieved to add a module in the p2b 1014beta3 bios and made it working, and how.