Adding SATA RAID Option BIOS: the size dilemna

[Fullin]

I have a pretty "old" motherboard ( AOpen MK77N-8NX ), which apparently is able to deal with SATA RAID.

I recently acquired 2 SATA disks, and I wish it manages the RAID from the boot process (i.e. from BIOS).

I first tried to see if during boot process, any RAID extention setup would appear. On the motherboard I have, it seems not to be the case. However, when reading the motherboard manuals, it suggests to support RAID from the BIOS.

Then I discovered that together with the SATA driver files, there is an option ROM shipped (called 6420R201.rom ).

At this point, I am willing to use cbrom215 to insert the option ROM to the BIOS.
A first listing of the BIOS gives the following (using CBROM215):

Code: Select all

CBROM V2.15 (C)Award Software 2001 All Rights Reserved.

              ********  mk77104.bin BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================ 
  0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K) 13ADDh(78.72K)  mk77104.BIN
  1. XGROUP CODE       0DA80h(54.62K)  098DDh(38.22K)  awardext.rom
  2. ACPI table        04A39h(18.56K)  01A01h(6.50K)   ACPITBL.BIN
  3. EPA LOGO          0168Ch(5.64K)   002AAh(0.67K)   AwardBmp.bmp
  4. YGROUP ROM        04F50h(19.83K)  034A6h(13.16K)  awardeyt.rom
  5. GROUP ROM[ 0]     04AF0h(18.73K)  02281h(8.63K)   _EN_CODE.BIN
  6. VGA ROM[1]        07E00h(31.50K)  04BC6h(18.94K)  KMCRT_03.ROM
  7. PCI ROM[A]        0D000h(52.00K)  07C5Fh(31.09K)  RTSROM_M.LOM
  8. LOGO1 ROM         016A4h(5.66K)   016C9h(5.70K)   aobar.gif

  Total compress code space  = 34000h(208.00K)
  Total compressed code size = 3267Ah(201.62K)
  Remain compress code space = 01986h(6.38K)

                          ** Micro Code Information **
Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------

However, when trying to insert the option ROM to the BIOS, I get the following error:

Code: Select all

C:\mk77n-8xn\bios>cbrom215 mk77104.bin /pci 6420R201.rom
CBROM V2.15 (C)Award Software 2001 All Rights Reserved.
Adding 6420R201.rom ....... 46.2%
mk77104.bin have not enough space for adding ROM. (Over 5174h bytes)


Which suggests that there is no room enough to add the option ROM. That is because the size of the RAID option ROM is 58KB large...

So I have no other choice than removing another option ROM already in the BIOS. Actually there is a BIOS for the network card (tagged PCI ROM[A], which I believe is useful when performing PXE Boot, but no necessary to me).

As I am not a BIOS hacking expert, I would like to ask the following:

• Generally speaking, what happens if I just remove an option ROM from the BIOS (using 'Release' option with cbrom215), and flash it again? Will my motherboard still boot?
  
• Assuming answer to first question is 'yes', can I therefore remove the PXE Boot option rom and insert my SATA-RAID option ROM?
  
• Do I have to respect some order in insertion? (especially, do the option ROM have to be in position 7 in the list, as shown above)
  
• Is there something else I should be aware of?

Any answer appreciated, That would help me feeling better before jumping into that.....

[idcarlos]

You can remove EPA LOGO without problems and maybe LOGO1 ROM.

[Fullin]

Thank you.

Apparently, It worked. I could remove the network card option ROM (for PXE Boot) in order to put the SATA RAID Option ROM.