Integrating other roms into the bios.

stonent · Sat May 03, 2003 2:12 am

I'm trying to get a 3c595 card boot rom integrated into the bios. See the output:

C:\DOCUME~1\jason\Desktop\rom>CBROM.EXE 603WWQ0B.ROM /d
CBROM V2.07 (C)Award Software 2000 All Rights Reserved.

              ******** 603WWQ0B.ROM BIOS component ********

 No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
  0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K) 1402Fh(80.05K)  original.tmp
  1. EPA pattern       00642h(1.56K)   002A1h(0.66K)   AWARDEPA.BIN
  2. XGROUP CODE       0199Bh(6.40K)   01230h(4.55K)   awardext.rom
  3. Other(4E00:0000)  00E6Eh(3.61K)   004D0h(1.20K)   modul.tmp
  4. Other(2E74:0006)  00020h(0.03K)   00041h(0.06K)   start.tmp
  5. PCI driver[A]     04000h(16.00K)  03CE9h(15.23K)  3c595awd.rom

  Total compress code space  = 1A000h(104.00K)
  Total compressed code size = 196FAh(101.74K)
  Remain compress code space = 00906h(2.26K)

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

I'm trying to get an integrated net-boot rom into the bios but it doesn't seem to ever try the card. It just complains about nothing to boot from. This rom file works fine itself when burned into the network card. I've even disabled the floppy, hard drives and everything else to try to get it to just boot from the netboot rom but it doesn't appear to do anything. 3c595awd.rom is the file I'm using. I don't see much using the forum search on integrating NIC boot roms in the card so I tried using what I could find in the etherboot faq.

Sat May 03, 2003 10:03 am

http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/

This rom file works fine itself when burned into the network card.

then why integrate it in the bios if you have a bootrom for the card?

stonent · Sat May 03, 2003 9:57 pm

Because not all of my network cards have boot rom sockets.

ivan8192 · Fri Jul 18, 2003 3:34 pm

Have you got anywhere with your boot rom? I've been trying to do a similar thing. I posted the message below in the biosmods.com forum but didn't get any replies, maybe this is a better place for it.

Some things I've been wondering that maybe a BIOS guru could answer:

Do option roms always get called at boot time?
Is is up to the option rom to decide whether or not it is 'enabled', and to return without doing anything if it is 'disabled'? (Assuming the rom is for a function that can be enabled or disabled.)

Ivan.

--------------------------------
Hi,

I've been trying to add PXE (network boot) support to my onboard LAN. The motherboard is a Soyo K7V Dragon Plus, with VIA KT266A chipset, and a V6 AWARD BIOS.

I dug up a LAN PXE BOOT ROM image (pxe.lom) for the Rhine II work controller (integrated into the South Bridge) from here:

http://ftp.sanguine.net/pub/sahughe...RIVERS/LAN/PXE/

This seems to be for Via's EPIA-M motherboards, which have PXE support.

I added it to the latest Soyo BIOS (kvxa2ba8.BIN) for my motherboard, then realised there was no option in the BIOS setup to enable the LAN BOOT ROM.

I used modbin6 to enable the 'Enable LAN BOOT ROM' option that Soyo has always kept disabled in their BIOS versions. (I set first boot device to LAN).

But I never get an indication that there has been any attempt to boot to the LAN

I believe there should be at least a brief message onthe screen. Using a hex editor I found the following string in the boot rom image:

'Press <Shift-Tab> key to display network boot option menu'

The mboard also has onboard RAID controller (Promise Fastrack). I've even removed the option ROM for this (2 actually, one for when in RAID mode, one for normal IDE mode).

Have I missed something? Should an option ROM automatically work once it is included or does the main bios module need to be modified as well?

I half-wondered if the wrong bit in the CMOS is being set/unset when enabling/disabling the LAN BOOT ROM, or are these sort of things pre-defined by AWARD.

Any info/pointers greatly appreciated.

Ivan.