[gPXE] Burning gPXE into Realtek 8169

[Marty Connor]

On 7/15/10 1:41 AM, William Scott wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Eric Pardee <eric at atlasdigital.tv> wrote:
>> I have the 10ec:8169 (Realtek) PCI NIC.
>>
>> Essentially, does anyone know if it is possible to burn gPXE onto the
>> Realtek 8169 ROM?

I don't know of any Realtek 8169-based PCI or PCIe NICs that have
onboard flash.

I do have quite a few that have 32 pin DIP sockets, in which you can put
an EEPROM.

I do not believe you can program that EEPROM on the card, but you can
use a EEPROM programmer say, something like:

   http://arlabs.com/

to program a flash EEPROM like the 27SF512 or larger from someplace like:

   http://www.progshop.com/shop/chips/flash-eproms.html

> I'll be heading down this path soon.
> 
> Dose the card have a socket for a bootrom?
> 
> Can you program in-situ on the card?
> I'm looking at TP-link cards that have realtek chips. Been told I need
> MC27C512 eproms and a external burner.

You might also consider getting an Intel pro/1000 card that has onboard
flash that you can flash with gPXE using the Intel IBAUTIL.EXE program.

Unless you're going to be programming quite a few cards, it might be
cheaper to get a NIC with built-in flash.

I hope this helps,

/ Marty /