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| * Depending on where you live, you might find a supplier listed on the Commercial Links page. Another possibility is to seek the help of someone working in a university or industrial lab who has an EPROM programmer. If you are handy with hardware, you could buy a kit or build your own. There are links to kit suppliers in the Commercial Links part of the home page. | * Depending on where you live, you might find a supplier listed on the Commercial Links page. Another possibility is to seek the help of someone working in a university or industrial lab who has an EPROM programmer. If you are handy with hardware, you could buy a kit or build your own. There are links to kit suppliers in the Commercial Links part of the home page. | ||
| * Some high end adapters, for example the 3Com and Intel ones, accept an EEPROM in the socket. This can be programmed in-situ using utility programs, some of which or information about are under the contrib directory in the Etherboot distribution. | * Some high end adapters, for example the 3Com and Intel ones, accept an EEPROM in the socket. This can be programmed in-situ using utility programs, some of which or information about are under the contrib directory in the Etherboot distribution. | ||
| - | * Finally some recent motherboard have flash BIOSes which contain space where an extension BIOS such as Etherboot can be inserted. The Phoenix Award BIOSes can be modified using a program called cbrom.exe possibly here. Or do a Web search for it. No success has been reported for AMI BIOSes. Dirk von Suchodoletz maintains a list of successes and failures here. | + | * Finally some recent motherboard have flash BIOSes which contain space where an extension BIOS such as Etherboot can be inserted. The Phoenix Award BIOSes can be modified using a program called [[http://www.ping.be/bios|''cbrom.exe'']] possibly here. Or do a Web search for it. No success has been reported for AMI BIOSes. Dirk von Suchodoletz maintains a list of successes and failures [[http://goe.net/anleitungen/award_board.html|here]]. |
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| + | (AMH2006:) Information about [[biosmodule|flashing EtherBoot into your BIOS]] is also available on a separate wiki page. | ||
| Here is some text contributed by Dirk von Suchodoletz. He hopes to put it on a web site someday: | Here is some text contributed by Dirk von Suchodoletz. He hopes to put it on a web site someday: | ||
| <file> | <file> | ||
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| </file> | </file> | ||
| * How do I enable the ROM socket on my network adapter? There are no jumpers on the card. | * How do I enable the ROM socket on my network adapter? There are no jumpers on the card. | ||
| - | * These jumperless cards need a card-specific utility program to enable the ROM. Normally the manufacturer supplies it on a diskette or CDROM. You lost the diskette? If you know the manufacturer, you might be able to get the program from their website. You have a mystery card? Well the first thing to do is to identify the card. If it is an ISA card and made in Taiwan or China it's almost certainly a NE2000 clone. For some information, try here. If it's a PCI card, then either the BIOS or the Linux PCI Utilities should be able to tell you the manufacturer and device IDs, which you can then look up to convert to names. | + | * These jumperless cards need a card-specific utility program to enable the ROM. Normally the manufacturer supplies it on a diskette or CDROM. You lost the diskette? If you know the manufacturer, you might be able to get the program from their website. You have a mystery card? Well the first thing to do is to identify the card. If it is an ISA card and made in Taiwan or China it's almost certainly a NE2000 clone. For some information, try [[http://www.geocities.com/ken_yap_aus/|here]]. If it's a PCI card, then either the BIOS or the [[http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mj/pciutils.shtml|Linux PCI Utilities]] should be able to tell you the manufacturer and device IDs, which you can then look up to convert to names. |
| * I would like to boot my laptop diskless from a floppy containing Etherboot. | * I would like to boot my laptop diskless from a floppy containing Etherboot. | ||
| * The problem is that laptops these days use PCMCIA network adapter cards. These in turn connect to the PCMCIA controller when docked. To be able to communicate with the PCMCIA card, Etherboot would first have to talk to the PCMCIA controller. Until somebody writes the code to do this... Booting from disk is different because the kernel will load the PCMCIA controller code from disk first. You could always put a Linux kernel on the boot floppy. | * The problem is that laptops these days use PCMCIA network adapter cards. These in turn connect to the PCMCIA controller when docked. To be able to communicate with the PCMCIA card, Etherboot would first have to talk to the PCMCIA controller. Until somebody writes the code to do this... Booting from disk is different because the kernel will load the PCMCIA controller code from disk first. You could always put a Linux kernel on the boot floppy. | ||
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| ==== Drivers ==== | ==== Drivers ==== | ||
| * There is no Etherboot driver for my network adapter. Can you write me one? | * There is no Etherboot driver for my network adapter. Can you write me one? | ||
| - | * If I were independently wealthy and had nothing else to do in life, sure! But unfortunately I have a day job and Etherboot is a hobby. A couple of the drivers were written for pay and the others were written by volunteers. Perhaps you might like to volunteer? If you have a good grasp of C, and understand basic hardware concepts, it is quite doable, and not nearly as difficult as writing a Linux device driver. See the developer manual. You will have the reward of understanding hardware intimately and seeing your work benefit users worldwide. | + | * If I were independently wealthy and had nothing else to do in life, sure! But unfortunately I have a day job and Etherboot is a hobby. A couple of the drivers were written for pay and the others were written by volunteers. Perhaps you might like to volunteer? If you have a good grasp of C, and understand basic hardware concepts, it is quite doable, and not nearly as difficult as writing a Linux device driver. See the [[dev:devmanual|developer manual]]. You will have the reward of understanding hardware intimately and seeing your work benefit users worldwide. |
| - | * If you are a commercial entity, you might consider assigning staff or hiring a volunteer to write the driver. You get the benefit of the rest of the Etherboot code infrastructure and users worldwide get to appreciate your contribution. Bear in mind license conditions detailed in the Section called License, of course. NIC manufacturers note, this may be one way to attract users to your hardware products. NIC users note, petition your NIC manufacturer to support Etherboot. | + | * If you are a commercial entity, you might consider assigning staff or hiring a volunteer to write the driver. You get the benefit of the rest of the Etherboot code infrastructure and users worldwide get to appreciate your contribution. Bear in mind license conditions detailed in the [[#license|License section]], of course. NIC manufacturers note, this may be one way to attract users to your hardware products. NIC users note, petition your NIC manufacturer to support Etherboot. |
| * I see that my network adapter is supported in Linux but not in Etherboot. Can I use the Linux driver in Etherboot? Or maybe you can adapt the Linux source for me. I can send you the Linux driver source if you just say the word. | * I see that my network adapter is supported in Linux but not in Etherboot. Can I use the Linux driver in Etherboot? Or maybe you can adapt the Linux source for me. I can send you the Linux driver source if you just say the word. | ||
| * No, the structure of Linux and Etherboot drivers are rather different. There are several reasons: Linux drivers are more complicated and written to give good performance, whereas Etherboot drivers are written to be simple. Linux drivers are interrupt driven, whereas Etherboot drivers are polling. Linux drivers have an elaborate support structure, whereas Etherboot drivers are fairly self-standing. | * No, the structure of Linux and Etherboot drivers are rather different. There are several reasons: Linux drivers are more complicated and written to give good performance, whereas Etherboot drivers are written to be simple. Linux drivers are interrupt driven, whereas Etherboot drivers are polling. Linux drivers have an elaborate support structure, whereas Etherboot drivers are fairly self-standing. | ||
| * But... you can use Linux drivers as a source of reverse-engineering information. Several of the drivers in Etherboot were adapted from Linux drivers. But don't send me the driver source; see previous FAQ about volunteering. And I have the latest Linux source anyway, doesn't everyone? | * But... you can use Linux drivers as a source of reverse-engineering information. Several of the drivers in Etherboot were adapted from Linux drivers. But don't send me the driver source; see previous FAQ about volunteering. And I have the latest Linux source anyway, doesn't everyone? | ||
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| ==== Miscellaneous ==== | ==== Miscellaneous ==== | ||
| * I don't understand something, or I have a question not covered by this list. | * I don't understand something, or I have a question not covered by this list. | ||
| - | * Please see the Section called Getting help earlier in this document. | + | * Please see the Section called [[#getting_help|Getting help]] earlier in this document. |
