On Sunday 28 August 2005 14:49, Shane J Pearson wrote: > Hi Dave, > > On 29/08/2005, at 3:49 AM, Dave Feustel wrote: > > > On Sunday 28 August 2005 10:53, Stuart Henderson wrote: > > > >> --On 28 August 2005 10:22 -0500, Dave Feustel wrote: > >> > >> > >>> A long time ago I added a little bios code to my pc > >>> by programming and installing an eprom on a > >>> post card. The code was executed at boot time before > >>> most of the bios code was executed. > >>> Is this still possible with current desktops? > >>> > >> > >> Yes, it's how things like RAID cards and PXE-capable network cards > >> work. With some boards, you can also add modules to the file that is > >> flashed onto the BIOS EEPROM on the motherboard (using cbrom from DOS > >> or a similar tool) so you don't need an extra card (sometimes done to > >> e.g. boot from a SCSI card which doesn't have it's own BIOS). > >> > > > > The kind of board you describe is just what I'm looking for if I > > can't find a stand-alone pci card into which I could flash my > > own code. What are some examples? > > cbrom is used with AWARD Modular BIOS. I don't know if it works with any > other BIOS' or if any other BIOS has similar abilities. But with the > AWARD Modular BIOS boards which I used years ago (BX boards), I could > read out the BIOS to an image file, add a network boot ROM for my dc > cards, burn that modified image to the board and then choose to boot > from LAN or SCSI to get the netboot ROM booting. > > You might find this page useful: > > http://goe.net/anleitungen/award_board.html
This is a *very* interesting link! Thanks! Dave Feustel > Sometimes you would have to remove something from the BIOS to allow > your new code to fit. I'd remove built-in NCR SCSI firmware which seemed > to be included in motherboards even if they didn't have any on-board > SCSI. I never noticed any side-effects of this. > > AOpen AX6B worked fine for me. An old board designed for PII's. > > > Shane > > -- Tired of having to defend against Malware? (You know: trojans, viruses, SPYWARE, ADWARE, KEYLOGGERS, rootkits, worms and popups) Then Switch to OpenBSD with a KDE desktop!!!
