Re: [gPXE] Oddball results

2010-10-06 Thread Gene Cumm
On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 18:01, Dustin Eward  wrote:
>
>> Dell Dimension E521?  On the US support site, I see 1.1.11 (released
>> on 2007-09-04) is the latest.  I don't see anything in the notes for
>> this machine but sometimes they update the PXE code without any notes.
>
> I am using the version, the PXE in it is 100% fail.
>
>> > left the "Phoenix BIOS" boot-up identifier. It shows for only a split
>> > second, but I could probably figure out the REAL motherboard MFR and
>> > part/model number if I rebooted a lot...  I'll have to get back to you
>> > because I can't do that right this moment.
>>
>> I've seen a few systems in the last 2+ years that do this (showing
>> signs of the underlying BIOS) but not many.
>
> Yeah, and DELL missing that one... They usually go out of their way to
> hide/cripple everything.  It was one of their rare AMD machines from a few
> years ago, I'm guessing they just weren't putting much effort into it.
>
>> > experiment, but I got impatient.
>>
>> From what I've seen, I have the impression that Intel has generally
>> been very good for both PXE and Linux.
>
> I got that impression, so I spent the money instead of continuing to hammer
> on this embedded BCM4401. The gPXE b44 .usb image off of ROM-o-Matic doesn't
> even recognize it. Neitehr do the UNDI/UNDIONLY. But, the 'all drivers'
> loads the UNDI and it pulls DHCP...  Meh, bought the Intel cards.

I have a Dell laptop with a BCM4401 LoM (14e4:170c 1028:0188).  It's
an Inspiron 6000 with an Intel Pentium M running BIOS A09 (2005-09-28;
latest).  This machine appears to be fine with a PXE boot (at least
with PXELINUX).

This is the versioning information I was looking for off of yours:

Broadcom UNDI, PE-2.1 (build 082) v2.0.4
Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Broadcom Corporation
Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation
All rights reserved.

Intel Base-Code, PXE-2.1 (build 082j)
Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation

-- 
-Gene
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Re: [gPXE] Oddball results

2010-10-03 Thread Gene Cumm
On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 17:22, Dustin Eward  wrote:
> It is a Phoenix BIOS, which I see no modification method for in the wiki.
> It's a Dell e521 machine, which is deceptively not Dell-ified. They even

Dell Dimension E521?  On the US support site, I see 1.1.11 (released
on 2007-09-04) is the latest.  I don't see anything in the notes for
this machine but sometimes they update the PXE code without any notes.

> left the "Phoenix BIOS" boot-up identifier. It shows for only a split
> second, but I could probably figure out the REAL motherboard MFR and
> part/model number if I rebooted a lot...  I'll have to get back to you
> because I can't do that right this moment.

I've seen a few systems in the last 2+ years that do this (showing
signs of the underlying BIOS) but not many.

> I should add, by 'works flawlessly," I mean it identifies the NIC and pulls
> DHCP.  The rest, well
>
> I've got a few PCI and a PCIe Ethernet Adapters on the way... 2 are Intel,
> one is a super cheap generic. I was trying to avoid spending $85 just to
> experiment, but I got impatient.

>From what I've seen, I have the impression that Intel has generally
been very good for both PXE and Linux.

> On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 6:47 AM, Gene Cumm  wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 22:59, Dustin Eward 
>> wrote:
>> > I have the following device embedded in my motherboard.
>> >
>> > BCM4401-B0
>> > 14e4:170c
>>
>> > The currently installed Broadcom Proprietary PXE attempts DHCP, but
>> > always
>> > times out. The gPXE, when using the 'all drivers' image, works
>> > flawlessly.
>> > If only I could flash 600K+ to EEPROM.
>>
>> I haven't had personal experience with this particular LoM (LAN on
>> Motherboard) but all of the LoMs I've dealt with are given an option
>> ROM by the BIOS.  Upgrading the BIOS may update the Broadcom PXE code.
>>
>> I've also seen where connecting to a manage switch with STP enabled
>> but not set to a quick mode like rSTP or portfast causes timeouts.
>>
>> For reference, could you provide all of the versioning information for
>> the PXE code used by the LoM, the make/model and BIOS version of the
>> machine?

-- 
-Gene
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Re: [gPXE] Oddball results

2010-10-03 Thread Gene Cumm
On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 22:59, Dustin Eward  wrote:
> I have the following device embedded in my motherboard.
>
> BCM4401-B0
> 14e4:170c

> The currently installed Broadcom Proprietary PXE attempts DHCP, but always
> times out. The gPXE, when using the 'all drivers' image, works flawlessly.
> If only I could flash 600K+ to EEPROM.

I haven't had personal experience with this particular LoM (LAN on
Motherboard) but all of the LoMs I've dealt with are given an option
ROM by the BIOS.  Upgrading the BIOS may update the Broadcom PXE code.

I've also seen where connecting to a manage switch with STP enabled
but not set to a quick mode like rSTP or portfast causes timeouts.

For reference, could you provide all of the versioning information for
the PXE code used by the LoM, the make/model and BIOS version of the
machine?

-- 
-Gene
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[gPXE] Oddball results

2010-10-02 Thread Dustin Eward
I have the following device embedded in my motherboard.

BCM4401-B0
14e4:170c

I use rom-o-matic to grab the b44 image, write to USB device, it does not
find any network device.

I also used the UNDI and INSUONLY images, same result. No device.

I used the 'all drivers' option, and it finds the device as PCI-UNDI
DHCP successful, too!

Huh?  How can the specific driver not work, the UNDI/UNDIONLY drivers not
work, but then on 'all drivers' image, it's UNDI? Why won't the stand alone
UNDI work?

As a not, the B44, UNDI, and UNDIONLY images show V 1.0.0.  The 'all
drivers' images shows V 1.0.1+.

Huh?

The currently installed Broadcom Proprietary PXE attempts DHCP, but always
times out. The gPXE, when using the 'all drivers' image, works flawlessly.
If only I could flash 600K+ to EEPROM.
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