Retto.net - Panel PC PPC55S tcp/ip boot roms

Etherboot TCP/IP boot rom integration into PPC55S Bios

It is possible to replace the Netbios boot rom image in the PPC55S BIOS with a TCP/IP version, allowing the RedHat EDK projects to be booted and run from a TFTP/NFS server using bootp.

This is achieved by building an Etherboot boot ROM image for the Realtek RTL8019 NE2000 compatible NIC (as used in the PPC55). With the help of a small C program supplied below, it is possible to patch the PPC55S BIOS image to overwrite the Netbios boot rom portion with the etherboot equivalent. After this has been achieved, the normal AMIFLASH.COM utility can be used to flash the modified BIOS into the PPC. Follow the standard instructions for performing this task, substituting the new BIOS image in place of the standard one.
An already patched BIOS version "PCM-3865 A1.01 CSTN-A1.05 4/2/1997" for the PPC55S is available below.

WARNING: This process can potentially leave you with a corrupted BIOS image in the PPC55, it will require specialist hardware to restore operation of the PPC55. If you are not sure about what you are doing, or do not have the facilities to restore your BIOS manually, I strongly suggest you do not proceed.

See the RedHat EDK documentation for details of how to set up a linux host as a TFTP/NFS server to boot the PPC55 from. A bootable runtime filesystem is also available.

Download

55CSTN.ROM with updated etherboot tcpip boot rom

    The BIOS ROM is labelled:

    VGA:
	IBM VGA Compatible BIOS.
	Sharp LM64C142 DSTN COLOR LCD (FP only) 8/14/1996
	CHIPS 65545 VGA 32KB BIOS  Version 2.7.5
	DECOMPILATION OR DISASSEMBLY PROHIBITED
	Copyright (C) 1995 Chips and Technologies, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

    System:
	AMIBIOS (c)1996
	PCM-3865 A1.01 CSTN BIOS-A1.05 4/2/1997
	AMIBIOS Date: 07/15/95


    Etherboot:
	Etherboot/32 version 4.5.6 (GPL)