Hi, Thanks a lot for the great tools at syslinux. I have an interesting problem for which i am trying to use memdisk. I have a cluster of 40 machines (same hardware config) all needing a bios flash. Rather than doing it manually, i am trying to use the PXE mode. So i am using memdisk to boot an image of my bios flash floppy over the network. my platform configuration is supermicro motherboards with award bios. So far I have been successful in loading the DOS environment, required for my flashing program (awdflash.exe), using memdisk. But once i start running the exe, it starts loading the boot image and pauses. Even when i ignore the dire warnings of not to reboot the machine and do it, the old bios is intact. i have heard that some BIOS flashing programs need to run in real mode to work. Does memdisk by DEFAULT go into protected mode? Where/how does it store the floppy image in memory? thanks a lot ishwar
ishwar ramani schreef:> So far I have been successful in loading the DOS environment, required for > my flashing program (awdflash.exe), using memdisk. But once i start running > the exe, it starts loading the boot image and pauses. Even when i ignore the > dire warnings of not to reboot the machine and do it, the old bios is > intact.I've never attempted BIOS flashing any other way than local diskette, due to lack of (working) spare parts, so I don't know if MEMDISK would be a problem. If AWDFLASH might be a problem, then try UNIFLASH. Version 1.40 and higher (if any) are GPL nowadays, so you should be able to see if it requires having nothing in memory. To my knowledge (I work a lot with [Free]DOS), when DOS starts from Memdisk you're (back) in real-mode until loading your memory managers (himem/emm386 or similar)> i have heard that some BIOS flashing programs need to run in real mode to > work. Does memdisk by DEFAULT go into protected mode? Where/how does it > store the floppy image in memory?Image is somewhere in (extended) memory. I don't know if it loads in top of memory, and I don't know if it can partially load in conventional memory. (for example Syslinux + Memdisk + 360KB image on a 1024KB machine). Probably won't work I also don't know if in VMware you can do BIOS dumping and flashing. Bernd
I once had this problem on Arima HDAMA boards with > 8GB memory... it worked fine if you dropped the system down to 2GB. Obviously it was easier to flash a bunch of chips and swap them or just attach a floppy to do it. After the deed was done I got mtdtools working, and it can be done that way. NEVER successfully figured out how to update the NVRAM settings for the bios however. /eli ishwar ramani wrote:> Hi, > Thanks a lot for the great tools at syslinux. I have an interesting problem > for which i am trying to use memdisk. I have a cluster of 40 machines (same > hardware config) all needing a bios flash. Rather than doing it manually, i > am trying to use the PXE mode. So i am using memdisk to boot an image of my > bios flash floppy over the network. > > my platform configuration is supermicro motherboards with award bios. > > So far I have been successful in loading the DOS environment, required for > my flashing program (awdflash.exe), using memdisk. But once i start running > the exe, it starts loading the boot image and pauses. Even when i ignore the > dire warnings of not to reboot the machine and do it, the old bios is > intact. > > i have heard that some BIOS flashing programs need to run in real mode to > work. Does memdisk by DEFAULT go into protected mode? Where/how does it > store the floppy image in memory? > > thanks a lot > ishwar > _______________________________________________ > SYSLINUX mailing list > Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com > Unsubscribe or set options at: > http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux > Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic. > >
ishwar ramani wrote:> > my platform configuration is supermicro motherboards with award bios. > > So far I have been successful in loading the DOS environment, required for > my flashing program (awdflash.exe), using memdisk. But once i start running > the exe, it starts loading the boot image and pauses. Even when i ignore the > dire warnings of not to reboot the machine and do it, the old bios is > intact. > > i have heard that some BIOS flashing programs need to run in real mode to > work. Does memdisk by DEFAULT go into protected mode? Where/how does it > store the floppy image in memory? >Try passing the "raw" or "bigraw" option to memdisk. -hpa
Hi, Wow that was great feedback. I tried the big and bigraw options though. didnt work:( The uniflash option is interesting. I checked their website but my motherboard(supermicro p8sci) is not listed. How safe is it try this exec on by board which has the award bios? ishwar On 10/27/05, H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> wrote:> > ishwar ramani wrote: > > > > my platform configuration is supermicro motherboards with award bios. > > > > So far I have been successful in loading the DOS environment, required > for > > my flashing program (awdflash.exe), using memdisk. But once i start > running > > the exe, it starts loading the boot image and pauses. Even when i ignore > the > > dire warnings of not to reboot the machine and do it, the old bios is > > intact. > > > > i have heard that some BIOS flashing programs need to run in real mode > to > > work. Does memdisk by DEFAULT go into protected mode? Where/how does it > > store the floppy image in memory? > > > > Try passing the "raw" or "bigraw" option to memdisk. > > -hpa >
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Fri, Oct 28, 2005 at 02:47:25PM -0700, ishwar ramani wrote:> On 10/27/05, H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> wrote: > > > > ishwar ramani wrote:<snip/>> > > i have heard that some BIOS flashing programs need to run in real mode > > > to work. > > > Does memdisk by DEFAULT go into protected mode? > > > Where/how does it store the floppy image in memory? > > > > > > > Try passing the "raw" or "bigraw" option to memdisk. > > > Hi, > Wow that was great feedback. I tried the big and bigraw options though. > didnt work:( > The uniflash option is interesting. I checked their website but my > motherboard (supermicro p8sci) is not listed. > How safe is it try this exec on by board which has the award bios?-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFDY5w5OSINbgwa/7sRAuruAKCbOOC/6tvWPtic1thVaFG3+pBk/gCgnmC9 QLh9PXuVNaHiO6VZJJnsmCA=uuAg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----