Re: Realtek RTL8139 and netboot or etherboot

[Klaus Espenlaub <espenlaub@informatik.uni-ulm.de>]

Urs Thuermann wrote:
> 
> I wnat to boot Linux on a diskless using a Realtek RTL8139 100Mbit/s
> NIC.
> 
> I have compiled netboot-0.9.0e but it seems the RTL8139 is not
> supprted.  Should I select
> 
>         (0)     unknown card with user supplied driver
> 
> and if so, where can I get a driver for this card?

dunno, I use Etherboot (for booting Linux and custom research operating
systems).

> Or does etherboot support this NIC?  How large will the EPROM be with
> netboot and with etherboot?  Can I use 32KByte, i.e. 27256 types?

Yes, 8K or 16K, yes.
The Etherboot driver works for me without problems.  If you use only a
small number of the Etherboot features it will even fit in an 8K ROM, but
in general it needs 16K ROM space.  Just burn it into the lower part of the
ROM and set the ROM type according to the used space (i.e. typically 16K)
using RSET8139 on the driver disk that comes with the card.

One thing that I found out by trial and error is the fact that you MUST
use a CMOS EPROM (27Cxxx type) and that the access time also needs to be
less than 200ns.  A 27128A-200 from ST microelectronics didn't work on a
Longshine RTL8139 based card - it just ignored the ROM.  But as most
EPROMs on 386/486 class boards are 27C256-175, yours is probably fine.
An AMD 27C256-175 worked on these cards without problems.
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