troubleshooting netboot & embedded PCs w/ RTL8019

[Jonathan Sturges <jonathan@sprintmail.com>]

Hello,
I'm trying to create a ROM image for a "Biscuit" PC.  It's an older board by
Advantech (www.advantech.com.tw), model PCM-4822.  This board has a built-in
RealTek RTL8019 Ethernet controller.
This board has a network boot ROM already embedded in its BIOS, but the image is
for booting Netware, I think.  Anyway, I'm trying to replace this boot ROM with
an image created by netboot.

So far, everything looks good on the surface.  I have the correct packet driver
for the 8019 and can create an netboot image no problem.  I was able to
successfully remove the existing boot ROM from the BIOS, and install the new
one, using CBROM.

But it doesn't currently work.  When you boot this SBC, nothing happens.
So the real problem is troubleshooting, because this particular model has no VGA
controller!  So I'm literally "flying blind" during the boot-up.  All I can do
so far is install the patched BIOS chip, power it on, and watch the network for
BOOTP traffic from the system.

Is there some way to re-direct the netboot ROM's output to a serial port for
diagnostic purposes, since there's no VGA?  This or any other ideas would be
appreciated.

thanks,
Jonathan

PS- this board also has no floppy drive connection.  :-(
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