• diskless DOS client

    From T. Ment@21:1/5 to Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson on Sat May 30 18:15:39 2020
    On Sat, 30 May 2020 19:04:57 +0800, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:

    I'm still looking for a place that sells refurbished machines locally

    For a diskless client PC, all you need is a motherboard, cheap Realtek
    8139 NIC, power supply, and case.


    what people are currently using, and what hardware is available can be extremely helpful.

    I always wanted a diskless DOS client and I finally got around to it.

    You can do it with PXE but the ROM takes about 40k of upper DOS memory,
    I wanted something smaller, so I went with RPL, the old way, back in the
    DOS days. It's hard to find a motherboard with a NIC ROM that old, most
    are PXE now.

    But Realtek still has an 8139 RPL ROM for download. I burned it to a 32k
    ROM chip, put it the NIC socket, activated the ROM size on the card with
    the Realtek setup utility, and booted it up. It only takes 14k upper DOS memory, much better.

    The RPL boot ROM talks to a Personal Netware server running on DR-DOS
    7.03 and loads a bare bones DOS image over the network. Once connected
    to the server, you can load more files and do whatever you want.

    It took a lot of trial and error to get it working, this old stuff is
    not well documented. Documenting what I did would take days.

    That's too much work, since no one else is likely to care, But if anyone
    has specific questions, I will try to answer.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson@21:1/5 to T. Ment on Sun May 31 05:29:28 2020
    On 31/05/2020 2:15 am, T. Ment wrote:
    On Sat, 30 May 2020 19:04:57 +0800, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:

    I'm still looking for a place that sells refurbished machines locally

    For a diskless client PC, all you need is a motherboard, cheap Realtek
    8139 NIC, power supply, and case.

    That might work, thanks.

    what people are currently using, and what hardware is available can be
    extremely helpful.

    I always wanted a diskless DOS client and I finally got around to it.

    You can do it with PXE but the ROM takes about 40k of upper DOS memory,
    I wanted something smaller, so I went with RPL, the old way, back in the
    DOS days. It's hard to find a motherboard with a NIC ROM that old, most
    are PXE now.

    But Realtek still has an 8139 RPL ROM for download. I burned it to a 32k
    ROM chip, put it the NIC socket, activated the ROM size on the card with
    the Realtek setup utility, and booted it up. It only takes 14k upper DOS memory, much better.

    The RPL boot ROM talks to a Personal Netware server running on DR-DOS
    7.03 and loads a bare bones DOS image over the network. Once connected
    to the server, you can load more files and do whatever you want.

    It took a lot of trial and error to get it working, this old stuff is
    not well documented. Documenting what I did would take days.

    That's too much work, since no one else is likely to care, But if anyone
    has specific questions, I will try to answer.

    I'm still uncertain about what hardware/software combinations I'll go
    with, but this sounds tempting. Since I'm unsure right now, I have no questions for the time being.


    --
    Johann | email: invalid -> com | www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
    I'm not from the Internet, I just work there. | twitter: @myrkraverk

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From T. Ment@21:1/5 to Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson on Sat May 30 21:54:13 2020
    On Sun, 31 May 2020 05:29:28 +0800, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:

    I'm still uncertain about what hardware/software combinations I'll go
    with, but this sounds tempting. Since I'm unsure right now, I have no questions for the time being.

    Sometimes I don't even use a case. Just a motherboard and power supply
    with something plastic under it to prevent unintentional grounding. You
    don't need much space for that.

    But you need to know and practice electrical safety. Otherwise, it's not recommended.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From T. Ment@21:1/5 to T. Ment on Mon Jun 1 06:23:00 2020
    On Sat, 30 May 2020 18:15:39 +0000, T. Ment wrote:

    Realtek still has an 8139 RPL ROM for download.

    VIA Rhine LAN adapters are common on old motherboards. VIA download
    still an RPL ROM for them, named RPL.LOM (Lan On Motherboard).

    Since it's on the motherboard, the ROM is embedded within the system
    BIOS, and you have to fiddle with that. Not too hard with Award BIOS,
    you can find a BIOS module editor named CBROM.

    I tried it on a motherboard I could afford to lose. I removed the PXE
    ROM module, replaced it with RPL.LOM, flashed the BIOS, and rebooted. It worked.

    Beware though, if your BIOS chip is soldered on, it's risky.

    But even a bricked BIOS is not hopeless. With the right tools and skills
    you can desolder it, solder a socket in its place, burn a good BIOS into
    the chip with a universal programmer, insert the chip in the socket, and
    there you go.

    It tedious and delicate though. I've killed boards with too much heat
    while desoldering. They factory uses lead free solder, which is harder
    to work with because it requires higher temperatures. Not a problem at
    the factory, but it makes field repair difficult.

    Flux helps. Don't skip the flux to avoid the sticky mess.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)