P4PE LAN interface .... DOS?

  • Thread starter Thread starter WoofWoof
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WoofWoof

I'm trying to set up a boot floppy to boot to MSDos with network
access on my P4PE machine (with built-in Broadcom Network Interface.

I've tried several versions of boot floppy including Bart's, Teledata
and one made using Ghost but all of them give me the same problem ....
the Broadcom NIC driver will not load because it can't find the
network interface. I've tried drivers from several sources. Moreover,
the Bart's boot disk offers the option of auto-detecting the interface
but it too bails out because it can't find one.

The interface *is* working perfectly well in Windows so the hardware
seems OK. I've looked in the bios and the only thing that looked like
it might be related was "Onboard LAN Boot Rom". Don't know what this
achieves (the manual, as usual, simply repeats the bios field label
with the explanation "This field allows you to enable or disable the
option ROM in the onboard LAN controller chipset" which might help if
you didn't understand the original English but hardly improves your
understanding as a technical explanation). In any event, neither
setting affected my problem.

Is there something I'm missing here?
 
WoofWoof said:
I'm trying to set up a boot floppy to boot to MSDos with network
access on my P4PE machine (with built-in Broadcom Network Interface.

I've tried several versions of boot floppy including Bart's, Teledata
and one made using Ghost but all of them give me the same problem ....
the Broadcom NIC driver will not load because it can't find the
network interface. I've tried drivers from several sources. Moreover,
the Bart's boot disk offers the option of auto-detecting the interface
but it too bails out because it can't find one.

The interface *is* working perfectly well in Windows so the hardware
seems OK. I've looked in the bios and the only thing that looked like
it might be related was "Onboard LAN Boot Rom". Don't know what this
achieves (the manual, as usual, simply repeats the bios field label
with the explanation "This field allows you to enable or disable the
option ROM in the onboard LAN controller chipset" which might help if
you didn't understand the original English but hardly improves your
understanding as a technical explanation). In any event, neither
setting affected my problem.

Is there something I'm missing here?
Click to expand...

Check the Plug & Play OS setting in the BIOS - it should be set to No
for this, otherwise it won't assign any resources to the network
interface if the OS doesn't do it, which DOS won't.

Other than that, are you sure the DOS driver you have actually supports
that model of the chip?
 
it sounds like your doing all you can, but I have to ask if you've
tried the dos file off of the Asus support site ? I too have that
board and I will try it on this end to see if there is a possible
solution / conflict.



ñíñjà¤têç

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Robert said:
..
..
..
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Check the Plug & Play OS setting in the BIOS - it should be set to No
for this, otherwise it won't assign any resources to the network
interface if the OS doesn't do it, which DOS won't.
Click to expand...


That sounded so logical to me. Disappointingly though, it didn't make
any difference when I tried. I also tried resetting the escd and
turning on the LAN Boot ROM. None of those made any difference either.

Other than that, are you sure the DOS driver you have actually supports
that model of the chip?
Click to expand...



I've tried drivers that purport to be for this chip from a number of
sources (including the DOS driver that ASUS has on its site for the
P4PE MB) and with various styles of bootdisk. I just re-tried the
driver from Asus with the latest bootdisk (Bart's Network Boot).
Everything fails. The driver doesn't detect the Network Controller in
every case.
 
Yes, I have tried the DOS NDIS2 driver from the ASUS site with a
couple of the bootdisk versions I'd previously tried. I just tried
again with the latest bootdisk I'm trying (Bart's Network Boot)
without success.

I'd certainly appreciate it if you could try the driver on your setup
and see if it works for you. It would be most helpful.

Also, if you're interested, you can get the Bart's Network Boot disk
files from:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/network/


You actually just need the bfd107.zip package at:
http://www.nu2.nu/download.php?sFile=bfd107.zip

Then get the appropriate Broadcom Driver from the long list of drivers
on the page ... I chose "Broadcom 440x 10/100 Ethernet NDIS2 Driver
v2.44" which gives B44.cab.

Once you've made the basic bootdisk (it automatic with this package)
you just copy the B44.cab file to the appropriate directory on the
floppy.

If you do try this, I'd certainly be interested in you results. (My
email is un-munged and will work if you wish).
 
(slightly red-faced)

The problem was the wrong driver .... there are two drivers available
the 5702 and the 4401. I had (mis)understood that the 5702 driver
would be used if you were running a network at 1000 Mb speed while the
4401 driver would be used for 10/100 Mb. I now realise that the 5702
driver should be used with the Gigabit controller for all three
speeds. Asus presumably switched controllers from the 4401 to the 5702
somewhere down the line.

And Robert, you were quite correct, I did need to set the P&P to "No"
to make it work.

I still have a small issue left, but not connected with the MB I
think.

Thanks to both Robert and Bill for the help. I love these forums for
this kind of thing - makes me think all is right with the world
whatever's going on around us.
 
Sood for you, don't fell bad though, at one point Asus even had the gb
lan driver listed under that mobo downloads as the 10/100 and I did
eventually figure out that I could not use that one with my 10/100
issued hardware. A bit more clarrity on their website may help user's
avoid some of these situations...

ñíñjà¤têç

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