[ipxe-devel] "Installation failed" on 3Com 905B cards

[Quinn Plattel]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 12:59 PM Michael Brown <mcb30 at ipxe.org> wrote:

> On 17/03/2019 01:09, Quinn Plattel wrote:
> > Well, I have now tested the same two cards with the same two roms on a
> > different older system.  Here is the results:
> >
> > D-Link DFE-530TX:
> > ============================
> > iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 00:10.0 D400 PCI2.10 PnP D400
> >
> > iPXE (PCI 00:10.0) starting execution...ok
> > iPXE initialising devices...ok
> >
> > iPXE 1.0.0+ (b6ffe) -- Open Source Network Boot Firmware -
> http://ipxe.org
> > Features: DNS HTTP TFTP ELF MBOOT PXE bzImage Menu PXEXT
> >
> > iPXE>
> > =============================
> >
> > 3Com 905B:
> > =============================
> > iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 00:10.0 D400 PCI2.10 PnP D400
> >
> > iPXE (PCI 00:10.0) starting execution...1B101B10 000D4CF4 00000712
> > Installation failed - cannot continue
> > =============================
> >
> > So, results are the same, except, on this older system, I do not seem to
> > see any addresses advertised in the banner part of the roms.
> > Why is that?
>
> Your older system does not support PMM.  iPXE will read the ROM image
> directly from the BIOS option ROM area (and will therefore require more
> option ROM space than if PMM were present), and will use 0x100000 as the
> temporary decompression area.
>
> It looks as though your 3c905b is experiencing a genuine CRC32 checksum
> failure when reading the ROM image, i.e. the image as read back from the
> expansion ROM is corrupted.
>
> Michael
>

Hi Michael,

I have done some more testing.  If I write the ipxe code using flashrom to
the chip via the 3com card and read it back again, then the code matches -
also after a reboot.  Interestingly, I have found the original software
used to flash the 3com cards with.  Of course, it is not a generic flashing
utility as you cannot flash any another other firmware other than the one
included in the tool but after flashing with this tool, the card started
successfully PXE booting from the network.  The tool is called MBAFLASH.  I
am thinking, maybe the 3com cards reads from the chip in a different
way???  What do you think?

Quinn
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