Adding support for NIC cards on cepc

Hello all,

I'm trying to build a CEPC with a dell dimension 3000. The system has
integrated ethernet (Intel Fast ethernet...), and i know from looking
around that the intel cards are not ususally compatible. I did find
that Intel has released wince drivers for the NIC hardware, but for the
life of me can't figure out how to make it work with loadcepc and
eboot.bin.

There are references in the documentation on adding NIC hardware/vendor
IDs to the eboot "table", but the doc is for ce 4.2, and I am using 5.0
(and the process looks like it's changed). Everytime I try to boot the
CEPC so I can download an image I get the serial debug error about no
supported NIC devices (even though it finds the integrated HW).

I guess what I want to know is..

1) is there a way to add unrecognized NIC device to the Eboot.bin
loader that is used with LOADCEPC?

2) Is the driver provided by Intel only for use as "product ethernet"
and not as the debug/download system (and to do this do I just add the
driver to a cloned copy of the CEPC BSP)?

3) Am I completely insane and should just go use embedded linux?


Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated!


-Ian

Steve
Sat Oct 29 10:25:11 CDT 2005

>1) is there a way to add unrecognized NIC device to the Eboot.bin
>loader that is used with LOADCEPC?
Yes, You need to write the code to do it. The boot loader code is provided
as part of the BSP source code.

>2) Is the driver provided by Intel only for use as "product Ethernet"
>and not as the debug/download system (and to do this do I just add the
>driver to a cloned copy of the CEPC BSP)?
Possibly, That's not uncommon for silicon vendors to do that. Often times
they only provide binary builds for a specific CPU (or worse, one particular
hardware platform that won't work on any others)

>3) Am I completely insane and should just go use embedded Linux?
No you are not insane, and unfortunately the problem of drivers is just as
bad on Linux. Many times (particularly for networking and display chips)
silicon vendors don't publish source to their drivers and don't provide the
low level boot loader implementations. You are better off to choose hardware
for download and debug that is supported out of the box. What many people do
is to create a separate debug "daughter card" that is then used for
debugging but never shipped with the product.



--
Steve Maillet
EmbeddedFusion
www.EmbeddedFusion.com
smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com

Gpeica
Sun Oct 30 19:02:31 CST 2005

The following link is my article about how to add unrecognized NIC
device into Eboot.bin.
But it was writen in Chinese.
http://groups.google.com/group/Embedded-Tech/browse_thread/thread/993b6c7f09cf21d7

Peica Chen

Boydi
Mon Oct 31 06:48:26 CST 2005

Pecia,

Thank you for your link.
I translated via babelfish, and got the following, though I think I
need a RAR file with more information? Is that available online?

Thanks,
Ian

***********************************
1) table of contents document covers PB with EBOOT_COM... in the
@2005-08-03.rar the corresponding document;

2) pays attention to lib the document depositing way;

3) translated the %_WINCE500ROOT%\PLATFORM\COMMON\src\x86\COMMON\kitl
project

4) to translate the %_WINCE500ROOT%\PLATFORM\CEPC\src\bootloader\eboot
project

4) to produce has joined VIA FET the actuation eboot.bin document,
deposited in the %_WINCE500ROOT%\PLATFORM\CEPC\target table of contents
Attention: Above other net card actuations increase may refer to the
procedure

Gpeica
Mon Oct 31 17:14:22 CST 2005

Dear Ian,
That RAR file is made for my NIC card by me. & I forgot where I
store it~
But there are lots of ways to get your NIC driver. Normally, You can
get it from your vendor. That web page just is the driver of VIA FET
which was downloaded from www.via.com. So pls ask your device vender
for more information.

Best Regards
Peica