I needed to install the the 'etherboot' software on some
100MBit/s ethernet cards to let these computers boot remotely without any hard disk. After searching
the net it turned out that most commercial EPROM programmer are not usable under linux or are very
expensive. So I decided to build my own linux compatile programmer.
The hardware is very similar to a eprommer for the old Commodore 64, which I build
long ago from some schematics I found in a german magazine.
This is the needed circuit for the tiniy eprommer. It consists mostly of 2 12-bit counter
(4040), a small power supply and 2 transistors to control the program voltage.
It is necessary to start the software as root. Additionally you need kernel support
for your parallel 'pc-style' printer port. But be sure to NOT load the 'printer support' module.
Etherboot/mknbi
Here is the compiled rom rtl8139.lzr (16KB) for my realtek 8139 network
adapter. Burned into 32 KB EPROM and plugged onto the ethernet card, the system booted without any problems
(now more than one year).
