Re: Promise PDC20268 FastTrack 100 TX2 (PDC20268)

[Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>]

On Mon, Jan 20, 2003 at 07:12:53PM +0000, John Bradford wrote:
> > I have a Promise FastTrack 100 TX2 (PDC20268) IDE-controller
> > (BIOS v2.00.0.24) used in a linux MD-RAID.  Aside from various
> > other annoying Promise-problems, I am not able to perform a
> > remote boot because the brain-dead Promise-BIOS "complains" that
> > no array is defined, and requires one to press ESC to continue
> > booting.  I would very much appreciate any tips as to how I can
> > circumvent this "feature".
> 
> Well, if you don't usually need a keyboard on that machine, in theory,
> you might be able to connect the keyboard input to the PS/2 mouse port
> of another machine, and write a program to send the correct bytes for
> that keypress to the other machine. Then, you could reboot the
> machine with the Promise card in it, then log in to the other machine,
> and run the program to send the keypress.
> 
> Not sure how practical this solution would be though...  You'd
> probably have to simulate the keyboard initialisation responses as
> well, which would make it a bit complicated

That won't work, of course - while the PS/2 and keyboard ports are the
same, they are master/slave - the computer is master and the device is
slave - you cannot connect master to master.

It'd work if you used bitbanging on the parallel port, though.

Or a keyboard with something heavy on the 'esc' key ;)

Another possibility is just to remove the BIOS from the card or tell the
on-board BIOS not to initalize it.

-- 
Vojtech Pavlik
SuSE Labs