PCI Scanner for Dell?

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

I'm trying to find a Hardware/PCI scanner that will work from a DOS or boot
environment. I've looked at PCIScan on Barts, but it's very old, and the map
files are out of date. Also, I'm not trying to "load" drivers, I just need a
list of the hardware.

Dell's own resource CD does not seem much use unless Windows is already
installed

 

[Patrick J. LoPresti]

Any decent Linux rescue CD should have the "lspci" command.

Actually, the Linux boot CD from my project has lspci and a fairly
up-to-date PCI database (taken from the Linux kernel). Download the
unattended-linuxboot ZIP from:

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=62053

Burn the ISO image and boot it. When it asks what install share to
map, type "X" (or Ctrl-C) to get a shell prompt. Then just run
"lspci". Or "lspci -n" or "lspci -v -n", depending on what you want
to see... <http://www.google.com/search?q=lspci&btnI> has
documentation on lspci.

This is a "diskless" Linux boot, so it will not hurt your machine.

- Pat
http://unattended.sourceforge.net/

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Thanks Pat,

I've put this message in my "For Keeps" folder! I also found another one
yesterday at:

http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/

which seems rather good, and has a pretty up-to-date database. I've been
running it from a DOS 6.22 boot CD with NIC support I made. Quite handy
as I can redirect the output to a share (as you also indicate below).

I guess I need to move on from DOS 6.22 at some stage, but I still
prefer it over Win98 boot disks - FDISK is much quicker and I _think_ my
memory footprint is smaller (more room for NET.EXE etc).

I had a bit of a shock today though, as I went to boot a Dell GX280,
suddenly there's NO PS/2 SOCKETS WHATSOEVER! I had visions of the USB
keyboard and mouse not working at all under my DOS environment, but
luckily they do seem to work

Does you're Linux booter work with USB keyboards, mice and things like
Boardcom NexTreme PCI-X NICs?

 

[Patrick J. LoPresti]

I had a bit of a shock today though, as I went to boot a Dell GX280,
suddenly there's NO PS/2 SOCKETS WHATSOEVER! I had visions of the
USB keyboard and mouse not working at all under my DOS environment,
but luckily they do seem to work

There is usually a BIOS setting called something like "legacy USB
emulation". It makes the USB keyboard look like an old-fashioned
keyboard from DOS's point of view.

This does not help for protected-mode operating systems; they still
need a driver to talk to the keyboard. So, ironically enough, it is
easier to get USB keyboards working under DOS than under other
operating systems. (Modern Windowses ship with such drivers, of
course. Getting the keyboard working with, say, Windows NT would take
some work.)

Does you're Linux booter work with USB keyboards, mice and things
like Boardcom NexTreme PCI-X NICs?

USB keyboards and Broadcom NICs, yes. We load the USB keyboard driver
and then auto-probe the network hardware to load the appropriate
driver. If Linux supports it, we probabl do, too.

It is a text-only boot disk, though, so we do not bother loading a
mouse driver .

- Pat
http://unattended.sourceforge.net/