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Boot logo solved!
Woo-hoo!

New MessageBoot logo solved! (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Woo-hoo! There be BIOS logos a'changin!

Proof: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/tackhead_1999

Click on the pics from "Day 3" for this hack.

Solution:

1) Acquire AWDFLASH.EXE 6.31
- This is the BIOS flasher you'll use to extract your old BIOS image (which will also help you tell if running through the tutorial or letting the unit be "updated" affects your BIOS)

2) Acquire CBROM130.EXE
- This is the utility you'll use to examine the contents of the BIOS ROM dump and modify it accordingly. They were really nice, including a /logo option for changing (ta-dah!) boot logo screens.

3) Boot to straight DOS. In Win9x, will usually mean adding a BootGUI=0 line to your C:\CONFIG.SYS file. You may have to use ATTRIB.EXE to make the file writable first.

4) When booting, hold down the SHIFT key to prevent loading of EMM386.EXE or anything else that ASDFLASH.EXE tells you it doesn't like.

5) Help for AWDFLASH and CBROM in case you get confused:
AWDFLASH /?
CBROM130 /?

6) Extract your old BIOS ROM to a file:
AWDFLASH /Pn mybios.bin

7) Copy your old BIOS ROM somewhere safe:
COPY mybios.bin mybios.bak

8) We assume you already have a favorite .BMP of a penguin or daemon handy. (640x464, 16 colors, Windows BMP)

9) For kicks, examine your old BIOS ROM:
CBROM130 mybios.bin /D

See the various components there? The one we're after is the logo bitmap, by default "welcome.bmp"

10) Rewrite your old BIOS ROM:

CBROM130 mybios.bin /logo penguin.bmp

This overwrites mybios.bin, creating the file for your new BIOS. If your logo is too complicated and doesn't compress well, you may run out of space. You can use CBROM to tell you whether or not your BIOS image with the new logo is "full" or not.

11) Assuming you didn't run out of space, flash your new BIOS and just for paranoia's sake, make another backup.
AWDFLASH mybios.bin /Py oldbios.bak /Sy

12) Reboot - and pray for the best! As usual, don't try flashing your BIOS unless you're prepared to take the risk of turning your i-opener into a doorstop.

04-02-2000 19:57:26

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) illusion
kewl beanz!

where did you get that linux inside pic? i have a linux inside sticker on my box from copyleft.net and this bootlogo would go perfect.

04-02-2000 20:21:00

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) Roastbeef
You da man!
04-02-2000 20:36:55

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) keymaster
Where did you get these utils? Please post the urls!!!!

Oh and for a good laugh get this RA file... I'll send a mp3 version to anyone who asks.....

http://members.aol.com/qmallory01/scottsman.ra

04-02-2000 20:39:26

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) Mas'Deom
Awsome. thanks for the info.
I found AWDFLASH.EXE 6.31 at site below for the lazy folks (every ver. is there)


http://ic.doma.kiev.ua/pub/award/awd631.exe

04-02-2000 20:41:07

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) NightHawk`
how did you find out about this technique? Got any docs/specifications related to it?
04-02-2000 20:41:11

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) Tackhead
Wow, busy day! I got my cables in yesterday and knew if I didn't hustle, someone would beat me to the punch on this! (Shrapnel's post was less than an hour after mine, and he was using the same technique. Looks like I made it just under the wire

I got the info from the same place he did. Wim's BIOS page:

http://www.ping.be/bios/HTML1/faq.html

...and a german page, which is also where I got the utilz and my penguin

http://velociraptor.mni.fh-giessen.de/Bootlogo/

04-02-2000 20:49:15

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) Delita+Matic
Tackhead, what CD-ROM drive did you use?
04-02-2000 21:11:20

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) shrapnel
Heh, I guess somebody verified it alright. =) Now to try "cbrom130 iopener.bin /logo release" to get rid of it entirely..

Good work TackHead!

04-02-2000 21:14:45

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) shrapnel
Huh.. Board times screwed up? My post shows before yours.. =) Unimportant anyway, the hack's out there.

I was curious as to whether your CD-ROM worked after boot? I think mine named it when it was slave, but refused to use it. Or it could also vary with the make/model of CD-ROM.. I'll have to try a few others.

04-02-2000 21:30:08

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) shrapnel
And just *one more post* from me! =)

Nevermind, was looking at Last Modified. Doh! Took me about an hour to write the message & re-dig up my sources (should've bookmarked).

There was something else I was going to say, but I won't remember it until I hit the "reply this topic" button. Oh well.

04-02-2000 21:38:44

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) Tackhead
DelitaMatic: It was a Panasonic CR-585, 24X ATAPI drive. Oldie but goodie, very common a couple of years ago.

DOS drivers available from:

http://www.panasonic.com/host/support/cdromreadme_e.html

Shrapnel: Looks like we were both typing the hack in at the same time anyways, and you saved me a trip to Google to find that German page again so I could give it credit in my follow-up. Like you said, what matters is the hack's out there and verified!

(Also nice to see that it's not too picky about older versions of AWDFLASH, I didn't know 7.52c was the newest one... Thankfully 6.31 also works, or I'd have me a doorstop :)

04-02-2000 21:46:51

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) shrapnel
Latest ver. of AWDFLASH is probably even newer than that.. I think I saw a link to v7.58. And remember, I haven't tried to *flash* the BIOS with v7.52. But there's no reason it shouldn't work considering it's got a release date of 11/99 and is designed for (I think) BIOS dates after Jan. '99.
04-03-2000 06:04:14

New MessageRE:Boot logo solved! (modified 0 times) denver
ok i am a idiot, but why can't we use the award flash bios utility to flash the orginal bios (somebody posts) that netplaince has apparently changed. I keep reading about burning eproms
04-03-2000 22:22:50

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