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Using real-mode (aka "DOS")-LAN-Drivers in W98SE?


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Hi, fellows,

i don't seem to find the threads where the use/installation of dos-LAN-drivers during installation, but, more importanly, AFTER installation of w98se is described in detail.

Could anyone who successfully DID that, put a link to threads with some kind of HOWTO here, as well maybe notify the keeper of some stickyfied "important link" section?

If there exists no such thing: It is sought after by ruthan and me. Any help would be appreciated. :)

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I've successfully used an NDIS2 driver with the ASUS X75VB laptop. It has an Atheros AR8161 chip. Funny that, now I can't find the NDIS2 driver any more, it seems to be gone forever. :)

I've also tried to use an NDIS2 driver on the Lenovo IdeaPad Z510 laptop with a Realtek Fast Ethernet chip. It didn't work. All it did was hang the system, after rebooting again, the ASD.EXE utility disabled the driver. When you enable it, it hangs the system and the circle continues.

I'll also try the NDIS2 driver on my ASRock H110M-DVS R3.0 motherboard, alongside the normal .sys driver.

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12 hours ago, LoneCrusader said:

Can be read like a crime mystery. :w00t:

If i ever get a NIc to work this way, i'll write a step-by-step instruction.

Not yet, though, my Raid5 of 4 disks just lost 2 disks at once (36° C at the moment here), the last backup is 10 days old, and my WHS2011 says "i don't know anything about making backups... what? 10 days ago i did that? Can't even remember...". Not a good start for a day...

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On 2017-7-21 at 6:35 PM, ragnargd said:

Could anyone who successfully DID that, put a link to threads with some kind of HOWTO here, as well maybe notify the keeper of some stickyfied "important link" section?

If there exists no such thing: It is sought after by ruthan and me. Any help would be appreciated

I made a small Ndis2 inf-file for personal use. You can try. It works for me in case of Realtek RTL8111DL and RTL8111E. As I only have a 100 Mbps LAN, I cannot test the 1000 Mbps LAN that should be possible according to Realtek.

Although I think ragnargd don't need a HOWTO anymore :w00t:,  maybe others.

Installation instructions.

1) Find "Realtek NDIS2 driver ( Support DOS MSclient,Lantastic,Lanman,Norton Ghost )" on Realtek's Global site. Download will give you 0002-RTGBND2.152_EXE68.zip. Unzip RTGND.DOS and place this file together with my inf-file in a directory of your choice.

2) If Windows detects during boot-up "PCI Ethernet Controller", follow Windows installation-wizard. In case you already have a yellow exclamation marked "PCI Ethernet Controller" in Device Manager, choose "Install again".

3) After reboot, first go to real mode. If everything is all right, you will see during boot an installation-screen of the driver with "Link speed: 1000 Mbps" and "Duplex mode: full-duplex". On the  MS-DOS command-line "mem /a/c/p" will show RTGND, PROTMAN and NDIS2 in conventional/upper memory. RTGND will take 42kb of memory!

4) Type "win" and  go inside Windows to Properties of Network Neighborhood and look for "RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Family Ethernet Adapter". Properties will show that there is a "Real mode (16 bit) Ndis2-driver", choice of other drivers is grayed out. Bindings shows TCP/IP and Advanced will show only Link Speed choices. Default is "Auto Detect", other possibilities are "1000 Mbps full-duplex", "100 Mbps full-duplex", "100 Mbps half-duplex", "10 Mbps full-duplex" and  "10 Mbps half-duplex". During reboot you will see your choice in the MS-DOS installation screen of the driver.

There is one small drawback in using this real mode Ndis2-driver. After "Exit to MS-DOS" you cannot return again to Windows and using the driver. The driver needs always a full reboot. It should have to do something with flushing the cache of the NIC

So don't mess around with Config.sys, Autoexec.bat or Protocol.ini. Let the Windows Installer do the job.

Please report your findings.  WARNING: you make this installation at your own risk, no warranty at all! 


 

NetrtgRM.inf

Edited by deomsh
Extra info, corrections
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I examined that Driver to determine what Versions it supported.

It supports Device IDs:  10EC:8136, 10EC:8167, 10EC:8168, and 10EC:8169.

There does not appear to be any Revision Checks so it could possibly support newer Versions as they come out.

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On 25.07.2017 at 3:53 AM, rloew said:

I examined that Driver to determine what Versions it supported.

It supports Device IDs:  10EC:8136, 10EC:8167, 10EC:8168, and 10EC:8169.

There does not appear to be any Revision Checks so it could possibly support newer Versions as they come out.

I've tried using the DOS driver in my old Lenovo laptop with this ID: PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8136&REV_07

It didn't work, so even if they are not any revision checks, they are not guaranteed to work at all.

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Yes, I've tried exactly that, alongside the included OEMSETUP.INF file.

It did not work. The DOS messages before Windows splash screen show that it is connected, but the system hangs at that point. Then, after the reboot, the system boots, but the ASD.EXE utility should that there was a problem with TCP/IP, which is the EXACT same behaviour, as with using a .SYS driver.

I don't have this laptop anymore, so I can't test it with your INF.

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I used NetrtgRM.inf to install my 8111E.

The Driver will scan for all 4 IDs and will do so automatically as it is not bound by the INF.

Windows however is bound by the INF. Only one ID is listed in NetrtgRM.inf. The others have to be added.

I do not know if the other three require any different settings.

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