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Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

15. Feb 9, 2006 2:25 PM in response to: petr
Click to view Jasemccarty's profile Champion
Jasemccarty
3,806 posts since
Apr 5, 2005
Well, actually, I've tried the bios.440.rom that came with my GSX 3.2 VMTN license.

In Workstation 5.5.1 it doesn't work. I thought that if I chose legacy mode, it might work, but with no luck.

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

16. Feb 9, 2006 2:41 PM in response to: Jasemccarty
Click to view petr's profile Champion
petr
7,218 posts since
Jul 10, 2003
Nope. It won't work due to processor's SMM state change (maybe due to other problems as well, but this comes directly to my mind). If you want to use GSX3.2 BIOS on WS5.5, you must grab powered-on snapshot on GSX3.2 and then try to use it on WS5.5. That one will be able to use old BIOS. But once you poweroff it in WS5.5, old BIOS will not work for it anymore.

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

17. Feb 9, 2006 3:00 PM in response to: petr
Click to view Borg Number One's profile Novice
Borg Number O…
33 posts since
Dec 24, 2004
Hi.

To get more specific information about:
"Necessary environments[interrupts, (emulated)chipset registers, etc...] for an alternate VMware BIOS",
you should get in contact with: Dmitriy Budko.

Take the VMTN Discussion Forum - search engine and look for "Dmitriy" or check this link:
http://www.vmware.com/community/profile.jspa?userID=26802

Also take google and look for "vmware linuxbios".

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

18. Feb 16, 2006 12:14 AM in response to: Borg Number O…
Click to view vmsim's profile Novice
vmsim
12 posts since
Feb 16, 2006
Borg-

Any thoughts about a VM BIOS flash utility? I deal with Windows Licenses that require seeing a modified BIOS on boot. In other words, I have to flash a pc's bios with a modified bin that appends the product key to the bios. Only then can I successfully boot windows. I want to use images of these OS builds in a VM, but of course I can't modify the bios to work.

Ideas?

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

19. Feb 16, 2006 4:37 AM in response to: vmsim
Click to view Borg Number One's profile Novice
Borg Number O…
33 posts since
Dec 24, 2004
Hi vmsim.

I do not really understand your problem.

However, the current VMWare releases do not emulate all necessary interfaces/hardware to flash or overwrite the emulated VMware Phoenix BIOS (BIOS chip/data) with the help of a BIOS flash utility.

But you can take a resource editor and extract the VMware BIOS for a modification.

Take google and look for: "bios440.filename".

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

20. Feb 16, 2006 6:33 AM in response to: Borg Number O…
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
But you can take a resource editor and extract the VMware BIOS for a modification.

This does not seem to be the case for Workstation > 4.5x. Have you had any success with 5.0+ ?

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

21. Feb 16, 2006 6:46 AM in response to: RDPetruska
Click to view Borg Number One's profile Novice
Borg Number O…
33 posts since
Dec 24, 2004
This does not seem to be the case for Workstation > 4.5x. Have you had any success with 5.0+ ?

???
This statement is absolutely not unreproducible.

If you have skills about Windows/Linux binary resource extractors then there should not be any problems to extract the BIOS resource from the VMware 1,2,3,4,5.xx Linux/Windows binaries.

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

22. Feb 16, 2006 6:50 AM in response to: Borg Number O…
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
I sent you a PM several months ago regarding this, after the last time you updated this thread. I can open the 5+ binary with a resource editor/extractor, but it's all greek to me. Also, the file bios440.rom is no longer installed in the Workstation directory as it was with earlier versions - this indicates to me that this is not supported anymore.

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

23. Feb 16, 2006 7:07 AM in response to: RDPetruska
Click to view Borg Number One's profile Novice
Borg Number O…
33 posts since
Dec 24, 2004
Hi.

The stand-alone bios440.rom file in early VMware releases seems to be a Phoenix BIOS file which maybe was used for different experiments while the VMware releases were developed.

I like it to talk/write frankly and it seems to be that you do not have many computer related skills . :)

Latest VMware releases are splitted/devided into two binaries.
One for the GUI and the other one for the emulation.

With the help of a resource editor you should check the subdirectories: "bin" / "bin-debug". in your VMware directory:)

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

24. Feb 16, 2006 7:43 AM in response to: Borg Number O…
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
Can you check your PM and get back to me there? Thanks.

And, I'm not a newbie when it comes to "computer related skills" - I've been a Process Control Engineer for 14 years, System Admin for 10+ years, and programming PCs for 9+. :-)

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

25. Feb 16, 2006 8:15 AM in response to: RDPetruska
Click to view Borg Number One's profile Novice
Borg Number O…
33 posts since
Dec 24, 2004
Hi.

Reffering to the really specific VMware Phoenix BIOS development questions you have, I prepared the desktop sharing server: UltraVNC espacially for you.

Sharing my desktop will make it easier to show you the stuff.

Either you download UltraVNC, start the UltraVNC client and connect to:
borg-number-one.dyndns.org
(Port 5900/5800 should be enabled/forwarded in your firewall/router settings)

Or you take your browser (JAVA VM/Java Plug-in is necessary) and connect to:
http://borg-number-one.dyndns.org:5800

In both cases the password is: vmwbios

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

26. Feb 16, 2006 8:25 AM in response to: Borg Number O…
Click to view DaveP's profile Master
DaveP
1,404 posts since
Aug 30, 2003
OK I think Rob does have plenty of computer expereince just not in this area.

So let's walk through getting the ROM image out of WS 5.5.1 Windows executable.

1. Take a copy of vmware-vmx.exe in the \bin subfolder.
2. Get hold of a copy of Resource Hacker from http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/
3. Open the copy of vmware-vmx.exe in Resource Hacker
4. Should see a treeview on left and first node should say BINRES
5. Right click and select "Save [BINRES] Resources..."
6. Once saved then close Resource Hacker
7. Take Data_5.bin and rename hack etc. as it is the BIOS
8. Load it via [code]bios440.filename= "xyz"[/code]

The bios440.rom in earlier versions was a fixed version for Netware guests. Pretty sure it wasn't needed from Ws 4 onwards.

Dave

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

27. Feb 16, 2006 8:32 AM in response to: DaveP
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
Are you sure it's not Data_4.bin? As BINRES #6005 is the 4th down on the list. When I used PE Resource Explorer, it seemed to match up with Resource Hacker. Both apps extracted that one at 32Kb, whereas Data_5.bin is 512Kb. 6005 shows the beginning text as the Phoenix BIOS text. Am I looking at this wrong?

The bios440.rom in earlier versions was a fixed version for Netware guests. Pretty sure it wasn't needed from Ws 4 onwards.
Ahh, that makes sense now. I figured that with the new e1000 network adapter, the BIOS would be updated anyway, so I'd want the newest one.

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

28. Feb 16, 2006 8:35 AM in response to: RDPetruska
Click to view Jasemccarty's profile Champion
Jasemccarty
3,806 posts since
Apr 5, 2005
Well, I just tried it, and Data_5.bin works like a champ...

Now for some fun.

Re: VMWare BIOS Modification / translation

29. Feb 16, 2006 8:41 AM in response to: Borg Number O…
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
Unfortunately, my corporate firewall/proxy has your site (and lots of "personal sites") blocked, so I can't check that out until I get home. I've followed DaveP's steps and extracted the files. Of course, I'm back to where I was with what to me appears to be the header info for the bios (the 32K file) not necessarily being the right one. As I said, this stuff looks greek to me. I'll try loading 'em up in the bios tools you liked to earlier.
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