Not sure that this helps, but check out this thread: How about a MR-BIOS ROM file repository?
[EDIT] Sorry, I confused MR-BIOS with Micro Firmware...

[EDIT] BTW, https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/3126 has a Phoenix BIOS core v4.05 in case that is newer.
[EDIT] Looks like that is the file you want, i4hs10up.exe.

I found that file my self, problem is, it is just a patch/update it seems, and does not contain a full bios install. It also refuses to install without a previous micro firmware bios

Alright I found a workaround. This motherboard has a free 4KB of user accessible flash at ED000 - EDFFF, so I did a bit of hexeditor surgery to doctor a flash update file with XTIDE tiny bios, that just barely fits.
That solves my main annoyance with 500MB disk limit and extremely slow IDE controller boot, and other boot freezes

Any chance you could post your modified BIOS? I've got a Gateway 2000 with the same motherboard.

@kahlil88 sorry took me a while to answer, I kind of forgot about this. I'll pull the pc when I have time and grab the flash update if I can still find the update tool.

Awesome! Much appreciated. I was excited when I learned about the Micro Firmware BIOS... until I realized they are impossible to find.

Here you go, https://2bits.in/misc/xtide-update.zip
Instructions:

1) Get the zip contents onto your classic R pc (for example put it on a DOS boot disk)
2) Run FMUP.exe from DOS
3) "Update FLASH Memory Area from a File" -> " Update User Area" , select XTIDE.USR , "Continue with programming" ( you should see a successful completion message appear)
4) Reboot and enter BIOS Setup (with F1 or F2 i think it was)
5) Disable harddrives and enable "Scan FLASH User Area"
6) Save and reboot

Thanks so much! XTIDE BIOS doesn't seem to like my CF card or optical drive (maybe a limitation of the tiny build) but CHS auto-detect is nice and it does detect larger hard drives.

Yeah might be, I didn't test on cf cards. But it does work fine with a CD-RW. ( does not detect, but the dos driver works fine with it)

Oh interesting. Fortunately the CD-ROM drive works fine connected to a cheap EIDE card. I wonder if DOS might also see the CF card, though I'd rather boot from it.

Here you go, https://2bits.in/misc/xtide-update.zip
Instructions:
&etc

How bizarre. This appears to be exactly what I need to do to make my desired setup work. Remind me to report back

sysjunkie wrote on 2021-11-03, 11:22:

Alright I found a workaround. This motherboard has a free 4KB of user accessible flash at ED000 - EDFFF, so I did a bit of hexeditor surgery to doctor a flash update file with XTIDE tiny bios, that just barely fits.
That solves my main annoyance with 500MB disk limit and extremely slow IDE controller boot, and other boot freezes

I haven't played with hexeditors but I'm curious if this might be simple enough for me to do when I want to update to a newer version of XTIDE. I'm still hoping it will play nice with my CF cards eventually!

Apologies on bumping an old thread but I came across this information and found that the download for the user flash update is no longer functional. I spent this morning figuring out the process and have successfully integrated XT-IDE into user flash on my Intel Classic R motherboard (Gateway 4DX2-66) and would like to post my files on to the forum proper, along with steps should someone else wish to do this in the future and/or support a different PC that has user flash support.

Attached should be the necessary files to add XT-IDE to the Intel Classic R without building if you don't want to mess with it. Same instructions as previous:

1. Get the zip contents onto your classic R pc (for example put it on a DOS boot disk)
2. Run FMUP.exe from DOS
3. "Update FLASH Memory Area from a File" -> " Update User Area" , select XTIDE.USR , "Continue with programming" ( you should see a successful completion message appear)
4. Reboot and enter BIOS Setup (with F1 or F2 i think it was)
5. Disable harddrives and enable "Scan FLASH User Area"
6. Save and reboot

Here are the steps required if you wish to build your own (be aware that size is SUPER limited. There isn't really space to do any other tweaking at all. This will allow all CF+Platter drives to function properly):

1. Need Intel BIOS Update Utility (FMUP.EXE) tested with version 3.7
2. With no memory manager loaded launch FMUP.EXE and save the existing User Flash to FLASH.UPD
3. Copy FLASH.UPD to modern computer
4. Setup build environment for XT-IDE as instructed https://xtideuniversalbios.org/wiki/BuildInstructions
5. Navigate to the XTIDE_Universal_BIOS folder once the svn trunk is checked out
6. Set the custom lines within makefile to:
   Copy code to clipboard

   1DEFINES_CUSTOM = MODULE_STRINGS_COMPRESSED MODULE_8BIT_IDE USE_386 NO_ATAID_VALIDATION MODULE_POWER_MANAGEMENT
   2...
   3BIOS_SIZE_CUSTOM = 4096
   

7. Open up a NASM shell and navigate to the XTIDE_Universal_BIOS folder
8. Run MAKE CLEAN, MAKE STRINGS and MAKE CUSTOM from the XTIDE_Universal_BIOS folder
9. Copy Build\ide_cstm.bin and xtidecfg.com (from the larger XT-IDE package) to a bootable floppy disk
10. On the 486 run xtidecfg.com, load ide_cstm.bin and then let the software auto-configure the rom. Save the settings and take the floppy back to your modern computer
11. The rom now needs signed which I performed by using signrom.py from qemu - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qemu/qemu/m … ipts/signrom.py usage: python .\signrom.py .\ide_cstm.bin .\ide_sign.bin
12. Once signed open up ide_sign.bin in a hex editor and copy the entire contents
13. Open up FLASH.UPD in a hex editor and you will see a string of 4096 FF bytes. Replace all these FF bytes with the contents of ide_sign.bin. Place FLASH.UPD on your floppy with FMUP.EXE
14. With no memory manager loaded launch FMUP.EXE and flash the new FLASH.UPD contents to user flash
15. Go into the bios and enable user flash area which will enable xt-ide

Good info sammargh ! Lot of work just to support a bigger HD when there are quick "overlay" options.

I wanted to free up the IRQ/address space currently used by my ethernet card so I can shove more sound cards in 😀

That said the performance is terrible in comparison to using xt-ide universal bios so it's not really useful for what I was trying to accomplish

I revisited this to see if I could fix my problem - namely using primary IDE you are limited to 4GB on Primary Master and with the slimmed XT-IDE you must boot off primary master. This is a limitation of the system and it will not turn on if a larger drive is plugged in. Doing this if you try to use software on the Primary Slave device hard drive performance takes a nose-dive and everything stinks. My main goal is to have a single 8-16GB IDE HD and a cd-rom drive attached to this machine.

Well I achieved such results! I have a cd-rom ide isa card that lets you pick if it's primary master/slave or secondary master/slave. I set the card to secondary master, plugged the drive in and reconfigured xtide to boot off of 170h instead of 1F0h. Doing this and moving my cd-rom to slave with the on-board controller results in user flash xt-ide booting the 16GB CF and my cd-rom still functioning! I am now free of the ethernet ISA card!

This user flash patch is the same as previous, it just is forcing the system to not use 1F0 for booting. Please note a limitation on this system is it appears to only reset IDE on the primary channel,, so soft reset no longer functions as the drive won't survive posting a second time.

sammargh, I just updated my Classic R's flash per the instructions and your files. While it appeared to work and XTIDE loads at boot, the computer refuses to boot any of my drives including a 400MB IDE, 40GB IDE, 80GB IDE, and anSD-to-IDE. Only the SD-to-IDE gets recognized, but it hangs the system. Did you do anything else to the BIOS setup (such as specifying a drive configuration) to boot from the on-board IDE port? Thanks.

Make sure that the bios is set to enabled but both hard drives are set to not present. A limitation of the onboard IDE is the primary master can’t be larger than 4GB. The slave however can be any size, but performs poorly being on the same IDE chain. This is why I went with a secondary card so my master drive can be any size.

Thank you. I have the controller enabled with both ports listed as "Not Installed".

Update, I have gotten several pre-formatted SD cards to boot: 512MB with DOS 3.3, 16GB with DOS 4.01, and 16GB with DOS 5.0. The computer boots to the prompt on each, but programs tend to crash eventually on all three SD cards. In addition, DOS 6 refuses to boot off of the floppy drive if I have the SD-to-IDE adapter plugged-in. Very frustrating.

Did larger drives work properly for you when you used XT-IDE on a network card?