I would really like to do this to my two bios chips does anyone here have experience who can help?

Well I don't have very much experience with BIOS modding, but wouldn't it be a matter of replacing the option rom module with a customized one? They're not called modular BIOS for nothing, u know...

The process is described here:
https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/rom.html

It looks like you're dealing with Award v4.51PG BIOS here. On the rom.by page their target machine has v6.0, that's probably causing some extra steps.
Finding the right tools to use, and the tool versions can be a bit challenging...apparently the working cbrom version is 1.xx (maybe 1.32?)
There are other tools besides cbrom (in fact RayeR has some on his page too).

EDIT: There is no option rom to replace. In fact the maximum BIOS size is 128kB? The plop blob is about 40kB, there's no way to cram it in...
Perhaps the only chance is to use a nic instead (see savely's comment on the rom.by page). This is not a problem for the rom.by guys, they have plenty of those logos that can be removed to make space.

mr.cat wrote on 2021-01-29, 08:40:

Well I don't have very much experience with BIOS modding, but wouldn't it be a matter of replacing the option rom module with a […]
Show full quote

Well I don't have very much experience with BIOS modding, but wouldn't it be a matter of replacing the option rom module with a customized one? They're not called modular BIOS for nothing, u know...

The process is described here:
https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/rom.html

It looks like you're dealing with Award v4.51PG BIOS here. On the rom.by page their target machine has v6.0, that's probably causing some extra steps.
Finding the right tools to use, and the tool versions can be a bit challenging...apparently the working cbrom version is 1.xx (maybe 1.32?)
There are other tools besides cbrom (in fact RayeR has some on his page too).

EDIT: There is no option rom to replace. In fact the maximum BIOS size is 128kB? The plop blob is about 40kB, there's no way to cram it in...
Perhaps the only chance is to use a nic instead (see savely's comment on the rom.by page). This is not a problem for the rom.by guys, they have plenty of those logos that can be removed to make space.

am I able to add it to a xt-ide?

I'm sorry to say it sounds like you know infinitely more about this than I do, so I think I'm probably going to either need your help which would be faster/easier or a very detailed step by step 🤣. (if you are willing)

Rather than using an XT-IDE for this specific purposes, there are some dedicated ISA/BIOS ROM card out there.

Lo-tech do one which supports either 1x 32k or 64k image: https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_ISA_ROM_Board

There's also this double ROM implementation, which can support up to 2x 32k images: https://monotech.fwscart.com/DoubleROM_IDE_Si … 4_19995208.aspx

The plop bootloader would have to work as per a normal extension ROM though, I would assume.

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-02-08, 11:00:

Rather than using an XT-IDE for this specific purposes, there are some dedicated ISA/BIOS ROM card out there. […]
Show full quote

Rather than using an XT-IDE for this specific purposes, there are some dedicated ISA/BIOS ROM card out there.

Lo-tech do one which supports either 1x 32k or 64k image: https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_ISA_ROM_Board

There's also this double ROM implementation, which can support up to 2x 32k images: https://monotech.fwscart.com/DoubleROM_IDE_Si … 4_19995208.aspx

The plop bootloader would have to work as per a normal extension ROM though, I would assume.

I was eying up the dual one from monotech but decided on the one from blue lava that has a cf and a rom figured both options were nice also I found one that was a full card with a rom and two compact flash slots almost got that but thought the bracket less card may be able to double up with a pci card in one space

Nice gadgetry there. I did mention the blob size as a limit, well compression is possible with Award BIOS.
But even compressed it still isn't small enough to fit in there [-dirty joke removed-].

Also I don't know how the compression would work with an external BootROM - some additional custom code needed?
The plop website only talks about using the main BIOS, it seems. Compression isn't necessary with the 64kB version though.

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-08, 10:35:

I'm sorry to say it sounds like you know infinitely more about this than I do, so I think I'm probably going to either need your help which would be faster/easier or a very detailed step by step 🤣. (if you are willing)

Yeah...that would be my Google-fu 😁
Also I did read the article, maybe that helped. You can pm me if you wish, it's just it would still be very much a case of blind leading the blind...
I do have a sort of fleeting interest in BIOS stuff, but I would be much more confident if I had actually tried any of this myself.
Tbh you'd probably be much better off just asking here...or better yet, try and fail, that's what I do 😁
(And don't forget to report back any spectacular failure/success stories!)

man if we could figure out how to add memtest86+ and plop to everyone's bioses here I think there would be a line out the door 🤣

luckily I now have a chip programmer so if we mess up it's no biggie but maybe I should get a zif socket for the board haha

Looking at plop boot manager's documentation, it is possible to compress it to about 30KB which is already much better to get it to fit into anything.

Plop is very nice rom extension\bootmanager, does anybody know more advanced alternatives?

pbm6
https://www.plop.at/en/pbm6/bios.html

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