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This page provides a collection of Network Boot ROMs suitable for booting from a NetWare server. Most of the RPL ROMs should work with Windows NT and OS/2 LAN Manager as well. IPX ROMs contain an embedded Netware client and so will only support booting from NetWare or something that looks close enough (Mars NWE on Linux, or Services for NetWare on Windows NT).
| Vendor | Chipset/Card | Tested? | Notes | Screenshot | ROM Link | Drivers |
| 3Com | 3C509B EtherLink III | No | Proprietary BootWare ROM | Download | ||
| 3Com | 3C900 EtherLink XL PCI | No | Proprietary BootWare ROM | Download | ||
| Abel | DP8390CN | No | NE1000 compatible card (picture), IPX boot rom (not RPL). From here. | Download | ||
| AMD | AMD PCnet | Yes | Tested with VirtualBox. Was originally provided for download by AMD. | Screenshot | util_boot.exe | Drivers & Utilities |
| D-Link | DE-150 | No | picture. From here. | Download | ||
| DE-220 | No |
Publicly available from the D-Link Russia FTP server (https://ftp.dlink.ru/pub/Bootrom/Firmware/). ROMs on the FTP server are labeled as the original option number you could order from D-Link rather than the cards they go in. From strings present in the ROMs, they all appear to be Novell RPL Boot ROMs. For some cards there are multiple versions available. Many are distributed as self-extracting Zip files. |
DE-220 Download (multiple versions) | |||
| DE-528 PCI (Realtek 8029 chip) | No | DE528 Download | ||||
| DE-530CT (DECchip DC21x40 chip) | No | DE530CT Download | ||||
| DFE-500TX (DECchip DC21x40 chip) | No | DFE-500TX Download (multiple versions) |
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| DFE-530TX | No | DFE-530TX Download (multiple versions) |
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| DFE-538TX | No | DFE-538TX Download (multiple versions) |
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| DFE-540TX | No | DFE-540TX Download (multiple versions) |
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| DFE-550TX | No | DFE-550TX Download (multiple versions) |
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| Genius? | E1160C | Yes | Contributed by Darsey (thanks!). Works with the 86box emulated NE2000 adapter so may work in other NE2000-compatible cards. Not an RPL ROM - this is an old-style IPX boot ROM. May not work with DOS 5 and newer. Download archive includes photos of the card, screenshots, etc. See README.md in the archive for more details. | Screenshot | Download | |
| Intel | EtherExpress 16 | No | For cards with a FLASH ROM installed. The default ROM image (probably the one in FLSIMG.EXE) is of the old IPX type. E16RPL.EXE contains a beta RPL image. These images were made available for download by Intel. |
FLSIMG.EXE E16RPL.EXE |
E16DISK.EXE | |
| Realtek | RTL8019AS | No | Provided for download by Realtek | Download | Drivers & Utilities | |
| RTL8029AS | No | Provided for download by Realtek. Tested with 86box but it gives an error - likely an issue with 86box. | 86box | Download | Drivers & Utilities | |
| RTL8139 | No | Provided for download by Realtek. PXE ROM and flash utility may be in the DOS directory. | Download | Drivers & Utilities | ||
| VIA | VT8231, VT8233, VT8235 & VT8237 Integrated (Rhine & Rhine II),VT8251 Integrated | No | Linked driver package contains RPL firmware (RPM.LOM). Not sure how to use it at this stage. | Download | ||
I'm not a netware expert, don't have any of those fancy novell certifications and have never administred a netware network; I've just played with it at home occasionally since 2004 or so. Email me if you've got any suggestsions or corrections for this page or any extra information you think is worth including here. My address is david at this websites domain name (without the www bit of course).
