Copyright (c) 1991 - 2001 Digi International. All Rights Reserved. EtherLite(R) 80 US Patent No. 6,047,319 RealPort Firmware Release Notes 10/31/2001 v1.2 Release Notes: p/n 93000433_B Firmware Image: p/n 80007015_B Table of Contents ----------------- Product Specific Notes Firmware Update Instructions for NT Firmware Update Instructions for UNIX What is the RealPort Firmware? Revision History Product Specific Notes ---------------------- none Firmware Update Instructions for NT ----------------------------------- To update EtherLite firmware from a NT host, download the utility package ELFIRMNT.EXE from our web or FTP site, and refer to the included instructions. Firmware Update Instructions for UNIX ------------------------------------- Please check your device driver release notes and user documentation for any additional update instructions specific to the operating system you are using. Some driver packages offer alternate methods for updating the EtherLite firmware. The EtherLite Units use TFTP in conjunction with BOOTP to update their firmware. In order to update your units, you will need to enable the TFTP Server on the same host that provides BOOTP service. We recommend that you disable this service as soon as you are done updating the firmware, as TFTP does no user authentication and allows file transfers. As a result, it can be a security risk. The BOOTP service is typically launched at boot time by the system, and is configured according to an entry in /etc/inetd.conf, even though current versions of bootp server software no longer uses inetd. The bootp server line in that file may look much like this: bootps dgram udp wait root /etc/bootpd bootpd TFTP service is typically enabled by "inetd". An entry in the "/etc/inetd.conf" file specifies how to start the service. Most systems will already have an entry for TFTP, but it will be commented out, which disables it for security reasons mentioned above. It may look similar or identical to this: tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/etc/in.tftpd in.tftpd -s /tftpboot There should also be entries in your "/etc/services" file, specifying BOOTP server service on UDP port 67 and the TFTP service on UDP port 69. The entries in your /etc/services file should appear as shown below. If your system differs from the example given below, refer to the man pages on your system for "tftpd" and "inetd" for details on how to enable TFTP service. bootps 67/udp # bootp server bootpc 68/udp # bootp client tftp 69/udp # tftp server To get the EtherLite Unit to download the new firmware, you need to specify the bootfile option in the BOOTP entry for the unit. To do so, edit the "/etc/bootptab" file. Add the field ":bf=filename" to the entry for the EtherLite Unit, where "filename" is the full path to the new firmware. Please note that most TFTP implementations perform a "chroot" (change root directory) when started. If your TFTP server does this, you will need to place the firmware image in its directory tree and specify the path relative to TFTP's root directory. For example, most TFTP servers have a "root" directory of /tftpboot on the host, which means that a file whose path to TFTP is /files/bootfile, is actually /tftpboot/files/bootfile to the UNIX system. Your bootptab entry may look like: el16_0:\ sm=255.255.255.0:\ gw=192.9.200.1:\ ht=ethernet:\ ha=00A0E7000004:\ ip=192.9.200.2:\ bf=/bootp/sts/el16.prm: In this case, the full path to the file on the UNIX side would be: /tftpboot/bootp/sts/el16.prm To actually update the EtherLite Unit, you simply power cycle it. Each time it boots, it downloads the bootfile specified by BOOTP. If the bootfile differs from the firmware it is currently running, it will update its Flash EPROM with the new firmware. Once you have updated your EtherLite Unit, it is not necessary to leave the TFTP server enabled. As mentioned earlier it can be a security risk. Unless you are sure that your configuration is secure, we recommend that you disable TFTP service by commenting out its entry in "/etc/inetd.conf". It is ok to leave in the bootfile entry in the "/etc/bootptab". What is the RealPort Firmware? ------------------------------ The EtherLite product line originally used Digi's STS driver (or ELS driver) to communicate with a host system. However, Digi also offers a driver package called RealPorts, which offers similar functionality to the STS driver but has a broader range of operating system support and improved characteristics over wide-area networks. The RealPort firmware allows you to use the EtherLite hardware with a RealPort driver. If you load this firmware into your EtherLite; you will need to use a RealPort driver. It is not possible to use the STS driver with the RealPort Firmware. You can, however, convert an EtherLite back to non-RealPort by loading the appropriate firmware. Revision History ---------------- 10/31/2001 - v1.2 - A feature was added to permit the unit to be remotely reset using the elsreset and dgipserv utility programs. - EL-160, EL-162, EL-2 products - Modem signal changes were being reported too slowly. Worst case latency was 320ms + driver poll time. It is now 20ms + driver poll time. 10/19/2001 - v1.1 - Support was added for the EL-8, EL-16, and EL-32 products. 08/15/2001 - v1.0 - Corrected a bug where PARMRK was not being handled when the UART fifo was in a full condition. - The RealPort keep-alive timer needed to be reset when a connection is established with the host. - EL-160 only, some test code had been left in which caused the UART buffers to be larger than necessary. - The RealPort patent number was added to the rlogin display. 07/11/2001 - v0.8 - Release for beta testing. - Changed the default TFTP file to a name unique to the RealPort firmware. For instance, the EL-2 will use the default name of elr2.prm instead of el2.prm. - Modified DHCP requests to include a vendor specific option that contains the product ID. - Modified RealPorts to return a unique hardware and product IDs. - Improved handling of RealPort protocol errors. - Improved handling of Ethernet and TCP/IP errors. 06/18/2001 - v0.6 - Initial release for alpha testing