From owner-freebsd-current Wed Jan 13 21:57:34 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA22172 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Wed, 13 Jan 1999 21:57:34 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from labinfo.iet.unipi.it (labinfo.iet.unipi.it [131.114.9.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id VAA22167 for ; Wed, 13 Jan 1999 21:57:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it) Received: from localhost (luigi@localhost) by labinfo.iet.unipi.it (8.6.5/8.6.5) id EAA28535; Thu, 14 Jan 1999 04:51:58 +0100 From: Luigi Rizzo Message-Id: <199901140351.EAA28535@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> Subject: Re: netboot & ELF kernels To: ambrisko@whistle.com (Doug Ambrisko) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 04:51:58 +0100 (MET) Cc: current@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199901131708.JAA29927@whistle.com> from "Doug Ambrisko" at Jan 13, 99 09:08:24 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > | > | I've been sitting on this for some time (sorry, Doug), but will > | try to finish looking at it in the next few days. > A few comments on netboot. Recently, erich@lodgenet.com contributed netboot support for "fxp" cards. The msg was posted on some freebsd list about 1 month ago, and the file to look for is "nbfxp.tgz". Again, better than nothing, although it does not support ELF i think. > This package has a lot of nice features: > - Select different kernels to boot (including Dos images) > - Pass in FreeBSD boot flags via bootp request > - uses tftp for loading kernel (some may argue this is not a nice > feature but I like it for a bunch of reasons ... no need for > nfs if kernel has a mfs file system) in fact, FreeBSD's netboot uses NFS for loading the kernel, but you don't need it in the loaded kernel either. The difference in netboot's code is minimal (just a few calls to get the appropriate credentials to access the file, then the routines to download the pkts are very similar and already present in the freebsd's netboot anyways. Having tried both the tftp and nfs method, i prefer the latter a lot because it means i don't have to cnfigure another service (TFTP) on the server: with the current FreeBSD's netboot, you can supply all parameters with bootp (which you'd need anyways -- or replace it with DHCP i guess) and download the kernel with NFS (which your server probably already has). cheers luigi To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message