From owner-freebsd-current Fri Nov 6 13:25:28 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA04887 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 13:25:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ceia.nordier.com (m2-20-dbn.dial-up.net [196.34.155.84]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA04875 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 13:25:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rnordier@nordier.com) Received: (from rnordier@localhost) by ceia.nordier.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id XAA03311; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 23:18:31 +0200 (SAT) From: Robert Nordier Message-Id: <199811062118.XAA03311@ceia.nordier.com> Subject: Re: ficl In-Reply-To: <199811062026.MAA00622@dingo.cdrom.com> from Mike Smith at "Nov 6, 98 12:26:36 pm" To: jkh@time.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 23:18:23 +0200 (SAT) Cc: chuckr@mat.net, mike@smith.net.au, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Mike Smith wrote: > > I'm not really sure what you mean by "net devices" > > either - how does one configure and use a typical NIC from the BTX > > environment? > > BTX has nothing to do with it. Again, there's no low-level NIC support > in the i386 code at the moment, but basically you provide a low-level > hardware driver, and then the IP stack in lib stand does the Bootp > Thing. From there, it's just another device, eg. > > 'load net:/kernel' > > will do "what you expect it to do". Intel has been working on a PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) specification which offers access to a NIC through something called UNDI (Universal Network Driver Interface). At one stage this seemed to promise BIOS support at a fairly similar level to the PC int 0x13 services provided for hard drives. Unfortunately, the spec has mostly been too fluid and confused (the entire API changed at least once) to warrant taking very seriously. -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message