Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 30 Aug 1995 05:45:48 -0700 (PDT)
From:      bmk@dtr.com
To:        rsnow@txdirect.net (Rob Snow)
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Booting "semi"-diskless?
Message-ID:  <199508301245.FAA03823@rainier>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.950829220637.29162B-100000@oasis> from "Rob Snow" at Aug 29, 95 10:23:18 pm

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

> I'm looking for some pointers on booting some of the machines around here 
> "semi"-diskless.  The machines in question run dos and windows all day 
> long but, they're idle in the evening.  I cant go around and put root/boot 
> partitions on them and I cant put a boot bios on the cards for obvious 
> reasons.  What I'd like to do is stroll around whistling and innocently 
> put a floppy in them press reset, have them fire up FreeBSD.  When I'm 
> through I just halt the machine and remove the floppy.

> I've gathered, from TFM and some guessing that I need to do something like:

> 	on floppy ( wild ass guess )
> 		minimum kernel with NFS (?)
> 		something to do with bootp (?)

The approach I used was to use netboot.com (a DOS program) from
/usr/src/sys/i386/boot/netboot.

> 	on FreeBSD box
> 		setup for as a bootp server
> 		export /usr and some SWAP space for each (?)

You also will need to set up tftpd and have a NFS-exported root for each
machine.

Check the FreeBSD Handbook and/or FAQ.  One or both has a section on
booting diskless in this manner.




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199508301245.FAA03823>