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Subject: Re: Booting "semi"-diskless?
To: rsnow@txdirect.net (Rob Snow)
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 05:45:48 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.950829220637.29162B-100000@oasis> from "Rob Snow" at Aug 29, 95 10:23:18 pm
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> 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.