Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 10:42:29 +0100 From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.tfs.com> To: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A question on diskless boot Message-ID: <9207.850642949@critter.tfs.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 15 Dec 1996 09:42:23 %2B0100." <199612150842.JAA07695@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>
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In message <199612150842.JAA07695@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>, Luigi Rizzo writes: >Hi, > >sorry to bother you but I posted a similar question to the mailing >lists and got no answer. > >One of our labs has a number of machines with a network card (21140 >based, if_de driver) which is unsupported by netboot. I am looking for >some alternative ways to setup these machines as diskless, i.e mounting >root at the very least from a remote server. There is some preliminary support for PCI devices, but probably only for NE2000 kind of stuff in the netboot code. I've never heard from anybody if it even works. >I am willing to work on it, and would just like a bit of advice. Let me tell you what I would do: Make a kernel with a builtin MFS filesystem, just like the one on boot.flp. Boot this kernel from wherever you want (floppy ?) Add generic code to the ethernet support in the kernel so that one can say ifconfig -bootp de0 > /etc/bootp.reply or possibly: bootp de0 > /etc/bootp.de0 where /etc/bootp.de0 would contain something like: ip=192.168.2.44 sm=255.255.255.0 ... so you could use it in the rest of the setup too. Adding the bootp code shouldn't be too hard I think I've just never gotten around to do it. Alternatively, you can hardcode the IP# on each floppy, but that seems like more work for me actually... Finally, you may want to try to see if you can get any kind of boot-proms for the de0 cards, and use whatever method they use to get live. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | phk@FreeBSD.ORG FreeBSD Core-team. http://www.freebsd.org/~phk | phk@login.dknet.dk Private mailbox. whois: [PHK] | phk@tfs.com TRW Financial Systems, Inc. Power and ignorance is a disgusting cocktail.
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