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Date:      Thu, 13 Aug 1998 10:14:17 -0700
From:      Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
To:        Luiz de Barros <luiz@nlink.com.br>
Cc:        freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: DISKLESS and FLOPPYLESS remote serial boot. 
Message-ID:  <199808131714.KAA00775@antipodes.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 13 Aug 1998 11:43:39 -0300." <Pine.BSF.3.96.980813112905.3912F-100000@mirage.nlink.com.br> 

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> Dear All,
> 
> We are planning to install in some of our clients an small router with no
> HardDisk. We plan to use PicoBSD but one of our fears is having a floppy
> disk inside the disk drive all the time, subject to disk errors, CRC
> errors, etc.
> 
> Is it possible to have the following setup?
> 
> One computer with network card, BOOTPROM, no floppy and no Hard Disks. 
> One serial conection connected to a remote freebsd PPP server.  I want to
> load a small bootstrap from the PROM and download the FreeBSD boot code
> from the serial line ( PPP + TFTP ), the same way it is done with bootp+
> TFTP loading the boot code from the ethernet bus.
> 
> Is it done anywhere?
> Is it possible?
> Could anybody point me some tips?

I don't believe that anyone has a PPP bootrom. 

I've deployed floppy-based systems in a number of environments, with 
generally good results.  You want to make sure that the drive is sealed 
to prevent dust problems - I normally just put some masking tape over 
the front of the drive.

If reliability is a really serious issue though, I would suggest that 
you look at purchasing a flash memory card which emulates a floppy 
drive at the BIOS level.  This has no moving parts, cannot be written 
to by the operating system, and can be easily upgraded if necessary.

-- 
\\  Sometimes you're ahead,       \\  Mike Smith
\\  sometimes you're behind.      \\  mike@smith.net.au
\\  The race is long, and in the  \\  msmith@freebsd.org
\\  end it's only with yourself.  \\  msmith@cdrom.com



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