Christoph Plattner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> There is a well documented packet, that is able to load data fields
> diskless into RAM (netboot-0.9.0) and supports PXE and BBS standards.
I don't know what netboot is. Can you tell me? Is netboot a second stage
boot loader (that is, something that runs -after- it has been downloaded
from a bootserver), or a first stage boot loader (something that normally
runs from the network card EPROM)?
PXE is a set of functions in ROM. Its function is to download an image from
the network and to supply it with whatever functions is convenient for further
booting other images from the network (it does this by providing ethernet
card independant functions for receiving TFTP images, and in general to send
or receive data on the network).
> Load stage2 into the memory at 0x8000 which can
> be done with the netboot or etherboot boot ROM and
> my script building up a netboot header.
Or PXE. I've done this. It's simple. In its simplest form, you just
add a header to pre_stage2 (since PXE loads the image onto 0x7c00);
_start:
ljmp $0, $0x8200
. = _start + 0x600
> So I developed a new idea, I want to implement and test this
> weekend. The GRUB should donwload a file like
> '/tftpboot/grub/menu.hosts' from the server. This files
> includes a pair of IP addresses and menu.lst files like:
For at least somewhat of a compatibility with other systems you should use
this only if there's no alternative. In bootp, you should be able to get
a generic option tag from the server, can't you? For example, in bootptab;
foobar:ha=08002b124dbd:ip=10.10.10.15:T0=/tftpboot/grun/menu-foobar.cfg
Then the GRUB image could look at the T0 variable in the bootp response to
see which menu file to use. In DHCP, you should use option #135 for this,
since that is what is used in other systems booting diskless clients
(for example, bpbatch).
