[Etherboot-developers] hdprefix - Load etherboot directly from a harddrive

[Per D. J. <pd...@kn...>]

Hi all,

A few days ago I tried to get a development board up and running with 
Etherboot loading from a flashdrive (IDE interface).
The only thing I found was a depricated boot1a, which I didn't get to 
work (I might have done something wrong at that point).

Anyway, I decided to take the quest of making a IDE-bootsector prefix, 
so etherboot can be started directly from a harddrive.

I e-mailed with the original author of the code that I used as basis for 
this, just to be sure that there would be no Copyright issues - He 
agreed happily.

I have tested the patch on one system only, but I hope and think it will 
work on most systems - I wonder why it hasn't been made before; I 
probably have forgot to think about something... or it may already be 
supported, but I couldn't find any hints on google.

For a eepro100 driver:
* make bin/eepro100.hd
or
* make bin/eepro100.zhd (makeable but not tested on system)

The binary should be placed in the bootsector of the partition on question.
* dd if=/<pathtofil>/eepro100.hd of=/dev/hda2
If one wants it in the second partition. The partition has to be marked 
active, but I guess that is logical ;-)

I hope the patch is acceptable.
Perhaps it can even make it to 5.4.1? :-p

~Per