Re: [Etherboot-discuss] booting etherboot direct from NT boot.ini

[James H. <jam...@be...>]

> On Sun, 28 Jan 2007, James Harper wrote:
> > I've read about booting Etherboot from the NT bootloader via an
instance
> > of GRUB installed on the NTFS filesystem, but does anyone know what
> > would be involved in making it bootable directly from boot.ini, eg
> > "C:\etherboot.znt"=3D"Etherboot" or something like that?
>=20
> You can't do it by directly loading a bootsector file, because it
would be
> too small.  However, it might well be possible to trick ntldr into
loading
> Etherboot by creating a .exe-format Etherboot, storing it in the
> System32 directory and adding a boot.ini entry with
>=20
>   /kernel=3Debkrnl.exe

Hmmm... I'll try it if I get time.

> > Failing that, can anyone suggest why a Compaq USDT D500 won't even
load
> > eepro100.zpxe via tftp??? I suspect it's just a crappy version of
the
> > intel boot rom, but a workaround would be nice.
>=20
> What goes wrong?
>=20

First it tries to get eepro100.pxe, which syslog says is okay but no
data appears to be transfered, and then it tries to load a file who's
filename is a single character of 0x1c (ctrl-5 I think). I ended up
creating a symlink of that character to eepro100.pxe and now it's
working, but it is a bit of a kludge.

The other thing I noticed is that when it tries to get eepro100.pxe, it
does so with an option of tsize=3D0, and then when it tries to get '^['
(or whatever that single character is), it does so with a blksize=3D1456
(or something like that).

Seems strange. I think I have exhausted all options of upgrading the
ROM. I am using atftpd and haven't yet tried any other tftp daemons as
it works with everything else.

Thanks

James