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From: Marty C. <md...@th...> - 2000-12-01 02:31:34
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On 11/30/2000 8:30 PM Ken Yap ke...@nl... wrote: >>Etherboot lilo images do not work with LOADLIN, but if you're using DOS, >>you can generate a .COM file from Etherboot, and just run it (in DOS) to >>start the boot process. You can generate and download such a .COM file >>from rom-o-matic.net. >Ah, I take you have tried it and it didn't work? Any idea what loadlin's >beef is? I haven't looked deeply into it, and we could probably figure out how to make it work, but here is what the author of the old "masq" contrib file had to say in his README file: "Loadlin does not work, becauce it depends on the original linux setup code (which is'nt present in netImage) for interrupt-vector handling." Now, it is likely that we could figure out which code is needed, take it from a kernel, assemble it in, and off we go. Of course, why not just use a .COM file anyway, since it isn't the case that we can parse or use most of the options being passed via LOADLIN anyway. Which does however get me thinking -- it would be very nice if there was a way to pass arguments to Etherboot. Something like: - stuff some parameters in a known memory loc and set a signature to indicate the block is real - load etherboot into memory - Etherboot starts, and if the flags are where we think they should be (and if a certain compile option is on) Etherboot processes the args and uses them instead of using BOOTP/DHCP. This would allow a sequence of the form: A:> PASSARGS @ETHERBT.CFG A:> TULIP.COM Etherboot checks some known RAM region for config, which of course we store just before running Etherboot from, say FREEDOS. If it finds the arg block it uses it for whatever it needs to. Heck, you could even have a batch file that, based on user input selects the proper driver from a directory full of .COM files. Thus people could decide at boot time what Etherboot config they want and what server they need. Note that Etherboot only looks for and uses the state if it is specifically requested to do so, and the argument parser could be very simple, and completely under a conditional. If the args aren't there, Etherboot could always use DHCP/BOOTP to continue. LOL, I know this wasn't the question you were asking about, but I was talking to Jim McQuillan about this the other day, and it occurs to me that it would not be hard to add, and would allow people to boot in FREEDOS, load a config, and let Etherboot load a kernel without any DHCP server. A win in some environments. Once the kernel is loaded, we're on the air. So, what do you think? Does it have potential? Regards, Marty P.S. Even more deviously, one could make the .COM version of the Etherboot loader put the args in memory for us, and then jump to the ROM code, which checks for them based on some flag. Not that I have anything agains DHCP or BOOTP servers, but sometimes it would be nice to get the kernel and go :-) --- Try: http://rom-o-matic.net/ to make Etherboot images instantly. Name: Martin D. Connor US Mail: Entity Cyber, Inc.; P.O. Box 391827; Cambridge, MA 02139; USA Voice: (617) 491-6935, Fax: (617) 491-7046 Email: md...@th... Web: http://www.thinguin.org/ |
