Re: [Etherboot-developers] Wake-on-LAN patch

[Ken Y. <ke...@nl...>]

|6) tulip.com is an etherboot .com file patched to search
|   ram for the block of memory placed there by the ipconf program.
|   Once it finds it, it constructs a dhcp reply packet in memory
|   and continues on, just as if it had received the packet from
|   the network server.

Change this to

|6) tulip.com is an etherboot .com file patched to call a BIOS service
|   to look for your flash data.
|   Once it finds it, it constructs a dhcp reply packet in memory
|   and continues on, just as if it had received the packet from
|   the network server.

What I'm saying is: don't patch Etherboot to search flash or whatever.
Rather, implement those services as new BIOS calls, then modify
Etherboot to make those calls. If those calls don't exist, then
Etherboot can proceed as normal. And it would work for .rom and .lzrom
ROM images too. Not everyone is willing to buy a 4 MB flash to boot from
.com files this way.  Encapsulating this capability in a BIOS call
allows for compatible solutions to the general problem posed by the TFTP
server and WOL extensions.

It's like the BIOS call to write a character to the console. Every BIOS
extension code could conceivably write directly to the video card.
Rather this is encapsulated in BIOS calls so that all programs can use
the service.