[Etherboot-developers] image file format and BIOS use

[Tania O. <ta...@ce...>]

Hi

I need some advice.  I want to use Etherboot to boot linux on a custom
board which does not have a standard BIOS.  Basically I have to write
those portions of the BIOS needed.  If the arch/i386/boot code is
omitted from the linux kernel, the BIOS needs of linux are minimal, and
I think I can handle the needs of the Etherboot code itself, but it
looks like the mknbi-linux program prepends code which uses BIOS calls
to the linux kernel image.  (Please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't
studied it thoroughly yet.)  I would prefer to avoid the extra BIOS
support if possible.

I see there are a lot of different image formats supported by the
Etherboot code.  So far I have only seen the documentation for the
tagged image format (mknbi) available via the Etherboot home page.  Can
anyone give me suggestions/ideas on the best file format to use or the
best way to go about this?  Basically the kernel file I want to boot is
a plain vmlinux, except I need a way to specify kernel parameters (i.e.
command line).  Also if you could point me to any links which describe
the other file formats I would appreciate it.

Thanks for your time,
Tania