Re: [Etherboot-developers] Q: Multiple drivers.

[Donald J C. <dj...@ci...>]

Ken Yap wrote:
> 
> >> The interface to the drivers is rather poor, it only takes the first NIC
> >> it finds. Ideally it should enumerate all the NICs it can boot and
> >> choose a good default or give the user a choice (one of multiple NICs of
> >> the same or different models).
> >
> >If I can give my 2p based on discussions with Peter Lister.
> >If you are booting '0 or '00 of machines you don't want a user's choice.
> >Instead it will be nice to have etherboot send DHCP requests on all NICs it
> >can and chooses a NIC from the ones it receives response on. Some of the NICs
> >may not be connected or connected to different networks. User's interaction i
> >s
> >OK as long as it can be automatic as well.
> 
> I agree that user interaction isn't right when you want unattended
> booting.  I'm not so sure that sending out requests on all interfaces is
> the right policy either. An example is my firewall machine. If it sends
> out a request to the cable modem it will get an ISP assigned address,
> but this is useless for remote booting.
...

If only one of the NICs is connected to a net with a DHCP server configured
to respond to Etherboot DHCP requests, then it shouldn't be too much of a
problem.  Dealing with choosing among several DHCP responses to pick the
right one might not be trivial, but it should be doable.  Making it all
a compile-time option makes great sense, though.

-Don

--
Don Christensen       Senior Software Development Engineer
dj...@ci...         Cisco Systems, Santa Cruz, CA
  "It was a new day yesterday, but it's an old day now."