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

[<ke...@us...>]

>   - What if (as an option) we specified that the ROM had to match
>     a particular MAC address as well as a particular card type 
>     before it was an acceptable card to boot from.  

Marty, I'm sorry, I'll have to strongly disagree with you here. I think
this cure is worse than the disease. While this is nice for bespoke ROMs
for NICs, it makes it necessary for the user to find out the MAC
address, have it put into the ROM, and put the ROM on the right NIC. It
makes mass programming of ROMs impossible. I know it would do wonders
for the stock price of rom-o-matic though. :-)

I think the outline solution we arrived at is acceptable.

1. By default Etherboot sends requests on all interfaces it can
configure.

2. If BOOT_HOST_NIC_ONLY is defined AND if the code was started from
NIC ROM (as discovered from the ROM address, now you know why loader.S
saves the ROM segment address early in the game), then send the request
on only the NIC which holds the ROM.

That way people like me who make Etherboot EPROMs won't get puzzling
surprises when extra NICs are added to a computer, and people like Peter
and Eric who boot clusters and treat Etherboot as an app which can be
added or removed at will from Flash and disks can have their cake too.