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

[Vasil V. <vas...@sy...>]

On Fri, 7 Dec 2001, Ken Yap wrote:

> >Hmm. Then it isn't intentional that etherboot always boots the first
> >NIC of that type in the system?
>
> If it does it's by accident. A case in point is my firewall with two
> 3c509 NICs. Currently Etherboot always boots the first detected NIC,
> using 3com's recommended probe algorithm, which resolves the address of
> all 3c509s on the bus one bit at a time, and is the same algorithm used
> in the Becker driver. So I have to be careful to put Etherboot on the
> first detected NIC on the system. Otherwise I could send out the request
> to the cable modem, which would give me an address, but would be useless
> for TFTP loading.

I don't see problem here if all NICs are tried. Moving to the next NIC doesn't
have to be only because of failure in probing of the current one NIC. It could
be that the TFTP loading failed and then you move on. This may, of course,
slow down the booting in some cases.

> Without a preference for the home NIC, when the code is on the NIC slot,
> one could have a situation where adding a NIC to the system upsets a
> working boot setup.

In theory it may slow it down but it shouldn't upset it otherwise. In practice
because of buggy systems, it may. I would make the default the first to boot
from the home NIC, and if it fails, try the rest. If this was mentioned
before, I seem to have missed it.

> And as stressed before, this should be a compile time option.

Options are always a good thing.

Vasil