Re: [Etherboot-developers] NBP Help

[Rajesh S. P. <raj...@ta...>]

Hi,
   I have gone through some part of this Etherboot docs. For me it seems
that(Looking at documents) etherboot and PXE are same.
   Is it true? if not what are the difference between Etherboot and PXE.

Looking forward to receive replies.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Rajesh

"Eric W. Biederman" wrote:

> "Rajesh Shantaram Patharkar" <raj...@ta...> writes:
>
> > Hello All,
> >      Thank you very much for your replies. I think this is the first mailling
> > list where i got proper replies.
> >      I am not going to develop any NBP, But will be developing PXE stack. So
> > wanted to know when NBP it is downloaded at 0:7C00 addr, how it goes, what it
> > lokks for execution. Is there any standard of flow of execution for NBP? how
> > does it executes and all that.
>
> Almost by definition there is no standard flow.
>
> But since you are limited to 32KB, generally the next step is to download
> a kernel.
>
> If you want to look at the open source implmentations there is:
> etherboot,
> syslinux,
> and a few others.
>
> >
> >    As you mentioned, it unloads what not needed.
> > >NBPs can use as much PXE as they need to. The UNDI network driver is
> > available to NBP. So is DHCP/TFTP but
> > >it's normally broken; use the etherboot code.
> > Also you have talked about Etherboot PXE Loader which unloads all PXE stack
> > takes the control and executes, loads everything of its own (own stack) and
> > suppose that it should use driver that is already present.
> >     So as mentioned in the PXE specs, when NBP is downloaded it checks the
> > environment needed and if REQUIRED environment is not there it should return
> > control back to BIOS.
> >    Now I would like to know what is this REQUIRED environment, what exactly it
> >
> > looks for to executes, From your mail, for etherboot it seems that NBP has its
> >
> > own stack (DHCP, TFTP/MTFTP, etc) which it uses to download remaining things.
> > Is it same for all others.
> >
>
> Etherboot is probably unique in that regard.  As the usuall use for etherboot
> is not being loaded from a boot rom but instead being the boot rom
> and loading other programs.  Etherboots success is a direct reflection
> of what a poor job PXE has done in developing a useable standard.
>
> Eric