Re: [Thinstation-general] IBM NetVista n2200 / Rebuild Thinstation kernel?

[Trevor B <tr...@ba...>]

Bryan,

don't know why, but I did a little digging...

The n2200 supports tftp. Why don't you set it up as a normal bootp 
operation ie: run a tftp server and put the thinstation.nbi file in the 
tftpboot directory (or if you are using windoze, the defined tftp root 
directrory) and point the 'Boot file server directory and file name' 
parameter at this file.

Better explaination in the README.IMPORTANT file (I would expect that 
bootp aligns with etherboot & not pxe, but you could try either/both 
approaches).

Trevor B

Bryan wrote:

>Hello,
>I've been trying to get Linux to run on these boxes for awhile now, pretty
>unsuccessfully. I'm still pretty much a linux newb for the most part, but I
>can get it to work with enough Google searches, :p
>
>Anyways, all I need for these boxes to do is boot and run an RDP client like
>rdesktop (Provided audio also works). (The native OS allows for java apps,
>and there is a java RDP client, but the native OS blows and takes forever to
>load up.)
>
>IBM's website is hardcore LAME. These things are discontinued, and many docs
>are 404s and "We're sorry, these must have been horrible implementaions of
>thin clients, so we tried to erase any evidence of their being." Apparantly,
>I could buy the Windows CE.NET updgrade, for $70 or so, but I'm really set
>on getting these up on my own terms now.
>
>So, heres what I tried:
>These boxes are National Semiconductor Geode based (GVLX 233MHz). 2 USB,
>audio and video and internal CompactFlash slot. The CF is used to boot the
>OS in case the network is not available or the box is configured as a
>peer-peer configuration. They have a boot rom programmed to load a linux
>kernel, so what I did was edit the build file for ThinStation and then
>./build, copy the vmlinuz-2.4.24 to the CF card (formatted as ext2
>filesystem). I edited the n2200's boot settings, set to boot from CF card
>and pointed it to the kernel file. Success! Except it reads the file and
>then quits: "Unable to read image" or "Bad image file" (Forgive my memory at
>the moment, it was earlier at work and im at home now). Either way, it
>wouldnt boot. I googled for 'n2200 kernel' and apparently the kernel has to
>be named "kernel.2200". Alright, so I renamed it and tried it again. Same
>"Bad Voodoo" error message. It needs to be in some special IBMNazi format...
>
>Frustrated, I hit up the IBM site for the Nth time. Finally, I found
>SOMETHING. Its some kind of set of utilities to deploy RedHat 6.2/7 or
>Turbolinux servers and have the clients boot and download thier kernels. The
>docs that were supplied indicate that you need the linux kernel source, the
>provided kernel patches, and then you recomplile the kernel. Then it asks
>for RH 6.2 CDs to copy RPMs from. I dont want to set up a boot server
>though, just get a kernel that the N2200 will boot with. (Technically, they
>should be the same. Network boot or boot from CF, it should be the same
>kernel).
>
>What cought my eye is the "ramdisk-Netvista" and other similar sounding
>patches. The docs don't say what they do, but I'm assuming they are there to
>make the kernel acceptable for the boot rom to load. I don't really know
>much about compiling kernels and patches and such, so now I'm kinda stuck.
>How do I make something like ThinStation but with these IBM kernel patches?
>
>Sorry for the long post but I think it was neccessary to describe the depth
>of my situation,
>thanks for listening
>bryan
>
>
>
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