Re: net booting using standard manufacturers bootroms

[John Finlay <finlay@stooges.ml.org>]

I originally thought that this waaas the way to do it but after reading
through all the docs I could find on syslinux, LILO, making boot floppies,
etc., I still can't figure out how to create an image file that would boot
using the MBA. I suspect that I have one of the myriad of options specified
incorrectly but I can't figure out which.

I finally settled on syslinux and made a floppy that would boot (slowly) from
the server and run with nfsroot. However when I created an image file of that
floppy using imagegen /w a: nfsboot.img (my version of imagegen does not have
a /t option so that may be a problem), the debian boot complains that my
machine does not have enough low memory. If I hold down the shift key to force
booting, it issues the Loading message and then hangs.

I'm missing some key piece of information to make this work.

Thanks

John

Jens Ruehmkorf wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Feb 1999, John Finlay wrote:
>
> finlay >  Where should I look for info on net booting linux using the
> finlay >  bootroms available from the NIC card manufacturers? I have a
> finlay >  3com MBA bootrom for my 3c905B-TX but no info on how to boot
> finlay >  linux using it.
> You can use the Managed Boot Agent from 3Com, but that is not very
> elegant.  I prefer to use netboot, but here is a brief how-to:
> 1. You have to create a linux-bootdisk with the kernel you prefer using a
> MS-DOS formatted disc (use mformat to format the disc and syslinux to make
> a linux-bootdisc).  imagegen can`t cope with minix and such filesystems.
> 2. Use the program, that came with MBA
> imagegen /t a: image.dat
> (it`s running under DOS).
> 3. transfer it to your /tftpboot-directory.  That`s it.
>
> To avoid having to use DOS whenever you want to build a new image:
> 1. Save the last image --> bootImage
> 2. dd if=/dev/fd0 of=bootImage bs=1024 seek=1
> where /dev/fd0 is your new bootdisk (you created using mformat and
> syslinux)
>
> This is the only way I found out to use something else than netboot, but
> I myself prefer netboot.
>
> finlay >  There seem to be projects for netbooting that require burning a
> finlay >  PROM but I'd prefer not to do that.
>
> Besides using MBA burning an EPROM is the only other way to boot Linux.
> To build an EPROM with netboot, use the packetdriver, that came with your
> card (3c90xpd.com) together with the switch /d.  That should work.
>
> Greetings
>
> Jens
>
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