Re: Test status of Netboot 0.9.0d with Realtek 8019/8029/8139

[gero@gkminix.han.de (Gero Kuhlmann)]

Hello,

In article <3.0.1.32.19990215040804.006d2558@pop.netaddress.usa.net> you wrote:
> 1. Using Realtek 8029

I'm personally using a RTL8029 card without any problem.

>     Has the previous Netboot option to generate minimal kernel (~16KB) that
>     takes out the ARP support been removed in 0.9.0d version?  If so then all
>     the kernels will be generated as "standard" version?

ARP support will always be included into the bootrom with version 0.9.

>     Is there some special thing that needs to be done to have
>     8029 and 8139 show up under list of known network adapters?

Yup, you need to copy the drivers into the appropriate directory:

	/usr/local/lib/netboot/netdrvr/pktdrvr for packet drivers
	/usr/local/lib/netboot/netdrvr/ndis for NDIS drivers

makerom will only print those cards for which it can find a network driver,
either packet driver or NDIS driver.

>     Is the support for NDIS2 and UNDI fully included in 0.9.0d?  Where can i
>     get the UNDI drivers?

There are no UNDI drivers available yet. The format implemented to include
UNDI drivers is netboot specific. It is an extension to allow implementation
of generic network drivers like it is done with etherboot, but just more
flexible. You will probably never find a commercial UNDI driver suitable
for netboot.
NDIS driver support is fully functional in version 0.9. It works perfectly
(and a little faster than with the packet driver) for my RTL8029.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your test report. Regarding your mentioned problems,
I will have to take a closer look at them. Unfortunately, I don't have any
network card available for testing apart from an RTL8029. One problem seems
to be the implementation of hardware interrupts, which is conforming to Intel's
PXE specification, and that specification is, in one word, terrible. A hard-
ware interrupt has to go through many different parts of the bootrom, and I
assume that many problems reported to me so far are part of this hardware
interrupt handling. I will have to get some more network cards for further
testing.

gero.

-- 
What a hell of a heaven it will be, when they get all these hypocrites
assembled there!			- Mark Twain
--
Gero Kuhlmann, Hannover     0511/6497525 (Voice)        gero@gkminix.han.de
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