Re: Netboot + Advantec

[Ian Leonard <ian@eonsw.demon.co.uk>]

On 01-Jun-99 RunkelEDV wrote:
> Dear Ian,
> Why do you prefere the use of the SSD ?
> Is your System not ready to place a bootprom in ?
Sadly there is no facility for a boot rom. The traditional boot rom is replace
by the SSD. There is a program that is supposed to load a bootrom image into
the SSD but it doesn't even begin to work and Advantec seem to have no interest
in supporting it. There is no documentation.

> Which network-card are you using ?
It is built into the unit. It is NE2000 compatible
 
> As far as I understood your problem, you can use your SSD in two different
> modes:
> a) Flash Rom        emulation mode
> b) Block device     emulation mode
> 
> You donīt know how to use a), and you know that b) does not work with linux.
> So what remains is the use of the DOS Disk. Please tell me if i am not right
> with this interpretation.
> 
> Here are two different concepts:
> 
> Use BootRom-Disks
> -----------------------------
> If the SSD can emulate a Disk, how do you init it ? Could you write to it
> with the rawrite-utility ?
> If so, rawrite a BootRom-Disk to it and hope that it boots.

I tried this. If you use rawrite and the reboot, the boot program starts to run
(you see the initial logo) but the in crashes. I assume this is because the
first block is correct but there is confusion as to where the second one is. I
do not fully understand this. My assumption is that although the SSD is
supposed to emulate a floppy, the bios calls are being used by Linux at a lower
level that the special SSD routines.


> Use a DOS Loader
> ---------------------------
> You have to create a DOS-Programm that loadīs and executes the Code of a
> bootprom.
> You have only 512k space for the DOS system files, the fatīs, the prom-file
> and the loader.
> Because the code of an etherboot-prom is smaller then netboot, think of
> using it.
> May be Ken Yap can assist you in writing the loader.

Yes. Someone did say to me that such a utility existed (maybe in the BSD code)
but so far I have been unable to find it.
 
> In no case you should use a concept that has no support for downloading the
> kernel; this seems to be
> very inflexible.

I agree, but it was they only way I could make it work.

> 
> Greetings, Stefan

Thanks for your help

--
Ian

Ian Leonard                  

eMail: ian@eonsw.demon.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1865 765273
Fax: +44 (0)1865 765280
19 Stapleton Road
Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LX, UK

Please ignore spelling and punctuation - I did.
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