Fwd: new NILO snapshot

[Ken Yap <ken@nlc.net.au>]

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• To: nilo@nlnet.nl
• Subject: new NILO snapshot
• From: Rob Savoye <rob@darkstar.welcomehome.org>
• Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 20:06:53 -0600
• Reply-To: nilo@nlnet.nl

  I have a new snapshot available for folks here on the
NILO list to play with.  You can get it from either the
slow main site ftp://welcomehome.org/pub/nilo/snapshots,
or the new, faster site (hosted by VA Research) at
ftp://nilo.on.openprojects.net/pub/nilo/snapshots. You'll also need the
dhcp-3.0b1pl0.tar.gz file (if you want better PXE compliance) and of
course oskit-990402.tar.gz. which is the OSKit package which NILO uses
for it's Linux device driver framework. Although not required, I also
have a copy of the Intel modified tftpd server with all the multicast
and different port extensions. (which aren't all supported by NILO yet)

  For an easier demo, I included a nilo-linuxbin-990803.gz, which is a
Linux executable (I tested it on RedHat 5.2 and SUSE 6.0). This requires
the environment variable ETHERIF to be set to your ethernet card, usually
eth0. There is also a nilo-image-990803.gz, which is a floppy disk image. Use
dd to write the uncompressed image to a disk, and it'll boot nilo. These are
currently hardwired for a Tulip card, because I'm not using the default port.
OSKit has a bug in autodetection, and I run an old coaxial network here still.
These have full debugging turned on, so expect alot of screen output. (which
from the floppy can be redirected to the first serial port) Your best results
will probably be by building from source.

  This snapshot contains the new PXE support. Currently I've implemented
many of the PXE API functions. These are used by NILO, which should work
with little change on a PXE compliant boot ROM, or be one as well. (I'm
working towards testing it with bpbatch now) NILO is using it's own PXE
compliant data structures and functions. (as far as I can tell...) When
booted off a floppy, or as a Linux task, it'll do a DHCP/ARP/TFTP session,
and download a tagged image file. It also has support for many of the
Intel added PXE options for DHCP. A big change since the last snapshot
is that all UDP reading is polled, rather than interupt driven as required
by the PXE spec. The floppy version also works with GDB. When booting
into GDB mode, boot the floppy first, and connect with gdb via a "target
remote /dev/ttyS?" second.

  What this snapshot doesn't do is actually do anything with the downloaded
file yet. It also doesn't support all the MTFTP extensions either, although
there are hooks for all the ones currently not implemented. I also haven't
tested it as a PXE ROM yet, but that's next on the list.

  If you have any troubles with NILO not finding the correct port on your
ethernet card, you'll have to hardcode it into oskit/linux/src/drivers/net/*
to work. Another hack is to boot the Incom PXE demo boot disk, and then use
that to "floppyboot" nilo. I've currently done all my testing on a tulip
card, and I know the vortex "boomerang" card doesn't work at all. This is
a problem in the OSKit release I used with autodetection.

  There have also been some changes to the web site, which now has a mirror
on a much faster connection. This has been dead all week, but it's on a
machine donated by VA Research for open source projects. So the main site
is at http://www.welcomehome.org/nilo, and the new mirror is at
http://nilo.on.openprojects.net. If this machine turns out to be more stable
than it has been the past week, I'll make that the primary site. CVS is
still on the main site till VA Research gets that machine fixed as well. 
Guess I'm not the only one suffering through dying hardware... 

	- rob -
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