Re: Have novell rpl ipx boot for linux

[kees <kees@schoen.nl>]

Hi

The old bootrom loading from Mars-NWE works. I did this a few times
myself.

Kees

On Wed, 28 Aug 2002 jt@npdaxp.fuw.edu.pl wrote:

>
> me (jt):
> >> There is MARS (Martin Stover's Netware Emulator) which can run on Linux
> >> and it can be used for Netware RPL boot. You do not need RPL.COM or NLM.
> you:
> >Have you actually did this? I has allways though NOVEL RPL would not
> >work without some specialized daemon, and that mars did not provided
> >those services...
>
> Ops, the name "RPL" seems to be confusing: Novell called by the name
> their old boot rom (notice program RPLFIX which was used to fix image
> for this boot method), and IBM use the same name for another method,
> which is supported on Novell by the RPL.COM/RPL.NLM. The latter uses
> frame 802.2 (NOT 802.3 used be old bootrom).
>
> Looking on the Web I found there is some RPL daemon for Linux, I do
> not anything about it and its reliability, it is available on:
> 	http://gimel.esc.cam.ac.uk/james/rpld/index.html
> Docs say it has performance problem if kernel has no 802.2 frame support,
> it has patch (with severe warning) for 2.2 kernel; 2.3/2.4 kernels have
> the 802.2 frame. It is something completely different from old bootroms:
> configuration file specifies what Ethernet card requests are to be replied
> and what files are to be loaded for every card. It is listed in:
> 	http://www.daemons.kiev.ua/miscellaneous/
> Yet another URL on this topic: http://www.zigamorph.net/ibm8227/rpl.html
>
> I was unable to find any documentation on IBM RPL protocol details.
>
> >And about net$dos.sys, can I build it from any bootable floppy, just
> >using dd?
>
> Note: this all information below is for old Novell's bootrom.
>
> For old DOS, it could be done this way, new requires applying RPLFIX
> to resultant image. Novell provides DOSGEN utility which makes the
> net$dos.sys from a bootable floppy (requires no subdirectories on the
> floppy), probably this removes "holes" (areas not used by any files)
> to make the image smaller. I wrote program which I called NCPDISK, it
> allows mounting of such an image on DOS (note on Linux you can mount
> the image using "loop" option) to be able to fix it without using
> floppy (and need to keep original floppy used to make the image);
> problem: it is not RPLFIX-aware. RPLFIX moves original boot sector
> to end of the image, and writes own boot sector containing code which
> prevents memory used by bootrom from overwriting during DOS boot,
> knowing it one may write program which un-RPLFIX-es the image.
>
> Jerzy Tarasiuk
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