Larry Loen
01-04-2002, 05:17 PM
If anyone figures out how to actually netboot, this would be a good place to report in.
What I know:
[list=1]
The ECS K7S5A board has built-in netbooting. I have seen it try to do it. But, I had nothing available on the other end to finish proving it works.
It looks like the 810LMR would "probably" netboot if someone would flash the BIOS. But, has anyone gone the last mile and done it? This is more or less possible with any on-board LAN with flash capabilities.
There is a website somewhere (lost the link, but google should turn it up) that claims to have the ability to create Linux-style boot images for diskettes that "rehearse" a netboot that could later be put into ROM or a BIOS flash (if room). However, one could simply do a netboot-off-diskette and leave behind the power consumption of a hardfile (diskettes consume very little power when not activated).
There was a site (link lost) that sold ROMs for some of the many LAN cards that have a socket for it. IIRC, the LAN card plus ROM was maybe 35 dollars.
No one has admitted to getting the "mother ship" side of this working. That is, the boot source machine with (usually) DHCP, TFTP and like protocols. Security is especially interesting as TFTP is pretty vulnerable and would only need to be activiated on the fairly rare day one booted up the satellites.
Samba versus NFS needs exploring and discussion (function, security).
One could run out of RAMDISK, but one would presumably need to occassionally copy some sort of checkpoint file "upward" to the mother ship. Or, is using Samba or NFS straight up more sensible? Might this vary by the project?
[/list=1]
In short, this is not like unicorn sighting, more like narwal sighting -- something so far rare, but definitely real.
What's needed are actual reports from someone who made it all work.
What I know:
[list=1]
The ECS K7S5A board has built-in netbooting. I have seen it try to do it. But, I had nothing available on the other end to finish proving it works.
It looks like the 810LMR would "probably" netboot if someone would flash the BIOS. But, has anyone gone the last mile and done it? This is more or less possible with any on-board LAN with flash capabilities.
There is a website somewhere (lost the link, but google should turn it up) that claims to have the ability to create Linux-style boot images for diskettes that "rehearse" a netboot that could later be put into ROM or a BIOS flash (if room). However, one could simply do a netboot-off-diskette and leave behind the power consumption of a hardfile (diskettes consume very little power when not activated).
There was a site (link lost) that sold ROMs for some of the many LAN cards that have a socket for it. IIRC, the LAN card plus ROM was maybe 35 dollars.
No one has admitted to getting the "mother ship" side of this working. That is, the boot source machine with (usually) DHCP, TFTP and like protocols. Security is especially interesting as TFTP is pretty vulnerable and would only need to be activiated on the fairly rare day one booted up the satellites.
Samba versus NFS needs exploring and discussion (function, security).
One could run out of RAMDISK, but one would presumably need to occassionally copy some sort of checkpoint file "upward" to the mother ship. Or, is using Samba or NFS straight up more sensible? Might this vary by the project?
[/list=1]
In short, this is not like unicorn sighting, more like narwal sighting -- something so far rare, but definitely real.
What's needed are actual reports from someone who made it all work.