Re: [discuss] Netcard poll with etherboot

[Marty Connor <mdc@thinguin.org>]

On 2/10/2000 11:15 AM Kent Snook kent.snook@echostar.com wrote:
>We use etherboot and bootp to boot a variety of servers and Xterms. We 
>have two different NICs in use, DE500 (tulip) and 3C509. 
>Is it possible to create a single bootable floppy that will boot both 
>types of NICs?? 

I believe Etherboot floppies are NIC specific just as Etherboot ROMs are 
NIC specific.  So you'd really need to know what kind of NIC is in the 
workstation you're booting, and have 2 different boot floppies.  If you 
were booting 2 tulip clones, you might able to use the same floppy, but 
the 3C509 and DE500 are completely different drivers.

>Don't want to load a kernel off of the floppy, just 
>bootstrap and get everything off of the LAN.

This should work.

>Also, how can I decrease the timeout that occurs when tftp packets are 
>not received properly by a booting workstation? It appears to be about 
>5 seconds by default. 

I've never tried it, but in etherboot-4.4.x/src-32/Config you could add 
the
-DCONGESTED flag to your CFLAGS:

CFLAGS+=      -DCONGESTED

and then you could edit etherboot.h and change the TFTP_TIMEOUT value to 
be lower.  Right now it is:

/* total retransmission timeout in ticks */
#define TFTP_TIMEOUT            (30*TICKS_PER_SEC)

This should allow you to retransmit faster.

You should probably ask this sort of question on the Etherboot list 
(netboot@baghira.han.de).  Check out the Etherboot 
(http://www.slug.org.au/etherboot/) home page for information on how to 
join that list.

I hope this helps you.  Please let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Marty

---
   Name: Martin D. Connor
US Mail: Entity Cyber, Inc.; P.O. Box 391827; Cambridge, MA 02139; USA
  Voice: (617) 491-6935, Fax: (617) 491-7046 
  Email: mdc@thinguin.org
    Web: http://www.thinguin.org/


===========================================================================
This Mail was sent to netboot mailing list by:
Marty Connor <mdc@thinguin.org>
To get help about this list, send a mail with 'help' as the only string in
it's body to majordomo@baghira.han.de. If you have problems with this list,
send a mail to netboot-owner@baghira.han.de.