Re: Problems with netboot 0.7.2

[markus@infoscape.com]

mark spowage writes:
 > three cheers.. netboot has worked like a charm for our very low end
 > 386sx motherboards and ethernetcards. The next step here is for a
 > stand-alone machine to boot out of flash. ? Can anyone point out how a
 > hack to netboot could make booting out of flash memory work.. perhaps
 > simply putting in a different routine for tftp.. a lot of the booting
 > assemly code leaves me guessing :)
 > 
 > ?? how about a program that could simply read out all the physical memory
 > in a "booted" machine.. then "burn" the kernel in "rom" so the machine is
 > always "on". There is a short man page on mem,kmem etc.. So when the machine
 > is powered on.. it just jumps into kernel start up or.. even better jumps
 > into the application.

You will probably have to write your own boot loader, to accomplish
booting from a flash PROM card. If your card comes with developer's
documentation, then this should be very easy to do. I doubt, that
there is much code that you could leverage from "etherboot" or
"netboot", but in general, booting a Linux kernel is not very
difficult. Booting the entire system, will probably require you to
either write a block device for Linux that accesses your flash card,
or loading a RAM disk from your flash card.

Can you send more information on the technical specs of the card? I
can probably help you (or at least get you started), if can dig up
developer's documentation.



Markus

-- 
Markus Gutschke                         Internet: markus@infoscape.com
Infoscape, Inc                          Phone:    +1-415-537-3778
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Disclaimer: The above message represents my personal opinion; It does
            not constitute an offical statement by Infoscape!

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