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NETBOOT boot code problem



Hi,
 
I was not able to boot with NETBOOT without a graphics
card installed. I had the same problems now with some
very old VGA card (ET3000 based) installed, and I think
I figured out where the problem is.
 
With the VGA card installed, I received an error message
"Loader error: data", so I checked the boot code. It seems
to be generated when a RAM space checking is done.
The address space used seems to be the problem.
 
In the bootimage code in file ldram.inc, the address space for
interrupt vectors $E0 to $EF is used to store 'passing values'.
This address spaced is normaly only used by operating
systems and IBM ROM Basic. Unfortunately, the old VGA
BIOS seems to use this vector adress space, too. Maybe
(this is only an idea) without a graphics card installed, the
main BIOS tries to boot some BASIC code from this
address or something else.
 
Anyway, it seems to be a problem to use this address
space to store values - it simply isn't a safe address.
 
Gero, could you please check whether you could
use some other address space to store the values?
I think it would be possible to boot a VGA-less client then.
 
Holger


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