Etherbooting & M-Systems Flash

["Dvir Oren" <dviro@hotpop.com>]

Is anybody trying to etherboot a computer with M-Systems 
DoC2000?

There is a serious problem in doing this.  M-Systems' flash 
requires to load something into the extended BIOS area, in order 
for the BIOS to recognize the flash, and be able to boot off of it.  
However, it turns out that this is exactly the place that Etherboot 
loads its loader.  What this means is that everytime I try to 
etherboot, the system reboots itself before sending the BOOTP 
request.  As of LILO v21, there is a compile time macro that allows 
LILO to load into the 0x8000 area and not the 0x9000 area, which 
allows LILO to live happily with the flash.  However, to allow 
etherboot to do the same requires much more work (and I'm not to 
fond of assembly, anyhow).

Has any of you encountered such a problem?

(BTW:  There is a simple solution to the problem, though it is quite 
ugly.  You can disable the flash for etherbooting, and enable it 
again after etherboot has completed.  This, of course, requires a 
user's intervention, which is not exactly my intention.)


---------
Dvir Oren <dvir@lucidvon.com>
Lucid VON Ltd.     <http://www.lucidvon.com>
9 Saloniki St.,        Tel-Aviv       Israel
Tel:  +972 3 644 3038  Fax:  +972 3 644 3039
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