Netboot Mailing List (by thread)

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Large RamDisk Support




>I have been using the mknbi utitily to create a kernel + ramdisk nbi for a
>diskless machine I'm working on. Are there any limitations on the size of
>the ramdisk that can be used ?

Yes, there is at least one limitation: there is a 64k block limit on
TFTP due to the 16 bit block number field. This gives a maximum NBI size
of 16 MB or 32 MB depending on whether the field is treated as signed or
unsigned (should be unsigned, but there is buggy code out there). While I
think Etherboot can handle the rollover (it has never really been tested),
many tftpd's cannot. You can mitigate this by using the large block size
option with tftp giving you 64k * 1.5kB = about 90 MB, so I think you
can just make it. You'll probably need to use the tftpd distributed as
source provided with Etherboot.

I don't know if NFS booting (also supported in Etherboot) would help.
===========================================================================
This Mail was sent to netboot mailing list by:
Ken Yap <ken@nlc.net.au>
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.



For requests or suggestions regarding this mailing list archive please write to netboot@gkminix.han.de.