There is no need to compile anything with Etherboot as long as you go to www.rom-o-matic.net. If you want/need to boot via PXE on a machine which doesn't support PXE, get the RBFG.exe file from a w2000 or w2003 server or from argontechnology. It does not support that many ethernet NICs, though, and it doesn't work too well within VMware. Mit freundlichen Gruessen - Best regards Harald Milz Senior Consultant CC CompuNet AG & Co. oHG A part of Computacenter plc Hoerselbergstrasse 7, 81677 Muenchen, Germany Phone: +49 (0)89 45712-161, Fax: -331, Mobile: +49 (0)173 3866604 E-Mail : Harald.Milz@computacenter.com Visit us on the Internet: http://www.computacenter.com Visit our Online-Shop: http://www.compunet.de/connect This email is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not disclose or use the information contained in it. If you have received this mail in error, please tell us immediately by return email and delete the document. suse-autoinstall-return-1508-harald.milz=computacenter.com@suse.com on 16.01.2004 16:16:14 To: <suse-autoinstall@suse.com>, <marshall28@juno.com> cc: Subject: Re: [suse-autoinstall] Need Help Creating a Network Boot Floppy -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/NFS-Root.html may be your best source of information. "True" network boot: I did this years ago using Slackware, before SuSE was big. I used a package called "Boot-ROM" written by Gero Kuhlmann. It is really a package for writing Boot ROMs for putting into network cards if you have an EEPROM burner but you can use it just loaded onto a floppy too. It scans for an IP address then attempts to load a kernel over tftp using compiled in parameters. Also see http://www.etherboot.org/ as recommended on the PXE Linux homepage (http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php). You'll need to do some compiling either way but etherboot looks like the most maintained. At the time I was doing it (6 years ago) etherboot was a bit basic as I remember. Possibly a simpler/better option: If you are sure that you won't ever want to distribute new kernels to your thin client PCs (i.e. they are not up the side of a mountain with no postal service! :) then you could just put a kernel directly onto a floppy disk for them. This is covered in the above HOWTO. Checking my SuSE 8.2 kernel I see it's got the relevant IP options discovery and NFS root code compiled in. To use this you'll need to pass the correct parameters to the kernel at boot time - see nfsroot.txt in /usr/src/linux (you have to have the kernel_source.rpm package installed). To go this route you'll also need to install LILO or GRUB on the floppy. If none of this works (one problem is that there may not be enough room on the floppy disk) you'll probably need to compile a kernel, which isn't all that hard really - there are many HOWTOs on how to do this. If you get nowhere finding stuff, I do have a disk image of a precompiled boot-rom for floppy disk if you want it, ask me and I'll email it directly to you but it will only work with NE2000 compatible NIC though which is probably little use. Regards, Carl Peto Linux Support Bookman Associates ----- Original Message ----- From: <marshall28@juno.com> To: <suse-autoinstall@suse.com> Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 6:29 PM Subject: [suse-autoinstall] Need Help Creating a Network Boot Floppy

I've got my tftp/dhcp server up and running but need help preparing a boot floppy which will start the install for me. I want to be able to just boot off the floppy, contact the tftp/dhcp servers and start the install. The attached document is very similiar to my configuration, except a few ip address differences. If someone knows how to create a network boot floppy using this configuration, please respond.

thanks marshall

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