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
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suse-autoinstall-return-1508-harald.milz=computacenter.com@suse.com on
16.01.2004 16:16:14
To: ,
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:
To:
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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