On Sat, 6 May 2000 woods@weird.com wrote:

# [ On Friday, May 5, 2000 at 21:18:07 (-0700), Grey Wolf wrote: ]
# > Subject: re: INSTALL kernel size 
# >
# > 1.  I'd actually like to be able to boot from an Exabyte!
# 
# yeah, that'd be OK too -- doesn't it work now though?

<shrug> Last time I tried to make a boot tape it didn't work.  Besides,
we need a bootable stand-alone copy, unless the kernel can boot into
a small space of core - enough to give a dd.

# > 2.  PCs can boot from the net -- if they have a BIOS chip on the NIC.
# 
# So I've been told.  I found an ISA NIC with a PROM on it in a surplus
# store junk box for $5, and I do have friends with PROM burners, but I've
# also been told that you need a special PROM for each type of OS.

Haven't heard _that_ one.

# Anyway,
# until someone writes a PROM for a PC that has a sensible command-line
# interface and which can talk to a serial console, I'm not too interested
# in playing games with PCs -- I'll use them where I have to but not
# otherwise.  (OpenFirmware/i386 anyone? ;-)

I hear it's in progress (OpenBIOS).

# > I somehow don't think it's possible since the EXB-8200 can't provide a
# > blocksize smaller than 1k, and the Suns require a 512-byte boot block
# > size.
# 
# While it is true that the physical block size of EXB-8200 format tapes
# is 1024 bytes, the drive can do variable-length reads (though I don't
# know if the boot loader knows how to request one or what happens by
# default in the way the boot loader formats its read request), and the
# logical block size can be set to almost anything you want within certain
# limits.  According to the user's manual I have the 8200's minimum
# logical block length is one (1) byte (and indeed you can send a SCSI
# command requesting that the drive report the maximum and minimum
# supported logical block sizes).  Given my still limited understanding of
# Exabyte tapes I'd guess that if you write a boot tape using the expected
# block size then the PROM should be able to read it without any problem.

On a Sun, if that's true, then I'll just head home and see if I can
put a bootloader on a tape :-).

# 							Greg A. Woods


				--*greywolf;
--
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