Subject: Re: NFS diskless boot improvement
To: None <tech-kern@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu>
From: Wolfgang Solfrank <ws@tools.de>
List: tech-kern
Date: 03/18/1994 13:06:31
> >   tftp is used to fetch the file "123.45.67.89.SUN3", which
> >   we then execute. this file is the secondary boot loader.
> >   (the bootrom can be very small -- i've written a lance-based
> >   bootrom that is under 8K of m68k c/assembly code.)

Small nitpicking:

The file is called "7B2D4359.SUN3".

> It was easy to write a boot
		 ^
		read?
> file with tftp, we really didn't feel like implementing the whole RPC/XDR
> bit.

If you use the Sun scheme of booting, you already need the RPC/XDR stuff for
bootparam. Of course you could use bootp instead.

And if you have RPC/XDR, nfs is much easier than tftp (with the eventual
exception, as Adam pointed out, that you have tftp in rom).

> > boot -a can do the right thing with IP/path specifications.. it cannot
> > handle hostnames. I have a vague memory that Wolfgang's bootrom code
> > had BIND in it... that's not a very good idea though.
> 
> There is NIS...Sun's secondary boot files support it because you can use
> hostnames in the bootparams map.

This was the reason why my (actually it's Ted Lemon's) code contained (parts
of) BIND. You want to enter servers by name, not by ip addresses, even the one
where you get your kernel from. 

--
ws@TooLs.DE     (Wolfgang Solfrank, TooLs GmbH) +49-228-985800

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