Network Card Boot ROM's?

jabaroon

Hi,

Anyone got any ideas on network cards and the boot rom sockets that a lot of them seem to have?

I was interested in trying to network boot a PC (diskless workstation) using the new Intel WFM specification (specifically PXE). However, information seems to be really scarse!?!?!

Any shop I have gone into (Peats, Maplan etc...) all have cards that say "Option Boot Rom support for PXE"....when I ask the staff about getting the optional ROM, I typically get a blank stare!!!

Has anyone done anything like this / got any experience using PXE???

Thanks,
Jab

PS - Am looking to create a Windoze diskless workstation (as opposed to a Linux one)

bricks

Usually if the machine has an onboard Ethernet interface it has the Boot-Rom on it allready. You can usually select boot from network in the bios.
You'll then need a DHCP or BOOTP server to supply the boot image.
Its a bit of hassle getting it working.
The links below should help a bit.

http://www.bootroms.com/catalog/default.php
http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php

Capt'n Midnight

clusterknoppix acts as a PXE remote boot server - and you can choose lots of NIC drivers.

Getting the prom/eprom is messy - might be better getting a card with the functionality builtin - you can also get drivers on a floppy that allow you to PXE boot

The main problem with windoze is that it ain't exactly designed for diskless operation - Win95 (and I don't mean OSR2) was the last version that had a net setup built in - also windows likes to write to various places at odd times.

BTW: This won't really help you with licencing - m$ try to rub your nose in it wrt client licences for remote devices.

http://www.etherboot.org/

You could cheat and use a compact flash card or bootable USB memory stick.

jabaroon

Thanks Guys, am investigating the links etc....
Will post back with results etc...

Ta,
Jab

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.zlocksoft.com/english/diskless98.htm
RPL Windows-98 diskless workstations on a NT or Win2000 network

http://videoshaker.com/index.html.old
Diskless Windows 98 remote boot with Linux

http://www.q-systemsonline.com/ripling_win1.html
Remote Boot of Win95 from OS/2 Warp Server
(lots of info on win9x setups.)

http://www.nelliott.demon.co.uk/distributed/windows_diskless/how_to_build.html
How to build a Windows98 based DC Farm.
(ie setup a dblspace file and run win from it - uses a boot floppy disk)

http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-list/2000-10/850.html
Xserver, WINE, MYOB on Linux
ie. boot up with diskless Linux & try to run windows apps using WINE

Alll seem to suggest that Win98 SE is to be avoided - use an earlier version !

jabaroon

Thanks Capt'n,

Have spent a good bit of time playing around with this. I really want to get W2K or XP to diskless boot, but am not having much luck. The only solution that is claimed to work is by http://www.altiris.com, but i anit forkin out the cash for their software, it only a pet project!!!

Looks like my only alternative is to switch to a real operating system -- Linux! I know I can do what I need with that (well kinda).

The whole purpose of this exercise is that I plan to purchase one of those fancy new slim cases and plonk it beside the TV. Im gona get a Fanless one so that it is completely slient. If I can also make it diskless, then ZERO sound!!

Cheers,
Jab

Capt'n Midnight

BTW: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=128629
SUMMARY
For several reasons, you cannot boot Windows NT from a diskless workstation. Primarily, Windows NT requires a local hard disk for the paging file, and RPL requires the real mode drivers (RPLBOOT.SYS, RPLDISK.SYS, etc.) to load during the boot process.


http://www.emacinc.com/operating_systems/windows_xpe.htm
Hardware Requirements - Windows XP in-BED-'ed

CPU: Computer with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; Pentium II 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended

RAM: 128 MB abytes (MB) of RAM or higher (256 megabytes recommended)(64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)

Flash: 200 megabytes or more of available storage space

Video: Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor

User Interface: Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

But a 200MB flash device is not a diskless workstation is it really

jabaroon

Wonder how these folks are doing it?....

http://www.bootix.com/us/price/bxppro.shtml

Pitty they dont have a downloadable evaluation version!

Jab