[syslinux] TFTP & Network after booting kernel

[H. Peter Anvin]

Alex Ninaber wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> We are trying to make our own NFSroot via PXELINUX without the e1000
> ethernet module compiled into the kernel. All works fine, we have a ramdisk
> that can setup networking from information provided by $ip, however I would
> like to download the specific e1000.o via tftp before inserting it into to
> the kernel. Since ramdisks are static I rather not have the situation where
> we have to recreate the ramdisk everytime we install a new kernel. So the
> question is: can I download via tftp the Ethernet module using the same or
> similar mechanism provided in PXE while being in the ramdisk? We use busybox
> in our ramdisk, so we have a relative large number of commands available,
> a.o tftp, ifconfig.
> 
> In fact, what I would like to do is to download a specific script instead of
> the e1000.o module so on the server site we can control things dynamically.
> 
> If using tftp without having the Ethernet module inserted in the kernel,
> what possible other options do I have?
> 

This is really what initramfs is for -- instead of a ramdisk, just use 
one *or more* cpio archives.  Now, initramfs is still new in 2.6-test 
and a lot of the infrastructure isn't quite there yet, but work is ongoing.

	-hpa