[syslinux] kernel and initrd
Steve Glines
sglines at is-cs.com
Tue May 18 13:37:59 PDT 2004
The situation is this. The client has asked me to create this lab using
a special card that they have that acts like a remote console. It allows
a remote user to boot from their local floppy or a pseudo floppy (stored
elsewhere) - there is no provision for a CD or changing pseudo floppies.
The goal is to simulate an install via CD rom.
As far as I know all of the target machines will (these are different
from what I'm developing on) have 3c509 cards without a PXE rom so I
still need to boot off a floppy.
I once had a floppy (I can't find it now that I need it) that booted a
remote version of Red Hat's anaconda. It was a pure syslinux
implementation that installed the right net driver, did a dhcp request,
then prompted you for the URL of an anaconda implementation which I
think ftp'd the code into a ramdisk and installed Red Hat from there.
I'm trying to do the same thing but make it more generic. I just wish I
knew where that floppy was so that I could reverse engineer it.
Your idea of pxelinux is a good one. I didn't see a way to boot
etherboot from a floppy - am I wrong here? Can I use the zdisk the same
way I would use a vmlinuz?
Cheers
Steve
H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Steve Glines wrote:
>
>> What I have been asked to do is build a learning lab that will
>> install 3 different flavors of Linux on demand. That's why I need
>> syslinux and not etherboot. I need the menuing capability which
>> wetherboot doesn't appear to have.
>>
>
> Use Etherboot (or, if your network card have them, the existing PXE
> ROMs) strictly as a PXE driver and use it to boot PXELINUX. Then you
> can use all the menuing available in PXELINUX.
>
> Either that, or you'll probably need a higher capacity medium like a
> CD-ROM.
>
> -hpa
>
--
Steve Glines
voice: 978-952-6340 www.is-cs.com
fax: 978-952-8524 145 Foster Street
cell: 617-549-7274 Littleton MA 01460
I'm a complex person. I have a real and an imaginary part.
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