[syslinux] MSCDEX over NDIS ethernet

Darryl L. Miles darryl at netbauds.net
Fri Sep 2 19:31:36 PDT 2005


I would like to implement a replacement MSCDEX driver (based on the 
replacement in FreeDOS SHSUCDX 
http://johnson.tmfc.net/freedos/shsucdx.html and SYSLINUX) however 
instead of talking to disk BIOS calls or PATA chipset I would like it to 
talk to the NDIS driver and act as a TFTP client simply forfulling 
application get block requests through TFTP.


Its not clear where the ISO9660 CD filesystem is handled, maybe within 
the existing MSCDEX itself already and BIOS calls are used to get disk 
blocks from the CDROM unit.  If possible I'd like to mimic A:, C:, D: 
(cdrom) supporting FAT, VFAT, ISO9660 backing images.


Goemetry information and other meta data could also be obtained (maybe 
via TFTP too in a simple structured accompanying file to the backing 
image).  I may even wish the TFTP client handle a media change event 
(triggered on another UDP port) so the TFTP client refreshes meta data 
and block requests and emits the same application errors as no CD in 
drive would.


I wish to be able to run 1st and 2nd stage DOS installer programs 
seamlessly this way as well have have a "tftpdisk" that can present any 
ISO just as-if I had booted from an el-torio CD on the machine itself.


Maybe somebody already knows of such a project or driver that already 
exists for this purpose ?

Or maybe somebody can point out some floor in the idea ?  It seems like 
80% of the ground work is already done between the two projects.

Thanks


-- 
Darryl L. Miles





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