[syslinux] com32 ssh/telnet support?

[H. Peter Anvin]

On 08/12/2009 03:07 AM, Ferenc Wagner wrote:
> 
> Two-way network access to pxelinux would be somewhat complicated to
> add, but an output only network console, like netconsole in Linux,
> wouldn't be particularly hard.  Having a watchdog in the clients and
> access to the tftp server could get you a long way with this.
> 

Two-way console support wouldn't be all that hard to add, either.
However, because of the way the PXE stack works, it probably would have
to be a custom protocol at least in the near term.  Doing a conventional
stream protocol would require TCP, which in PXE requires one to bypass
the in-ROM IP stack and do one's own IP stack.  The most obvious way to
do *that* in the near term would be via gPXE.

Security is another matter, although the option of punting on security
or say "use a VPN" is probably feasible... if you're doing netbooting
you usually don't want to be on the unfettered Internet anyway.  Doing
actual ssh requires a crypto stack on top of everything else, so it's
pretty heavyweight in terms of code.

Again, none of this will, for example, give you access to the BIOS
status or setup, or anything else of that sort.  Something like AMT,
IPMI, or iLO *can* be used to do so.

	-hpa

-- 
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel.  I don't speak on their behalf.