From: becker@super.org (Donald J. Becker) Subject: Re: SLS Distribution over net... Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 15:38:24 GMT
In article <1993Apr1.045813.17940@sfu.ca> rchen@fraser.sfu.ca (Robert Chen) writes:
>In article <1pcuueINN8sb@no-names.nerdc.ufl.edu> alexei@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Alexei Rodriguez) writes:
>>Hey folks. Simple problem, complex solution?
>>Here at UF there is a setup that will install Mach
>>on a PC by just popping a NIC (network interface card) in the
>>PC, booting, connects to net and installs over the net.
>>
>>Has anyone done something similar? Any ideas on the best
>>way to implement this?
>>
>
>Join the NET channel. This has been kicked around a few times - there
>was even some code written. The long and short of it is wait for
>Fred's new net stuff and Donalds's ethernet drivers to make it into
>the standard kernel. With the new run-time configuration support
>this will be fairly easy to implement.
>
>This is also part of the reason SLS's ethernet config stuff isn't as
>'nice' as SCO's. All in good time.
It's mostly done. I've been working on my ethercard driver, so the
next release of the SLS kernel should do a more complete job of
ethercard autoprobe. When Fred's changes are released there should
also be run-time configuration. (I've already written some code for
run time configuration, it's just a few extra lines, but there's no
point in putting it in if Fred's code will change the mechanism.)
Thus Linux will have the best of both worlds -- a complete autoprobe
for magic network boot disks, and a user-level configuration if you
have an unusual setup (you have a card with software-selected
transceivers or IRQ lines).
The remaining code to be "fixed" is the wretched user interface to
fdisk. It should
o accept a partition description from a file or the command line,
o provide a few example partitions based on the disk size, and
accept a simple "yes, I want that one"
o have commands to clear all partitioning info, split the disk
into N partitions (hiding the "extended" partition dirt)
o have an option to run mk*fs for everything new
This really needs to be written, and it would help current as well as
new Linux users. I'll do it if no one else does it, but I can't get
to it until after the network code is stable and released. Someone's
chance to contribute it just waiting...
-- Donald Becker becker@super.org Supercomputing Research Center 17100 Science Drive, Bowie MD 20715 301-805-7482