From: ellis@nova.gmi.edu (R. Stewart Ellis) Subject: Re: Linux on a diskless workstation? Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1993 11:44:31 GMT
jmward@ucrengr (jonathan ward) writes:
>Jamie Honan (jhonan@kralizec.zeta.org.au) wrote:
>: In <1qlql8INNa7i@flash.pax.tpa.com.au> hart@flash.pax.tpa.com.au (Leigh M Hart) writes:
>: >>Is it possible in its current form or with few modifications to run
>: >>linux on a diskless workstation? I.e. a remote server feeds the
>: >>workstation everyting from the kernel to all mounted filesystems?
>: >>Thanks for any info.
>I don't know much about setting up a remote boot, but I have this
>suggestion: Since every IBM-PC AT clone ever made comes with at
>least a floppy disk drive(the diskless term actually being
>something of a misnomer - in this case only referring to the lack
>of a hard drive) why not exploit this fact, and write a boot disk
>that consists of a small driver that initalizes the ethernet card,
>finds the network, and then loads the kernel off the server? All
>the server would need is to have a daemon running that would
>recognize a call from a workstation node, and then it would send the
>appropriate code to the station. The boot driver would take care
>of loading the kernel into memory. If the boot image were
>specially prepared for the workstation(s), it would load and then
>call back on the network to NFS-mount the appropriate file systems,
>perhaps a designated workstation root(or the server root).
>It seems to me that all this would need(besides the boot disk) would
>be a few modifications to the kernel code to include a NFS mounting
>driver, and redirection of where the kernel looks to find the
>filesystems. Note that two kernel images would be needed on the
>server - one for the workstations and one for the server boot -
>unless some clever person could devisea kernel that would check
>for the presence of a hard drive, and would proceed to boot off
>the network if it didn't find one.
>Just an Idea - Please EMail me if you have any comments, or
> reasons why this may or may not be feasable(I'm still
> learning, and am happy to be corrected :-)
> -Jonathan Ward
> University of California, Riverside
>--
>Email to:
> drdrums@watserv.ucr.edu
> drdrums@csld.ucr.edu
> jmward@cs.ucr.edu
>**Use above addresses for reply**
If you have not done so, read up on tftp and bootp, both of which are
sometimes used for retrieving kernels for bootless workstations. On Suns or
DECs or HPs the code exists in the ROM to request a kernel. On PC UNIXes
you should not need to retrieve the kernel if you have already booted from
floppy all you should have to do is get an IP address from bootp, then mount
all of your directories with NFS. It should be relatively simple to create
a boot disk that knows how to do this. If I am oversimplifying this please
disabuse me.