On Sunday 31 August 2008, Jan Keymeulen wrote:
> On Sun 31 August 2008 om 14:30:11 GMT Al Johnson told us:
> > On Saturday 30 August 2008, Andreas Zuber wrote:
> > > Am Samstag 30 August 2008 10:06:01 schrieb Torfinn Ingolfsen:
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > I just got a strange idea into my head. So I'll ask a possibly silly
> > > > question:
> > > >
> > > > Is it possble to netboot a Neo FreeRunner? Can you netboot at all
> > > > over usb? Does uboot have netbot support?
> > >
> > > I know uboot from an other embedded system, where it was installed, and
> > > it is able to download a kernel from a tftp server to the memory. This
> > > is done by the "tftpboot" command.
> > > There is also a "dhcp" command so uboot can get an ip for the network.
> > >
> > > But i dont know if uboot can handle the usb as a network device.
> > > Someone has already tried this?
> >
> > I think it can be done, but you will now need a custom kernel. When
> > moving the USB ethernet gadget driver from built-in to module Andy Green
> > (IIRC) mentioned that someone needed it builtin for netbooting with
> > rootfs on NFS.
>
> Booting with rootfs on nfs != netbooting.
>
> Netbooting gets a kernel from a tftpserver, while rootfs on nfs requires
> a kernel already loaded. The problem here is that it's uncertain whether
> uboot can handle the usb network interface (or wireless or bluetooth).

I know the distinction well as I netboot diskless workstations, but my 
recollection of the exchange is that someone _was_ netbooting. Looking back 
at the thread I may have been reading things into it due to my experience 
netbooting a Neuros OSD, as the boot method isn't explicitly mentioned. 
Andy's last comment suggests it may not be supported, but judge for yourself 
starting about half way through this thread:

http://lists.openmoko.org/nabble.html#nabble-td641300

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