On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 08:00 PM, Jeff Walther <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Over on the evil PC side of things, netboot was (is?) accomplished > with a network card with a ROM on board. The ROM handles the basic > functions needed to get the machine running far enough to access the > network and find the network boot drive. Most quality PC network cards incorporate a PXE boot ROM that includes a minimal TCP/IP stack and a TFTP client. In theory, the boot ROM code makes a normal DHCP request for an IP address; that request includes the PXE extension and an appropriately configured DHCP server will reply to the PC with the address of a TFTP server. The TFTP server will provide the PC with a suitable boot image. Most of the current PXE implementations assume that the boot image will be a minimal DOS boot system which is to be used for maintenance purposes such as BIOS flashing or hard disk imaging. A Windows 95/98 system can be booted from a (fast!) network server and there is at least one company that has a mechanism that supports NT; I'm not aware of anyone that has actually *shipped* a net boot solution for Windows 2000 or XP. A different obsolete PC net boot system was used for NetWare servers and the IPX protocol > Obviously, it's kind of tough to netboot a computer if there's no way > for it to bootstrap itself up far enough to check the network. > iMac's handle this with Open Firmware in their ROM, I believe > (assuming they do diskless net booting). My understanding is that modern Mac net booting uses the BootP protocol rather than PXE; BootP net booting has been used for years with Unix variants. The mechanism is similar to PXE. > Older Macs would need some > kind of firmware to tell them to look to the network for their boot > volume and to supply network protocol software. > > Were there special network cards for the SE and Plus that had the > additional code built in? It *might* be possible to write a boot ROM that replaces the existing ROM on a card for an SE or SE/30, but I think that they only understand booting from disk devices. I vaguely remember reading in a developer note that net booting was introduced at the time of the LC and IIsi; the Sonic Diskless Mac solution definitely supported LC and Mac II NuBus ethernet cards. The Plus and Classic would be a no-no because the SCSI ethernet adapters require a device driver before they are recognised. If anyone in the UK comes across any old kit from Sheffield University, it would be worth checking ethernet cards for an alternative boot ROM. I know that the Leicester AppleCentre provided a Sonic net boot solution there in the early/mid 1990's. Phil -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
