Package: boot-floppies Version: 20030404 Severity: normal (Referring to the woody/intel boot floppies as in http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/3.0.23-2002-05-21/)
The various tftpboot.img files in the different flavour directories are just copies of the corresponding linux.bin files. These are kernel images, which (according to the corresponding kernel-config files and my experiments) contain only a few NIC drivers compiled in; the rest, including drivers for NICs found in modern PCs are compiled only as modules. There is no separate root filesystem (root.bin) for TFTP installs, so one has to use the generic one, which (perhaps because of size constraints) does not contain these drivers as modules either. Therefore one cannot initialize the network card during installation without first loading the driver module from a non-network media -- that is, a true network (really diskless) out-of-the-box installation of Debian is not possible, altough the installation document suggests otherwise. What should be done is either one of the following: a/ Create a separate kernel for TFTP installations, which would contain all the NIC drivers compiled in, not as modules. b/ Create a separate root filesystem for TFTP installations, which would contain the NIC drivers as modules. -- System Information Debian Release: 3.0 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
