From: Hendrik Sattler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 22:22:06 +0200
> Does initrd or the like work with network boot? How does the card > actually do network boot when not being able to operate without > firmware (chicken-egg problem)? If the network card cannot handle > network boot: why would you want such a crap? The openfirmware forth code on the card is executed by the system boot firmware. > It's good for ISDN cards as there are many modes to operate in but for an > ethernet card? It's been happening for a long time. Way back in the Acenic days, the firmware is used to work around a bug in the DMA unit of the card. This is not uncommon. Many current generation cards also do TCP Segmentation Offload in firmware as well. Although gradually most of this stuff is being done in the chip itself, but bugs are harder to fix as a result. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
