Syslinux - Jan 2005 - Multi-NIC network boot floppy+cd+hd+com with PXE and NBI support: does interest?

Hi!

I'm preparing what should be a general "network boot" solution for
the
ones that needs to do network boot on PC without BIOS support / ROM chips.

It supports both PXE (like pxelinux.0) and NBI images.

I've prepared a precompiled multi-driver image that can autodetect and 
handle nearly 30 PCI and ISA NICs.

My "remote boot kit" contains the same image in 4 version:
- floppy
- CD
- HD
- DOS .COM executable

I'll publicly relase it on thinstation.sf.net website after Etherboot 
5.4.0 production release, but even if built with the 5.3.12 developemnt 
version of Etherboot, it seems pretty usable and useful.

At the moment, who is interested can send me a mail (please DON'T write 
in the mailing list), I'll send the package to him by mail (380Kb); 
later, a short report of your tests would be appreciated...

Bye,

Paolo

-- 
Paolo Salvan
_______________________________
X v i s i o n
Via Vigonovese 123A
35127 - Padova - Italy
+39 049 8709427 tel
+39 049 8709426 fax
www.xvision.it

Paolo Salvan wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I'm preparing what should be a general "network boot"
solution for the
> ones that needs to do network boot on PC without BIOS support / ROM chips.
> 
> It supports both PXE (like pxelinux.0) and NBI images.
> 
> I've prepared a precompiled multi-driver image that can autodetect and 
> handle nearly 30 PCI and ISA NICs.
> 
> My "remote boot kit" contains the same image in 4 version:
> - floppy
> - CD
> - HD
> - DOS .COM executable
> 
> I'll publicly relase it on thinstation.sf.net website after Etherboot 
> 5.4.0 production release, but even if built with the 5.3.12 developemnt 
> version of Etherboot, it seems pretty usable and useful.
> 
> At the moment, who is interested can send me a mail (please DON'T write
> in the mailing list), I'll send the package to him by mail (380Kb); 
> later, a short report of your tests would be appreciated...
> 
That would be very cool indeed.  Once you feel it's tested it would be 
great to post it publically; I'd like to put a link to it on the 
syslinux webpages.

	-hpa

> I'm preparing what should be a general "network boot"
solution for the
> ones that needs to do network boot on PC without BIOS support / ROM chips.
I have prepared a similar floppy. It works with *all* PCI NICs supported 
by Etherboot and is able to install Etherboot to a hard disk.

You can download it here:

http://etherboot.anadex.de/
It is based on FreeDos, syslinux (ethersel.c32) and etherboot CVS.

Known problems:
ethersel.c32 auto-detection does not work with VMWare but everthing else 
should work. If you want to use VMWare either force a specific driver or 
select "INSTALL Etherboot to the hard disk / modify this floppy" from 
the boot menu and then "modify this floppy - hide menu, make the NIC of 
this PC the default".

Please test it and report the results!

Cheers
Alex