From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1I36w0-0004se-TU for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:02:04 -0400 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I36vy-0004r1-DM for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:02:02 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I36vv-0004pv-Vi for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:02:01 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I36vv-0004po-NP for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:01:59 -0400 Received: from m15-111.126.com ([220.181.15.111]) by monty-python.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I36vs-0006zg-HP for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:01:59 -0400 Received: from localhost (unknown [123.49.207.242]) by smtp1 (Coremail) with SMTP id wKjJCx1ATjH91YBG_5qZBA==.48433S2; Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:01:50 +0800 (CST) Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:01:26 +0800 From: Bean To: The development of GRUB 2 Message-ID: <20070626090126.GA2579@ws3.vdp.com> References: <20070626055844.GA29262@aragorn> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20070626055844.GA29262@aragorn> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) X-Coremail-Antispam: 1U3Yxn0WfASr-VFAUDIcSsGvfJTg7C26xCjj4IEI4klw4CSww Aac4AC62xK8xCEY4vEwIxC4wC2zVAF1VAY17CE14v26r1j6r15Mx02cVAKzwASzI0EjI02 j7AqF2xKxwAv7VC0I7IYx2IY67AKxVWUJVWUGwCF72vE52k0Y41lYx0Ex4A2jsIE14v26r 1j6r4UM7C26IkvcIIF6IxKo4kEV4ylc2IjII80xcxEwVAKI48JM7AC8VAFwI0_Jr0_Gr1l b4IE77IF4wAFIxvE14AKwVWUJVWUGwAqx4xG64xvF2IEw4CE5I8CrVC2j2Wlb7Iv0xC_Ar UanT9S1TB71UUUUUUa7-sFnT9fnUUI43ZEXa7IUjomh5UUUUUFnT9fnV15pF1rKF45uF4x urWxZF4rKrWkXoXrpr45Xwb_CFyrJaykCw4DXFnF9w40yF43ur9xXFZxAry8Ja1q9r4jq3 4rJF98uF1kuFyfJF18Wa1xCr1kuryUX3sxW3Wj9 X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 Subject: Re: netboot X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GRUB 2 List-Id: The development of GRUB 2 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:02:02 -0000 On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 07:58:44AM +0200, Robert Millan wrote: > > In the wiki there's a link titled "GRUB2 netboot development" that points > to: > > http://www.inma.ucl.ac.be/~guffens/grub2_netboot/index.html > > (broken link) > > Anyone knows what did this contain? Is there uncommitted work for network > support there? Who's guffens? I found an old article on this subject: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/2006-05/msg00020.html It seems that vincent guffens has ported a glue to bind grub2 and etherboot together. However, it's no longer maintained, and the patch is nowhere to be found. But porting etherboot to grub2 may not be that difficult after all, we can use the driver from etherboot, and the glue code from Grub Legacy. The problem is etherboot used in Grub Legacy is very old (5.0.5). The data structure has changed a lot since then, so the glue code needs to be modified accordingly. There is another method, that is to rely on PXE sevice. I have written a PXE driver for grub4dos, it uses real mode service provided by PXE stack to access remote files, for example, to load a kernel from server, uses: kernel (pd)/vmlinuz init (pd)/initrd The advantage of this methid is that it doesn't rely on network card, the PXE stack handles difference internally. The disadvantage is that the stack is present only when booting from PXE ROM (hardware rom or software rom from etherboot). BTW, pxelinux also uses this method to access files. -- Bean