From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "H. Peter Anvin" Subject: Re: Univeral Protocol Driver (using UNDI) in Linux Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:15:19 -0700 Message-ID: <44D78337.40109@zytor.com> References: <292693080608070339p6b42feacw9d8f27a147cf1771@mail.gmail.com> <44D7579D.1040303@zytor.com> <292693080608070911g57ae1215qd994e03b9dd87b66@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-net-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed" To: Jan Engelhardt Cc: Daniel Rodrick , Linux Newbie , kernelnewbies , linux-net@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Jan Engelhardt wrote: >> Agreed. But still having a single driver for all the NICs would be >> simply GREAT for my setup, in which all the PCs will be booted using >> PXE only. So apart from performance / relilability issues, what are >> the technical roadblocks in this? > > Netboot, in the current world, could be done like this: > > 1. Grab the PXE ROM code chip manufacturers offer in case your network card > does not support booting via PXE yet and write it to an EPROM which most > PCI network cards have a socket for > > 2. Use PXELINUX, boot that with the help of the PXE ROM code > > 3. Put all drivers needed into the kernel or initrd; or send out different > initrds depending on the DHCP info the PXE client sent. > There is a program called "ethersel" included with PXELINUX which can be used to send out different initrds depending on an enumeration of PCI space. -hpa