Re: Univeral Protocol Driver (using UNDI) in Linux

[Alan Shieh <ashieh@cs.cornell.edu>]

> Umm ... pardon me if I am wrong, but I think you implemented a "UNDI
> Driver" (i.e. the code that provides implementation of UNDI API, and
> often resides in the NIC ROM) . I'm looking forward to write a
> "Universal Protocol Driver" (i.e. the code that will be a linux kernel
> module and will, use the UNDI API provided by your UNDI driver).

I wrote a universal protocol driver that runs in Linux, and talks to an 
extended UNDI stack implemented in Etherboot.

>> At minimum, one needs to be able to probe for !PXE presence, which means
>> you need to map in 0-1MB of physical memory. The PXE stack's memory also
>> needs to be mapped in. My UNDI driver relies on a kernel module, generic
>> across all NICs, to accomplish these by mapping in the !PXE probe area
>> and PXE memory in a user process.
> 
> 
> I'm pretty newbie to PXE, but I I think !PXE structure is used to find
> out the location & size of PXE & UNDI runtime routines, by UNIVERSAL
> PROTOCOL DRIVERS. Is my understanding wrong?

That's right.

> Also, I think that UNDI driver routine will need not call PXE routines
> (TFTP / DHCP etc) as UNDI routines would be at a lower level providing
> access to the bare bones hardware. Is this correct?

I'm calling the UNDI level routines (packet send, interrupt handling) 
from my driver.

Alan