Re: [RFC] x86 ELF bootable kernels/Linux booting Linux/LinuxBIOS

H. Peter Anvin
2002-01-31T05:59:51Z

Eric W. Biederman wrote:

>
> 3) Network Booting.
> There is not much chance to change bootroms once they are flashed
> so they like LinuxBIOS need a general purpose interface, so that can
> handle whatever they need to boot.
>

On this particular subject, I should point out that there is a standard
for network bootroms on i386 platforms -- PXE. Most PXE implementations
out there suck rocks, but that's orthogonal -- they're still a lot
easier to use than coming up with your own (and they will boot, ahem,
other operating systems as well.)

Now, PXE is pretty limited usually boots a second-stage bootloader

That being said, it would be great to get an Open Source PXE
implementation and driver collection. I was hoping NILO
(http://www.nilo.org/) would be it, but it seems to not be going
anywhere. I was for a while considering trying to turn Etherboot into a
PXE kit.

-hpa