[PLUG] Etherboot.

[robinsoq]

I've figured out how to get Redhat installation images for network images to be
exported via server.  I use mknbi-linux <kernel> <ramdisk> and dump to some file
where I keep my boot images.  Works like a charm.  A few gotchas though, has
anyone rewritten Redhat 9's ftp install to be smart enough to ask for three 
locations to find the RPMS at?  I'm not too keen on having to have the iso 
images and a copy of all the binary rpms on them as well on my ftp site.

Reading Intel's doc it looks like PXE is an extension to dhcp and that it can work 
with any PXE compliant card with a single generic ethernet card driver.  What I don't 
get is what as far as PXE my mobo has on it and if I want to flash a network boot 
program into my onboard ethernet how I go about that.  I don't even know if I can 
use an etherboot disk on this thing.  My mobo is a D845PEBT2.

I use the bootp menu feature with etherboot, a major downfall of this is no 
connection to a central authentication server to prevent just anyone on any 
machine from using a particular network boot image I post.  I generally 
don't want to give public access to a dos boot with fdisk or a Linux installer,
however, having these around is one of the goals of network delivered
booting.  The other gotcha I'm running into is how to come up with a Linux 
system that will boot into and run out of ram entirely for performing 
restoration from my network connected tape server and dump spaces.  Don't 
know if I'll need nfs or if I need to look at rmt closer.  
I wonder if grub can be used as a network bootable OS since it can password 
protect boot selections?  I've heard that only a four meg initrd ram disk is 
possible which evidently can decompress to sixteen megs.  For a modern 2.4.21 
kernel based Linux system I'm wondering how to fit into sixteen megs let alone 
whether or not I can use NFS to deal with the excess.  Maybe I can create a 
very small system around perhaps a 2.2 kernel, open a large ramdisk using that 
system, copy to it off the network, and then pivot root to a newer 2.4 kernel.

I want to run Linux out of ramdisk for backups as a Linux system with recent 
tools can generally mount, dump, and restore any PC filesystem.  One curiosity 
I have is if the MBR from one hard disk is compatible with another insofar as I 
might copy the MBR of a 30 gig drive and want to put it onto a different 
sized/different manufacturer's drive?

BTW: XOSL's mirroring capability is a really nice tool when messing around with
     Windows.  Other than the cd booting feature cut out, I've had really 
     good service with it.

BTW: The ltsp kernel for ltsp 3 has finally been progress patched and it looks 
     really nice :-)

As far as information on Linux from scratch I want to create a 2.4 system that
will run out of at most 32 megs of ramdrive and operate in 32 megs of ram, maybe 
use nfs if required, and provide the backup/restore capabilities I'm after.  

     --  Michael