I have a fairly standard machine I want to use QNX on. It is a IBM Netvista N2800 Thin Client, BUT, it is pretty much just a standard PC. Specs are as follows:
266mhz MMX Processor, Gen. Intel
96mb Memory (Might upgrade to 256mb)
256mb CompactFlash card as IDE0 (Shows up as a standard BIOS IDE Drive, OS uses it as such)
2 Standard PCI Slots
S3 Trio3D Video Chipset
Onboard Intel Pro/100 LAN Chipset
I can’t remember the chipsets for the USB, IDE, and PCI bridge, but they are a generic Intel chipset…
The problem is that I don’t own a CF adapter to install QNX on that CF card (might upgrade it to 512mb) on another computer. This comp works with it just with the CF since the port for the CF is onboard.
Soo… The only way I have to boot it is using PXELinux over my network and Memdisk to load a general Floppy/HD image into RAM to boot off that. The QNX Boot floppy boots just fine using the above combo, BUT, of course, it can’t find the CDRom. I haven’t a clue how to get it to drop into a shell right off the bat.
There is a IDE port on the motherboard, and I did try to use a CDRom, but my spare CDRom is too old to boot QNX off the only CDRW I have right now…
Is there any way to fire up QNX across a network so I can install it via the network onto this machine?
Not with the NC/download edition as it stands now. When 6.3.0 is released you will have the tools you need. You can boot the machine with PXEGrub and then boot a QNX elf ifs image over the network. Post a reply when 6.3.0 is out and you have it downloaded.
I have 6.3.0, I’ve tried to load a QNX elf image over the network with PXEGrub, I haven’t had any success. PXEGrub loads but when I try to load the QNX elf from PXEGrub it complains that the format of the elf image is invalid or unsupported. I used mkifsf_elf to convert the ifs file to elf format. Any ideas how to get my 6.3.0 system booted over the network?
Please tell me how you got this to work in detail, I have been trying to boot one of those N2800 with no luck
IBM Netvista N2800 Thin Client
“Soo… The only way I have to boot it is using PXELinux over my network and Memdisk to load a general Floppy/HD image into RAM to boot off that. The QNX Boot floppy boots just fine using the above combo”
It seems to be another, it can be done, but not how its done and no link to those PXELinux Memdisk files. If anyone has the files already and could post them somewhere it would be really helpful, I dont have use of my Linux machine right now, its down for a rebuild/upgrade.
to your QNX 6 box and compile it yourself. e.g.
tar zxvf grub-0.95.qnx6-patched.tar.gz
cd grub-0.95
./configure --enable-diskless --enable-3c90x #assuming you’re using a 3com 3c905 card.
make
once compile is done, you can
cd stage2
and copy the “pxegrub” to your dhcpd/tftpd server. BTW, are you using Windows or Linux for your dhcpd/tftpd boot server, or maybe QNX 6 ( last I heard dhcpd and friends were missing from QNX 6.3 evaluation and only available to commercial users)?
The machine I am trying to boot, as stated originally, is an IBM Netvista N2800 Thin Client, the same as the one Dabinka posted about previously. I am using Cabletrons TFTP/BootP Services V.2.00.00 on a Windows 2000 machine. The big problem right now I dont have access to a machine in which to compile the PXELinux and memdisk.
I don’t have access to such a thin client and am not sure what ethernet card it is using.
Do you have a full development box (QNX or Linux) where you can compile the grub and then copy the resulting “pxegrub” file over to the Windows 2000 machine? If not, you could either “procure” such a system, or send one of us a Netvista so we can work out a solution for you
