Jay,
My name is Kevin Hammond @ PACE Control systems. I know we have
conversed on quics and may have even met at one of the conferences. We
are having incredible difficulties finding a SBC vender that supports bootp.
We are trying to netboot several SBC’s from a single server.
Right now the SBC have an IDE CompactFlash connection and we just format
a card. This works fine, except that the MAC address of the server must be
embedded into the boot image. ( A real pain if changing servers, or the NIC
fails).
We are looking into using the DHCP boot protocol under PXE for the Intel Pro
cards.
I have two questions: 1) Did you successfully get QNX4 to boot under PXE?
and 2) Where can I get ISC and have you found any easier methods to boot?
Kevin Hammond
PACE Control Systems
Jay Hogg wrote:
I can’t believe with all the new motherboards and SBC’s supporting PXE
boot nobody has put any effort into this!
The short answer is “yes” you can boot QNX4 using PXE.
Longer answer:
-
You need a DHCP server to get the fields right (ISC was the best I found
and it compiles out-of-the-box on QNX4). BOOTP, although the Intel docs
lead you to believe it will work - won’t.
-
You need tftp setup the same as for a BOOTP boot
-
Although the PXE spec “suggests” that you download a NBP (Network
bootstrap program) that is <32k and have that load the OS it isn’t
required -
you have 512k to work with.
-
You have to deal with the fact that QNX boot must be on an address
divisable by 0x800 and must be a direct jump to :0000 to boot
and PXE is a far call to 0:7c00… Hand-coded assembly will get you past
this and get the QNX boot image aligned on the correct boundary.
I’m working on the ISC dhcp server so I can "substitute’ parms in the
bootfile
name so I can get the MAC address of the boot server and setup some other
stuff (like primary/secondary) so I can almost fully emulate a QNX boot ROM
environment.
Happy booting.
Jay
Jay Hogg wrote in message <8tk0mh$ajf$> 1@inn.qnx.com> >…
All,
After using Corman cards and QNX4 boot roms for many years I’m
now looking for the server-side to provide a ‘bootp’ equivelant for
motherboards that have integrated network cards and support the
‘Intel PXE 2.0’ boot method.
The host system is QNX4 and the boot targets are all QNX4. Neutrino
will be a bit further down the road.
If anyone has seen either a version for another OS (open source) or has
a running version on QNX4 I’d love to hear from you. Also, if you have
seen any of the other advanced features of PXE implemented beyond
just the boot.
Thanks,
Jay Hogg
Sr Engineer
T-Netix, Inc