network boot

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) qdn.public.ddk.network
1

Has anyone been able to boot QNX via the Intel PXE network boot code
that’s found in many modern BIOSes?

Thanks,

lew

2

Thought it just a DHCP + TFTP, so dhcpd + tftpd should handle it ?

-xtang
Lewis Donzis <lew@nospam.donzis.com> wrote in message
news:3DEC219D.EA7E146@nospam.donzis.com…

Has anyone been able to boot QNX via the Intel PXE network boot code
that’s found in many modern BIOSes?

Thanks,

lew

3

Xiaodan Tang wrote:

Thought it just a DHCP + TFTP, so dhcpd + tftpd should handle it ?

True, but that just downloads a file no into base memory and executes
it. And since space is limited, you may want a small module that is
sufficient to download an image file into upper memory, something like
the current IPL code, but using TFTP instead of INT 13. It’s not a big
deal, but I was just wondering if anyone had already done this?

lew

4

I think the QNX 6.2.1 product will support the GRUB loader. Just use
[virtual=x86,elf -compress] in your build file.
http://www.gnu.org/directory/grub.html

GRUB supports gzip boot images, > 640k boot images, dhcpd, tftp, serial
console…

Lewis Donzis <lew@nospam.donzis.com> wrote:

Xiaodan Tang wrote:
Thought it just a DHCP + TFTP, so dhcpd + tftpd should handle it ?

True, but that just downloads a file no into base memory and executes
it. And since space is limited, you may want a small module that is
sufficient to download an image file into upper memory, something like
the current IPL code, but using TFTP instead of INT 13. It’s not a big
deal, but I was just wondering if anyone had already done this?

lew

–
Kirk Russell Bridlewood Software Testers Guild

5

That looks great. Is there any reason that releases prior to 6.2.1
wouldn’t work with GRUB?

Thanks,

lew

kirk wrote:

I think the QNX 6.2.1 product will support the GRUB loader. Just use
[virtual=x86,elf -compress] in your build file.
http://www.gnu.org/directory/grub.html

GRUB supports gzip boot images, > 640k boot images, dhcpd, tftp, serial
console…

6

Lewis Donzis <lew@nospam.donzis.com> wrote:

That looks great. Is there any reason that releases prior to 6.2.1
wouldn’t work with GRUB?

We had to add some stuff to startup-bios to support Multiboot Specification
IPL’s, plus some code in mkifsf_elf to mark the image as Multiboot
compliant.

–
Brian Stecher (bstecher@qnx.com) QNX Software Systems, Ltd.
phone: +1 (613) 591-0931 (voice) 175 Terence Matthews Cr.
+1 (613) 591-3579 (fax) Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2M 1W8