

                             Netboot

                (C) Copyright Gero Kuhlmann 1996-1998



0  -  Copyright Notice, Acknowledgements

  You are allowed to modify and redistribute this code under the terms of
  the GNU General License, which you can find in the file COPYING.
  My special thanks go to Jamie Honan for defining the initial bootrom
  specifications, to Markus Gutschke for enhancing mknbi-linux, and to
  Jens-Uwe Mager for explaining to me the basics of the NFS networking
  system and sometimes helping me out with his wealth of knowledge and
  experience.


1 -  Overview

  Booting a computer without a hard disk usually requires a floppy disk
  drive or a network connection in order to get the operating system into
  the RAM and up running. This package allows a diskless PC to boot an
  operating system using a TCP/IP based ethernet network. That's done
  in the following steps:

	- First the operating system has to be loaded into system memory.
	  This can be done using a bootrom, which loads the operating
	  system image over the network. The bootrom code found in this
	  package can be burned into a real EPROM, or just copied onto
	  a floppy and then started from it upon bootup. Please note that
	  the term "bootrom" in all documentations in this package refers
	  to the real EPROM version as well as the version copied onto
	  and started from a floppy disk.
	  For the bootrom to find the kernel image it uses the BOOTP
	  protocol as defined in RFC 951 and RFC 1533 to get the ne-
	  cessary boot information, and then loads the actual image
	  using the TFTP protocol as defined in RFC 1350.

	- When the operating system starts running, it has to mount
	  it's root filesystem. This can either be done using NFS over
	  the network, or using a ramdisk.


2 -  Features

	- Booting a diskless client either from an EPROM, Flash-EPROM or
	  from a floppy without additional utility tools
	- The Bootrom code can use many standard DOS packet drivers and
	  therefore supports almost any PC network card.
	- Easy configuration of the bootrom under UNIX.
	- The bootrom can load a BOOTP vendor extension file in order to
	  support more space for tags according to RFC 1533.
	- Using the bootrom menu support or Menu Generation Language it's
	  possible to optionally boot different operating systems
	- Even if there is a hard disk installed in the client computer,
	  the bootrom can be used as a boot manager, since it also allows
	  booting from any partition
	- Cross-gateway booting
	- Bootrom runs on any 80x86 processor but is optimized for the 386+.
	- Able to boot different operating system. Currently supported are
	  Linux and MS-DOS.


3 -  Installation

  See the file INSTALL for installation instructions. If you have any
  problems installing or running the programs see the file PROBLEMS.



4 -  Internet resources

  There exists a mailing list devoted to network booting. To subscribe
  simply send a mail with the line

		subscribe netboot

  in it's body to

		majordomo@baghira.han.de

  The subject in the mail header doesn't matter. This mailing list is
  intended to be a general discussion forum about any aspect of network
  booting. Any new versions of this netboot package will also get announced
  on that mailing list. After subscribing to it, you can send messages into
  the list by writing a mail to netboot@baghira.han.de.

  Netboot also has it's own WWW home page. Turn to

		http://www.han.de/~gero/netboot

  to learn more about the latest version of netboot.



5 -  Disclaimer

  The software in this package heavily interacts with hardware and software
  not only on the local system, but also on the boot server. Use it at your
  own risk. I cannot be held responsible for any damage done by this software.



Gero Kuhlmann <gero@gkminix.han.de>

