RACKLEY@MSSTATE.BITNET (Mike Rackley) (06/16/88)
I am looking for a boot PROM for a MICOM/INTERLAN NI5210 ethernet controller that will allow a PC/XT to boot from a SUN NFS server. MICOM claims no knowledge of such a thing. Anybody out there know if it exists?
jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (06/17/88)
It is a good deal of work to get DOS to boot over a network interface, and the only people I'm sure can do it is 3Com. They have a diskless workstation, which can boot from a 3-Server using their 3+ LAN software, using an add-on prom on the network interface card. There may be others (someone here thinks Novell can, too), but I think they're all based on private LAN packages. It could be done with NFS, but if Sun isn't doing it, I don't think it is being done. James VanBokkelen FTP Software Inc.
b-davis%cai@CS.UTAH.EDU (Brad Davis) (06/18/88)
>There may be others (someone here thinks >Novell can, too), but I think they're all based on private LAN packages. Yes, Novell can, but the interface card needs to have a PROM socket that conforms to IBM's definition for extending BIOS. The Micom 5210 card has NO such socket. The 3c501 does (it's called MEMORY on my card). Brad Davis
jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (06/18/88)
My NI5210 Installation Manual describes the "extended memory socket" (at U3) as being capable of holding "a boot PROM device". I've never used it, nor have I ever really investigated just what you must do to hook into the BIOS, so I can't say it is usable. Still, I can't dismiss the card entirely... jbvb
b-davis%cai@CS.UTAH.EDU (Brad Davis) (06/18/88)
You're right. When I first read the manual I skipped over that part since I didn't need (or have) the extra ram. I do like their comment "not available from MICOM-Interlan" though. It looks like I may be writing a boot prom for a Davong Arcnet and Novell net. If and when it happens I will let the list know what was necessary. Brad
wilker@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Clarence W. Wilkerson Jr.) (06/18/88)
> Yes, Novell can, but the interface card needs to have a PROM socket > that conforms to IBM's definition for extending BIOS. The Micom 5210 > card has NO such socket. The 3c501 does (it's called MEMORY on my > card). > > Brad Davis Many motherboards have extra sockets for ROM ( the missing BASIC?). So that seems like the least of the worries about booting from network. More complicated is building enough intelligence into ROM to download dos from file server, and short circuiting the attempted dos floppy/hard disk boots.
RACKLEY@MSSTATE.BITNET (Mike Rackley) (06/18/88)
>You're right. When I first read the manual I skipped over that part >since I didn't need (or have) the extra ram. I do like their comment >"not available from MICOM-Interlan" though. It looks like I may be >writing a boot prom for a Davong Arcnet and Novell net. If and when >it happens I will let the list know what was necessary. My undertanding is that a boot PROM exists for Novell and is available from MICOM. What they don't have is a boot PROM for NFS. Mike Rackley
KGJHH@ASUACAD.BITNET (Jim Howard) (06/19/88)
Nestar has been booting DOS from their fileservers via the boot prom on their Arcnet cards for almost 5 years now.
backman@interlan.UUCP (Larry Backman) (06/20/88)
>that conforms to IBM's definition for extending BIOS. The Micom 5210 >card has NO such socket. The 3c501 does (it's called MEMORY on my [] Sorry to disagree but your wrong. The NI5210 can be booted off the net, one of the two 8K memory chips can be a boot rom. In fact a <dir> of our release file server yields the following path: release\novell\ni5210\bootrom with tthrrree files in it: autoexec.bat, inm$dos.sys and mi5210.rom If you need more information contact Brad Kemp at the same email address. Larry Backman Micom - Interrlan
acm@RELAY.PROTEON.COM (06/20/88)
>There may be others (someone here thinks >Novell can, too), but I think they're all based on private LAN packages. >Yes, Novell can, but the interface card needs to have a PROM socket >that conforms to IBM's definition for extending BIOS. The Micom 5210 >card has NO such socket. The 3c501 does (it's called MEMORY on my card). >Brad Davis This is not strictly true, if you put a prom in one of the Basic sockets or other rom socket on the mother board you can accomplish the same thing (at least with Novell.) Therefore you could do a boot prom for any card by using the mother board sockets when the interface does not have one. -Al Marshall, Proteon
acm@RELAY.PROTEON.COM (06/20/88)
>> Yes, Novell can, but the interface card needs to have a PROM socket >> that conforms to IBM's definition for extending BIOS. The Micom 5210 >> card has NO such socket. The 3c501 does (it's called MEMORY on my >> card). >> >> Brad Davis > Many motherboards have extra sockets for ROM ( the missing BASIC?). So > that seems like the least of the worries about booting from network. > More complicated is building enough intelligence into ROM to download > dos from file server, and short circuiting the attempted dos floppy/hard > disk boots. For information purposes, what Novell does (I don't know about others) is to make a file image (called net$dos.sys) which is a full disk image including the dos hidden files and the boot stuff along with all the fats and directories. This file is first transferred to the pc and put into a temporary ram disk. This disk then is the one that is "booted" to bring up dos and the Novell shell which then brings the PC into the net like a floppy one. The process of getting into the boot rom is via the bios which looks at the rom address boundaries at the initial power on boot for the purpose of finding diagnostic roms on interface cards. If one exists, it is called by the bios. If this takes over the pc and does not give it back to the bios the boot can then control. The format of the rom and the process are well described in the IBM Technical Reference manuals on the PC that describe (and include listings of) the bios. -Al Marshall
brad@interlan.UUCP (Brad Kemp) (06/21/88)
In article <8806172001.AA28772@cai.utah.edu> b-davis%cai@CS.UTAH.EDU (Brad Davis) writes: >>There may be others (someone here thinks >>Novell can, too), but I think they're all based on private LAN packages. > >Yes, Novell can, but the interface card needs to have a PROM socket >that conforms to IBM's definition for extending BIOS. The Micom 5210 >card has NO such socket. The 3c501 does (it's called MEMORY on my >card). > >Brad Davis Both the NI5210 and the NI5010 have sockets for a boot prom. On the NI5210 this socket can be used for either a boot prom or extending the onboard memory to 16K. We currently ship only a Netware 2.0a boot prom for either of these cards. Brad Kemp MICOM-Interlan {mit-eddie,ulowell}!interlan!brad