work@dragos.UUCP (Dragos Ruiu) (06/15/88)
Starting with SysV/AT 2.3 uPort has a boot loader that Dos. At the Boot prompt you type DOS and tadaa you get to the junky stuff. We have a problem with this, I tried to get my machine running DECNet/Dos, an ethernet based nework of dos and VMS machines running under Locus' DosMERGE. It looked really promising, it manages to send raw packets using a Micom/Interlan card. When we tried it with the preferred ethernet adapter, DEC's DEPCA, a nifty card that has on card buffers and other goodies we had no end of problems. The PROBLEM: When Unix boots, it sends this card into orbit, after it has booted, this card goes useless. Even a Ctrl-Alt-Del (three finger salute) reboot does not fix it. If you boot DOS after Unix, it still doesn't work. You must actually power down the machine. The REAL CATCH!: Even if you boot dos from the boot loader (the "boot:" prompt) the card goes crazy. But if you change the active partition and have dos boot directly, everything is great and fine. The Question: So what does the boot loader DO ? Does Anyone have Source? Why would it even touch hardware installed in the system other than the disk drive ? -- Dragos Ruiu ruiu@dragos.UUCP The first Myth of Management: ...alberta!dragos!ruiu It exists. Disclaimer: SaskPower R&D is in not responsible for my opinions or machine.