Hi
I dont think you need the net boot image at all.
Look at etherboot (http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/)
The booting works this way:
1. Diskless computer (DC) broadcasts MAC address with bootp: Who am I?
2. Bootp or DHCP server on S looks up DB: Your IP address is X.X.X.X,
your server is S, your boot file is vmlinuz.myname, etc.
3. DC asks to load file from TFTP server on S: Please give me
vmlinuz.myname
4. S: Here you are (/tftpdir/vmlinuz.myname)
DC thinks a while (booting Linux).
5. DC: Please let me mount / with NFS
6. S: Here is your root FS (/tftpboot/IPnumber). (In 2.2 kernels,
/tftpboot/domainname.)
7. DC: Please let me mount other NFSes (/usr, /home/, etc)
8. S: Here you are
9. DC: Runs intended application
Network boot ROM contains code to do 1 and 3.
The kernel image is on the server and tranfered via tftp.
Be carefull with the tftp server setup. A wrong setup is a security hole.
chrooting the tftp server is really necessary.
Many years ago, a had a linux based diskless X terminal booting with
etherboot.
have fun.
utz
Jeffrey K Butkovich [jkbutkovich@xxxxxxxx] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a RedHat 7.1 machine setup with the SGI XFS filesystem.
>
> It works great.
>
> However, I'm trying to set this machine up as a server for
> diskless machines.
>
> We are using vmic single board computers and like the capabilities of
> the XFS filesystem. We want to use a diskless solution so we won't
> need to maintain as many SBC's. Just setup for net boot, then we're done.
>
> I'm having trouble doing this. The kernel net boot image is too big.
>
> Do you know what I can do to overcome this?
>
> Do you know of anyone that has succeeded in doing this?
>
> Please forgive me if these next questions sound stupid, This is my
> first crack at setting up a diskless workstation.
>
> Possibly could I shrink the kernel by making the XFS support a module?
> If I did this, where would the kernel load the module from? ...since
> no filesystems would be mounted at this time.
>
> Am I out of Luck?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help,
>
> Jeff Butkovich
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