[1208] in linux-announce channel archive
COMMERCIAL: BootROM for Linux diskless workstations
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lars Wirzenius)
Sun Oct 29 05:59:09 1995
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 20:37:28 +0200
From: Lars Wirzenius <wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi>
To: linux-announce@vger.rutgers.edu
Reply-To: linux-announce-owner@vger.rutgers.edu
From: Denis Gerasimov <denis@charm.net>
Subject: COMMERCIAL: BootROM for Linux diskless workstations
Approved: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov (Lars Wirzenius)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Followup-to: comp.os.linux.networking
Organization: ?
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If you want to make a 'diskless' workstation truly diskless you can
use a BOOT ROM. This is a read-only memory chip that plugs into your
Ethernet adapter and takes care of loading the kernel of your operating
system via the network. If you have many workstations, this method of
booting them eliminates the need for a copy of the operating system on each
system. The resulting reduction in cost of each system allows you to
purchase more systems. Since all filesystem can be mounted remotely from a
single fileserver this configuration also makes it easier to administer a
large network of such systems. Even if you already have older systems with
small hard drives you may still wish to use this method of booting them and
instead configure the hard drive as paging space and scratch disk (/tmp).
Of course to do this, you need to have a ROM chip with the boot code
burned into it. Now you can get one for only $14 + shipping. With every
order, we will also supply a floppy disk containing all the software
necessary to setup your Linux machine to become a boot server for a network
of diskless Linux workstations. Sun running SunOS 4.1.X can also be used
as a server and we are including a text file describing how to set it up.
This includes a precompiled Linux kernel which is loadable via the
network and the other software necessary to setup the boot server.
Sample configuration files are included as well. Source code for all the
software is available on request on a second floppy disk for $2 +
shipping. All the software is freely redistributable either under
GPL or the Berkeley software license and is also available from major
Linux sites (sunsite.unc.edu and mirrors).
Boot Roms are currently available for 3c509 (3com) and NE2000 (generic)
cards.
We accept checks or money orders only. Sorry, no credit card orders at this
time. A COD option is available.
For more information or to order write to: bootrom@datawire.com
Quantity discounts or information about using these BOOT ROMS for FreeBSD is
also available. One dollar from every BOOT ROM sold will got to Markus
Gutschke, the author of linux portion of BootRom code as part of our
support of free software and to encourage further development of this code.
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