| Date: 11/9/2001 3:56 PM |
| Received: 11/9/2001 4:05 PM |
| From: Steve Tilden, stilden@sicom-sys.com |
| |
| ... |
| |
| 2) I have added conditional code to main.c from Etherboot 5.0.4 to add |
| a new default boot option and I have included the modified main.c as an |
| attachment to this message. |
| |
| As I received Etherboot 5.0.4, in the Config file, if you select |
| ASK_BOOT with a non zero time-out option, then you also get to set |
| ANS_DEFAULT = ANS_NETWORK or ANS_DEFAULT = ANS_LOCAL to determine what |
| will happen if the operator does not respond to the prompt. I have now |
| added conditional code in main.c such that if you set ANS_DEFAULT = |
| ANS_AUTO, the default answer will be set according to whether or not |
| there is a hard disk in the system (as detected by the BIOS). If a hard |
| disk is present, then if the operator does nothing, the system will boot |
| from it. If a hard disk does not exist, then again if the operator does |
| nothing, the system will boot via the network. Either way, for our |
| particular environment, the operator has to do nothing to get it to boot |
| correctly. Yet the operator can still override the default selection |
| to, for example, allow a unit without a hard disk, to boot directly from |
| a floppy rather than the network, or to allow a unit with a hard disk, |
| to boot from the network. |
| |
| I don't know it the code I have added might be correct for a future |
| production version of Etherboot, but I thought I'd send it to you and |
| let you get it into the system if you feel it might be appropriate. |
| |
| Thanks, |
| |
| Steve Tilden |
| Sicom Systems Inc. |
| stilden@sicom-sys.com |
| |
| [Ed: On a compliant BIOS, it will actually boot the next device in the |
| BIOS list if local is selected, either explicitly or by timeout, which |
| may or may not be the hard disk, which is why it's less than general and |
| not included in the distribution by default.] |