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| <h2 class="c1">Welcome to the</h2> |
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| <div class="c2">EtherBoot Project</div> |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="index.html" class= |
| "c5"><b>Home</b></a></div> |
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| |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/etherboot" class= |
| "c3">Sourceforge project home</a></div> |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://developer.berlios.de/projects/etherboot" class= |
| "c3">Berlios project mirror</a></div> |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://sourceforge.net/news/?group_id=4233" class= |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://wiki.etherboot.org" class= |
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| |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://rom-o-matic.net/" class= |
| "c3">Make ROMs</a></div> |
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| |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4233" class= |
| "c3">Download source from Sourceforge</a></div> |
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| |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://etherboot.berlios.de/dist/" class= |
| "c3">Download source from Berlios (Germany)</a></div> |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="doc/html/contributing.html" class= |
| "c3">Volunteering</a></div> |
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| <div class="c4"><a href="http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=4233" class= |
| "c3">Mailing Lists</a></div> |
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| <div class="c4"><a href= |
| "http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/relatedlinks.html" class= |
| "c3">Related Links</a></div> |
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| <div class="c4"><a href= |
| "http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/clinks.html" class= |
| "c3">Commercial Links</a></div> |
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| <td width="700" height="56" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" align= |
| "left"> |
| <blockquote> |
| <h2 class="c6">About EtherBoot</h2> |
| |
| <p class="c7">Etherboot is a software package for creating ROM |
| images that can download code over an Ethernet network to be |
| executed on an x86 computer. Many network adapters have a socket |
| where a ROM chip can be installed. Etherboot is code that can be |
| put in such a ROM. Etherboot is normally used for for booting PCs |
| diskless. This is useful in various situations, for example:</p> |
| |
| <ul class="c11"> |
| <li>An X-terminal.</li> |
| |
| <li>Clusters of compute servers.</li> |
| |
| <li>Routers.</li> |
| |
| <li>Various kinds of remote servers, e.g. a tape drive server that |
| can be accessed with the RMT protocol.</li> |
| |
| <li>Machines doing tasks in environments unfriendly to disks.</li> |
| |
| <li>A user platform where remote partitions are mounted over the |
| network and you are willing to accept the lower speed compared to |
| disk.</li> |
| |
| <li>Maintaining software for a cluster of equally configured |
| workstations centrally.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p class="c7">Etherboot can boot computers faster than from a disk |
| because there are no delays in spinning up disks, etc. A moment's |
| calculation will show that even with a 10Mbit Ethernet, sending a |
| 500kB kernel will take only a couple of seconds typically. With |
| 100Mbit Ethernet it gets even better.</p> |
| |
| <p class="c7">Compared to booting from solid-state devices, e.g. |
| Flash disks, Etherboot has the advantage of centralising software |
| adminstration, the tradeoff being the dependence on a server. This |
| can be partly alleviated by providing redundant servers.</p> |
| |
| <p class="c7">Etherboot can work with RAM disks, NFS filesystems, |
| or even local disks, if desired. It's a component technology and |
| can be combined with other technologies to do things the way you |
| want.</p> |
| |
| <p class="c7">Etherboot is usually used to load Linux, FreeBSD or |
| DOS. However the protocol and boot file formats are general, so |
| there is no reason why it could not be used to load arbitrary |
| images to a PC, including other OSes.</p> |
| |
| <p class="c7">Etherboot is Open Source under the GNU General Public |
| License Version 2 (GPL2).</p> |
| |
| <p class="c7">The components needed by Etherboot are</p> |
| |
| <ul class="c11"> |
| <li>A bootstrap loader, usually in an EPROM on a network card, or |
| installed in the flash BIOS, but could be put anywhere in the |
| address space the BIOS probes in. For testing this could be put on |
| a floppy disk or a hard disk partition. Some configurations may |
| even be always run from a floppy disk (e.g. temporary testing |
| setups or pedagogic uses).</li> |
| |
| <li>A DHCP or bootp server, for returning an IP address and other |
| information when sent a MAC (Ethernet card) address.</li> |
| |
| <li>A tftp server, for sending the kernel images and other files |
| required in the boot process. Alternatively, Etherboot can boot |
| from an NFS mount.</li> |
| |
| <li>A Linux or FreeBSD kernel.</li> |
| |
| <li>Optionally, a NFS server, for providing the disk partitions |
| that will be mounted if Linux or FreeBSD is being booted.</li> |
| |
| <li>Optionally, a RAM disk contained in the loaded image. This can |
| be the initial RAM disk if desired.</li> |
| |
| <li>Software tools for building the download image, and tools for |
| debugging.</li> |
| </ul> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
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| <div class="c10">Hosted by</div> |
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| <td valign="middle" width="610"><a href="http://developer.berlios.de"><img |
| src= |
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