Idea for change to boot0

[Andrew Boyer]

On Dec 15, 2011, at 6:40 PM, Craig Rodrigues wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> This is interesting.  I wrote some newer documentation for PXE booting
> here:
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-pxe-nfs.html
> 
> In 32.8.4, bullet item 1, I mentioned that it is necessary to
> configure network booting in the BIOS menu.
> 
> With your change, is entering the BIOS menu to configure network booting
> still necessary?
> 
> --
> Craig Rodrigues
> rodrigc at juniper.net
> 

Nope.  You can just do:
# boot0cfg -s 6 <bootdisk>
# reboot

It saves you from waiting around until the BIOS screen comes up, hitting the wrong button, etc. etc.  On systems with a lot of memory the BIOS start times are getting ridiculous.

-Andrew


> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Andrew Boyer <aboyer at averesystems.com> wrote:
>> These two changes allow you to set PXE as the default MBR boot selection, which enables you to write a 'reboot to the network' script.  We've found it to be very useful.  What do people think?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Andrew
>> 
>>> Index: usr.sbin/boot0cfg/boot0cfg.c
>>> ===================================================================
>>> --- usr.sbin/boot0cfg/boot0cfg.c      (revision 228359)
>>> +++ usr.sbin/boot0cfg/boot0cfg.c      (working copy)
>>> @@ -169,7 +169,7 @@
>>>             o_flag = 1;
>>>             break;
>>>         case 's':
>>> -            s_arg = argtoi(optarg, 1, 5, 's');
>>> +            s_arg = argtoi(optarg, 1, 6, 's');
>>>             break;
>>>         case 't':
>>>             t_arg = argtoi(optarg, 1, 0xffff, 't');
>>> @@ -472,6 +472,8 @@
>>>     printf("default_selection=F%d (", mbr[OFF_OPT] + 1);
>>>     if (mbr[OFF_OPT] < 4)
>>>       printf("Slice %d", mbr[OFF_OPT] + 1);
>>> +    else if (mbr[OFF_OPT] == 5)
>>> +        print("PXE");
>>>     else
>>>       printf("Drive 1");
>>>     printf(")\n");
>>> Index: sys/boot/i386/boot0/boot0.S
>>> ===================================================================
>>> --- sys/boot/i386/boot0/boot0.S       (revision 228359)
>>> +++ sys/boot/i386/boot0/boot0.S       (working copy)
>>> @@ -413,6 +413,7 @@
>>>       3:
>>> #endif /* ONLY_F_KEYS */
>>> #endif /* SIO */
>>> +check_selection:
>>>               cmpb $0x5,%al                   # F1..F6 or 1..6 ?
>>> #ifdef PXE /* enable PXE/INT18 using F6 */
>>>               jne 1f;
>>> @@ -421,7 +422,6 @@
>>> #endif /* PXE */
>>>               jae beep                        # Not in F1..F5, beep
>>> 
>>> -check_selection:
>>>       /*
>>>        * We have a selection.  If it's a bad selection go back to complain.
>>>        * The bits in MNUOPT were set when the options were printed.
>> 
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> Andrew Boyer    aboyer at averesystems.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Craig Rodrigues
> rodrigc at crodrigues.org

--------------------------------------------------
Andrew Boyer	aboyer at averesystems.com