Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!ucbvax!xpiinc.UUCP!tmt
From: tmt@xpiinc.UUCP (Thomas M. Talpey)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: BOOTP Extensions
Message-ID: <8810051916.AA14732@felix.xpiinc.uu.net>
Date: 5 Oct 88 19:16:10 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 28

The new Visual V640 X Display Station (XDS) supports the BOOTP rfc1048
extensions plus the CMU vendor structure. Currently, the fields parsed are
the gateway, netmask, and name servers, as only those are of interest to the
device. The parameters are supplemented or overridden by user-provided local
setup.

If you haven't heard of the machine, it is an X (version 11) server running
in a terminal, over Ethernet and SLIP. The code is completely in ROM and the
machine does BOOTP (and RARP) if the IP address is not configured into its
local setup. With the extensions provided by rfc1048, plus some help from
the BOOTP server in providing an address, it is possible with no configuration
to take the machine out of the box, plug it in, and come up running X. Most
RARP and BOOTP servers currently require pre-configuration of the Ethernet
addresses, however, and will not reply to an unknown device. Therefore an
administrator must do something first, but BOOTP with rfc1048 makes the hard
part painless.

By the way, this machine begins a new Ethernet manufacturer ID field for
those interested, Visual Technology has been assigned 00:00:22.

Tom Talpey
Xpi Inc.
tmt@xpiinc.uu.net

Info on V640 XDS:
Visual Technology
(508) 459-4903
(800) VISUAL-C