Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!OMNIGATE.CLARKSON.EDU!bkc
From: bkc@OMNIGATE.CLARKSON.EDU (Brad Clements)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: Re:  BootP Server
Message-ID: <8903152030.aa11461@Obelix.TWG.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 89 02:20:12 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 45

I have written Bootp Client code that is rom'd into an 8K eprom for use
with a Micom-Interlan NI5210. It is based in a distribution for Sun
systems that was posted by someone at Stanford. (originally it required
16K eproms, quite a bit of paring down was done. Currently 8189 bytes
are used.)

On startup, the bootp rom sends a bootp request packet. A bootp server
responds with ip address, server address, boot file name, etc. The eprom
then uses tftp to download the boot file (which is a rom disk image) 
into the PC's ram.

The PC is then boot'd from the rom disk image. I can put whatever I want
onto the rom disk image (MSDOS + pc-nfs  etc) currently our system
loads MIT's RVD (Remote Virtual Disk == Poor man's Ndisk)

I have a utility that extracts the bootp reply information from 
memory and loads it into the netcust.sys driver for later use 
by RVD and PC/IP programs. (We load a packet driver for the NI5210,
and a packet multiplexor which traps RVD packets. This way we
can run RVD and NCSA Telnet simultanously).

Another utility releases the bootp rom disk code enabling the
real floppy drive A: to be used as normal.

The bootp rom allows a user to specify a different server address and/or
boot file as well as bypassing the bootp process and booting from
the real floppy disk. It also does a TDR of the ethernet on initialization
and can inform the user if the ethernet cable is open, shorted or has
transceiver problems (more or less).

Boot files up to 325K (or there abouts) can be downloaded into a
512K machine. The boot rom moves the first 9 sectors of the rom disk
to the high end of memory so the FAT and directories don't get
trashed as programs are loaded.

Works great. Its written in Turbo C 2.0. The only bug I've seen
is that a user can not delete files from the rom disk image
without crashing the system. But the copy command does work...

We are using a Bootp server developed by Mr. Walter Wimer III 
of Carnegie Mellon University. The server currently runs on
a 4.3BSD MVax II and several Sun systems and works very nicely.

| Brad Clements          bkc@omnigate.clarkson.edu        bkc@clgw.bitnet 
| Network Engineer       Clarkson University              (315)268-2292