Messages in this thread | | | From | "H. Peter Anvin" <> | Subject | Re: UNDI/PXE for 2.4.x available? | Date | 4 Feb 2002 09:32:50 -0800 |
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Followup to: <20020204170844.2AB5667F1@penelope.materna.de> By author: Tobias Wollgam <tobias.wollgam@materna.de> In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel > > We want to install PCs over ethernet with PXE. For the first boot from > net we have nothing than the network, we don't know the hardware, so an > UNDI in the kernel would be perfect. IMHO > > > I think you'll have that problem with any UNDI driver; in either case > > I suspect that (a) performance will stink no matter what > > That's ok for the things we will do. > > > and (b) it won't work properly with SMP unless you apply really > > heavy locking. > > Does it matter in our case? >
Probably not.
> > > The PXE people at Intel really seems enamored with the idea of using > > the UNDI stack all the way into the operating system; > > We need it not to run an operating system, we need it for the > installation of an operating system. > > On the other hand, UNDI will deliver a network driver for all PXE-cards > that come up before there is any direct hardware support. (Ok, then b > matters) >
In theory. In practice, from having dealt with enough PXE stacks, I would say that it is more likely you're going to have problems getting the UNDI drivers to work in a Linux environment than you will find that a fully equipped kernel lacks the drivers you need, especially since you can update the kernel on the server as needed. There has been a shakeout in the NIC world, and aren't anywhere near as many in use now as there was a few years ago -- and anything before then isn't going to have PXE.
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