Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:19:14 -0600
From:      Nathan Kinkade <nkinkade@ub.edu.bz>
To:        Dan Kilbourne <bsd-lists@netophilia.net>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Adding non-kernels to boot-loader
Message-ID:  <20041111181914.GH17779@gentoo-npk.bmp.ub>
In-Reply-To: <20041111173526.GA22779@netophilia.net>
References:  <20041111164302.GA22697@netophilia.net> <20041111171906.GG17779@gentoo-npk.bmp.ub> <20041111173526.GA22779@netophilia.net>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

--CEUtFxTsmBsHRLs3
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

On Thu, Nov 11, 2004 at 12:35:26PM -0500, Dan Kilbourne wrote:
> Nathan Kinkade extolled:
>=20
> > You will probably have better luck using a more flexible boot loader
> > like GRUB.  How about just putting memtest86 on a floppy or CDROM and
> > your techs can boot to the removable media whenever they need to test
> > memory.  This approach seems much more flexible, as any machine can then
> > be used for tests instead of only the ones on which you have made
> > special configurations.
> >=20
> > Nathan
>=20
>=20
> I would agree, but I am looking for more of an out of the box
> solution. We have a couple thousand servers, several hundred of them
> running FreeBSD. I want our build team to be able to simply install
> memtest as a bootloader option so that any time a machine needs to be
> tested, it can be without having to be removed from the rack.
> Currently we install the kernel-image-like version of it on all of our
> Linux boxen with no problems, I just need to figure out how to do it
> for FreeBSD. As for removable media, our machines are not built with
> CDs or floppies - everything is generally done via a network installer
> we have hooked up, so removable media is not an option.
>=20
> --=20
> ___
> Dan

Ahh, I see.  Well, GRUB has the ability to load a network image.  I see
at the memtest86.com site that one is able to build a network bootable
image of memtest86.  This way you could keep a single copy on an
NFS/TFTP server and it could be loaded over the network.  GRUB will need
to be compiled with support for the various network cards you
use, though I would image that your data center probably uses mostly the
same cards in all the machines.

Nathan
--=20
PGP Public Key: pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=3Dget&search=3D0xD8527E49

--CEUtFxTsmBsHRLs3
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Disposition: inline

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFBk60iO0ZIEthSfkkRAtAnAJ9zgmKv9jHBtUtdiRbHASpauQmLNQCgwMJC
hrRMs87BhgkMn6VFAgyls08=
=iQGS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--CEUtFxTsmBsHRLs3--



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20041111181914.GH17779>