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Date:      Thu, 12 Dec 2002 11:15:59 +0100
From:      Andy Sporner <sporner@nentec.de>
Cc:        freebsd-cluster@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: sharing files within a cluster
Message-ID:  <3DF861DF.9000704@nentec.de>
References:  <20021211133703.C83245-100000@fubar.adept.org>

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Mike Hoskins wrote:

>On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, Greg Lewis wrote:
>  
>
>>Apart from that, consider that LinuxBIOS is in use on production clusters
>>right now and is responsible for several million dollars of Linux cluster
>>sales this year.  The relatively simple task of making it boot FreeBSD
>>should take a relatively short time (for someone with the know how) and
>>would be a helpful boost to FreeBSD's "clusterability".
>>    
>>
>
>Sure would be nice if Linux wasn't in the name.  Maybe it's just me, but
>it'd be nice of some "open" things were actually more "open."
>
>
>Ahh, OpenBIOS...  Time to work on a new "port" or version I guess.
>Something that any OS vendor/user can get behind and implement without
>being associated with Linux.  (Yes, some of us have had very bad
>encounters with Linux and do anything to avoid it.)
>
>  
>
I think this is called PXE.  Pre-XEcution boot environment from Intel.
When you select Network Boot, it hits a DHCP server for an IP address
and then a PXE server for a floppy image.  Then it kicks off the image
just like a FD.  The sizes can be any standard size and can even me larger,
though I think this could run into problems with some systems.  I know for
sure that Linux has a problem this way because the code used by Intel to do
the networking stuff lies right on top of where the second stage loader did
it's thing.  The end result is a crash on boot.  This was a few years ago so
perhaps by now it is fixed. 
Most modern servers have this feature and for those who have an aversion
to certain names this is a solution.  If one does not like Intel, well then
I guess there is a bigger problem


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