Re: NetBoot & Diskless Stations...
On Thu, Dec 05, 2002 at 12:33:32PM -0600, R Seiji wrote:
> Had believed that it wasn't possible to network boot diskless 68K
> stations.
>
> Revisited the idea a few days ago and discovered that there were TWO
> products that allowed for network/diskless booting of 68K Macs.
Nice, but unfortunately it won't help.
The problem is that most macintosh hardware is proprietary and secret.
Until recently[1], there was no documentation at all; this implied that
all hardware needed to be reverse engineered, which is a time-consuming
process.
The fact that we can run Linux on an m68k Mac now, is due to the fact
that MacOS is used as some type of 'BIOS', initializing all hardware in
the system. Without this initialization, it would be impossible to run
Linux on your Macintosh.
Thus, a netboot setup (one that bypasses MacOS, at least) cannot boot
Linux on a Macintosh. Unless some skilled people step in and help
improving the Linux/m68k kernel, that is.
> Would like help on determining whether or not to pursue this project.
> Essentially, can the hangup which prevents booting directly into Linux
> be overcome by netboot process?
Hangup? What hangup?
[1] The NetBSD project recently received a batch of documentation from
Apple, on the condition that they would share it with other interested
parties. They have offered, but AIUI Linux/m68k developers don't have
the manpower to actually do something with that documentation.
--
wouter at grep dot be
"Human knowledge belongs to the world"
-- From the movie "Antitrust"
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