Most BIOSes used to be able to network boot through a network controller BIOS extension. (Often built-in).
It's probably easier in these EFI days, but I don't know.
The only time I've done it is when you use a bootloader like EFI grub to grab an image from anywhere that you can then boot.
PxE/TFTP boot is another technique. Again, I forget how this interacts with EFI, cuz I haven't used it a lot. Usually just put a bootloader on a USB that then does the netbooting. One advantage of PxE is it's relatively easy to configure giving different OS images to different devices. You match them by MAC address in the DHCP server and then serve whatever you want. You never have to modify the USB, even to tell it what to download. Which makes for a handsfree approach.
That's kind of neat for someone that wants to try different distros and screw around but for people like me, the usb is just fine if something goes wrong.
You linux people just keep solving my problems like the little computer slaves you are and everything will be fine. sudo apt get blowjob, work on it. I need this.
Netbooting embedded boards into an OS kernel and then using a read-only NFS root filesystem is pretty common in embedded development. The way it ends up is everything is configured on the build machine. The board knows just enough to send out a request for what to download. The minimal kernel downloaded knows how to mount a root filesystem at boot. Even modules, I think, can be built into the root fs.
And any specific parameters like MAC addresses and hostnames, you try to pull from the hardware or from the linux kernel command line string that grub can provide. Since those things never change for a board, you only have to set them up once. Oftentimes, you can find some nonvolatile storage to put parameters in. Many have some NOR flash, for instance. A lot of intel server boards have F-RAM or some shit in them. I haven't tried that stuff.
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 1 point 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 17:07:24 ago (+1/-0)*
It's probably easier in these EFI days, but I don't know.
The only time I've done it is when you use a bootloader like EFI grub to grab an image from anywhere that you can then boot.
PxE/TFTP boot is another technique. Again, I forget how this interacts with EFI, cuz I haven't used it a lot. Usually just put a bootloader on a USB that then does the netbooting. One advantage of PxE is it's relatively easy to configure giving different OS images to different devices. You match them by MAC address in the DHCP server and then serve whatever you want. You never have to modify the USB, even to tell it what to download. Which makes for a handsfree approach.
[ + ] Prairie
[ - ] Prairie 1 point 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 12:41:00 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] GrayDragon
[ - ] GrayDragon 1 point 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 11:43:42 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Love240
[ - ] Love240 0 points 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 16:36:15 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] RMGoetbbels
[ - ] RMGoetbbels 0 points 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 17:05:10 ago (+0/-0)
You linux people just keep solving my problems like the little computer slaves you are and everything will be fine. sudo apt get blowjob, work on it. I need this.
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 1 point 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 17:12:35 ago (+1/-0)*
And any specific parameters like MAC addresses and hostnames, you try to pull from the hardware or from the linux kernel command line string that grub can provide. Since those things never change for a board, you only have to set them up once. Oftentimes, you can find some nonvolatile storage to put parameters in. Many have some NOR flash, for instance. A lot of intel server boards have F-RAM or some shit in them. I haven't tried that stuff.
[ + ] RMGoetbbels
[ - ] RMGoetbbels 0 points 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 17:20:08 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Empire_of_the_Mind
[ - ] Empire_of_the_Mind 0 points 5 monthsNov 15, 2023 13:35:43 ago (+0/-0)