On 6/4/05, Erlend Slettevoll erlend@slettevoll.no wrote:
I just recently started to look at the Linux BIOS-project. Is it possible to use Linux BIOS to boot other OSes disklessly using Network Block Devices? (NBD)
Depends on how big your flash, what additional boot devices are available, or how much you are willing to code.
LinuxBIOS itself only directly supports the init of the hardware. After the hardware is up LinuxBIOS loads a elf payload. This payload then can do whatever it wants. A payload for etherboot exists so you could hack up that.
If your flash is large enough then you can load an actual linux kernel+initrd as a payload and then do anything linux can do.
Or if you can boot off of a compact flash then you can FILO ( a disk loader payload) a kernel+initrd image.
Or if you have USB available you can pull a kernel off of a USB stick.
So yes, but not directly.