Re: [ECOS] BOOPT bootfile

["Gary D. Thomas" <gary dot thomas at mind dot be>]

On Thu, 2003-01-30 at 08:19, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 08:15:55AM -0700, Gary D. Thomas wrote:
> 
> > > > Do you want RedBoot to use the information in the bootp reply
> > > > to download in image from a server and then execute that image?
> > > > 
> > > > If so, as far as i know, RedBoot does not support this. You
> > > > could add this though.
> > > 
> > > I added this two years ago.  I submitted a patch, but the patch
> > > was declined.  Those in charge said that some non-existent
> > > features in boot scripts were "the right way" to do things.
> > > Meanwhile, those script features are still (AFAIK) non-existent.
> > 
> > Alas, it's sad how some things just never got to happen (...long
> > story, don't want to go there)
> 
> We all know how that goes.
> 
> > > > Reboot understands SREC and ELF images and supports getting an
> > > > image from TFTP. All you need to add it code to extract the
> > > > filename and server name from the bootp reply and then control
> > > > the tftp client code and jump into the image after it has been
> > > > loaded.
> > > 
> > > FWIW, the patch I submitted is at
> > > 
> > >       http://sources.redhat.com/ml/ecos-discuss/2001-03/msg00227.html
> > > 
> > > The patch assumes the downloaded file is in SREC format.  The
> > > version I actually ship assumes it's a binary file (saves quite
> > > a bit on download time).
> > 
> > I've looked at this patch again and I still think that there are 
> > [slightly] better ways to handle this.  I've a little time now, so
> > maybe I can actually make it happen this time.
> 
> One obvious improvement would be to auto-detect the filetype. I
> thought about it, but decided it would be simpler to only allow
> one file type, and just tell customers to always convert the
> app into a binary image.  That's worked out fine [Except for
> the one customer who claims there's no way to do DHCP/TFTP with
> a W2K host.  I never did figure out what his damage was.]
> 

Agreed - I'll try and find a solution which handles this.

> Another option I was thinking about would be to treat the
> downloaded file as a script rather than an application That way
> you could do just put
> 
>  load foobar.bin
>  go
>  
> into the file pointed to by BOOTP/DHCP

Which is exactly what I suggested two years ago :-)

-- 
.--------------------------------------------------------.
|       Mind: Embedded Linux and eCos Development        |
|--------------------------------------------------------|
| Gary Thomas              email:  gary.thomas@mind.be   |
| Mind ( http://mind.be )  tel:    +1 (970) 229-1963     |
| gpg: http://www.chez-thomas.org/gary/gpg_key.asc       |
'--------------------------------------------------------'


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