Very Computer

Hi,

  Recently, I found that solaris has a rpl daemon bundled.
As I know, rpl usually used on netware/NT to support
diskless bootup. So I am curious that what is rpl doing on
unix? Is there a rpl daemon for freebsd? If so, can I use
it to support diskless netware/NT workstation bootup?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

rone
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Quote:>  Recently, I found that solaris has a rpl daemon bundled.
>As I know, rpl usually used on netware/NT to support
>diskless bootup. So I am curious that what is rpl doing on
>unix?

        NAME
             rpld - x86 Network Booting RPL (Remote Program Load) Server

        SYNOPSIS
             /usr/sbin/rpld [ -fdDMblgz ] interface
             /usr/sbin/rpld -a [ -fdDMblgz ]

        AVAILABILITY
             x86

             SUNWcsu

        DESCRIPTION
             The RPL server provides network booting functionality to x86
             clients by listening to boot requests from them according to
             the RPL protocol specifications.

                ...

          Client Configuration
             The following configuration information is specific to boot-
             ing x86 clients.

             In order to allow clients to boot x86 from across  the  net-
             work,  the  client's information has to be pre-configured in
             two databases:  ethers(4) and bootparams(4).  Both databases
             can  be  accessed  through  NIS.   Refer  to x86: Installing
             Solaris Software for information on how to configure a disk-
             less  x86  client. ...

"x86: Installing Solaris Software".  Hmm.  Perhaps this suggests that
"rpld" is there to boot PeeCees running *Solaris 2.x*?  It might be
possible to use it to boot Microsoftish OSes on PeeCees as well, I
guess.

(I've no idea why they say "AVAILABILITY: x86", given that it appears to
be present on a Solaris 2.5.1/SPARC machine here (and, yes, it's a SPARC
binary); perhaps they should've just said "SUNWcsu", as it's presumably
available on both x86 and SPARC.)

Quote:>Is there a rpl daemon for freebsd?

An AltaVista search for

        ("RPL" OR "remote program load") NEAR linux AND NOT etherworks

("NOT etherworks" to screen out 10,000 catalog listings for the Digital
EtherWORKS card, all of which mention RPL, presumably because one can
use the card to do network booting, and both FreeBSD and Linux, because
the card is claimed to be supported by those OSes) turned up nothing, so
it may even be that there's no Linux daemon that could be ported.

I don't know if that's a protocol the spec to which Novell has published
or not.
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