kernel parameters

[Daniel Ridge]

On Thu, 27 Jul 2000 dschmitz at pp1.usuhs.mil wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone knew of any kernel parameters for network setup.
> I would like to define the IPs of my diskless nodes using kernel
> parameters, but if not, I'll have to go back and use BOOTP or RARP.  I
> figured I'd try the simplest solution first.

You may pass anything you like on the kernel command-line (up to the
maximum command line size allowed by the kernel) and your 'init' process
will be able to snarf it. Your 'linuxrc' or 'init' (depending on how you
intend to boot your system) will be able to grab any info you like
and set the system up according to your desires. I don't think that you
really want the kernel to configure the devices for you via special
kernel flags.

On the topic of RARP -- rarp is pretty excellent for what it does. If
you're interested in building an integrated cluster management system
(as we are doing at Scyld), rarp is simple enough to master (from an
implementation standpoint) that it is straightforward to add rarp-handling
code directly into a new application. BOOTP and DHCP are both more
complicated.

Cheers,
	Dan Ridge
	Scyld Computing Corporation