Net booting?

[Danilo Godec]

I have a Micronet SP2500K - a 21443 based card. It works very nice (they
even provide Linux drivers - source code - on the company web & ftp
sites).

However, when trying to use netboot or etherboot packages to build a boot
ROM, things get stuck. Usually the boot ROM (erhm, EPROM actually, but
that shouldn't matter) is simply not detected so nothing happens.
Sometimes we get a complete lockup just when it should start booting (ie.
right after the computer BIOS is done).

I also tried this with a Compex RL2000-PCI (NE2000 PCI compatible) and a
Compex RL2000A (the ISA variant), with same success (that is no success).

I'm asking for clues now...

Are boot ROMs anyway 'standard' (ie. if one designed for a 21134 based
card should work in all other 21134 based cards - even from different
manufacturer)?

Is it likely that card manufacturers include some propriarity
specifications so cool people like netboot and etherboot developers
couldn't support them ?

Anyone successfully using boot ROMs in TCP/IP networks (bootp)? Especially
with cheap cards (Tulip or not-Tulip)? 

Anyone using netboot (or etherboot) with other-than 3c5x9 cards (this one
worked even for me)?


	Thanks, D.



PS.: References:

http://www.han.de/~gero/netboot/

http://www.slug.org.au/etherboot/