floppy image in ROM possible?

[jrsmile]

Hi,
is it possible to flash ipxe into a nic including a embedded script memdisk and a floppy image? not asking about the available memory in eeprom.

[mcb30]

(2015-07-04 20:20)jrsmile Wrote:  is it possible to flash ipxe into a nic including a embedded script memdisk and a floppy image? not asking about the available memory in eeprom.

Available memory (in both the NIC's flash/EEPROM and, unless you are using a .mrom image, in the BIOS's 128kB expansion ROM region) is the only thing that stops you from doing this.

Michael

[jrsmile]

thank you Michael,
i am going to try with a 8086:10d3 intel mrom will write a howto if possible.
any info on how to load a embedded file or is it seamless in the ipxe script?

[jrsmile]

looks good so far, 65k for ipxe and memdisk with all protocols disabled for download and ipv4+6+fc
root@h2132090:/opt/ipxe/ipxe-small/src# make bin/undionly.kpxe EMBED=embed.ipxe,memdisk
[DEPS] image/embedded.c
[BUILD] bin/embedded.o
[AR] bin/blib.a
ar: creating bin/blib.a
[VERSION] bin/version.undionly.kpxe.o
[LD] bin/undionly.kpxe.tmp
[BIN] bin/undionly.kpxe.bin
[ZINFO] bin/undionly.kpxe.zinfo
[ZBIN] bin/undionly.kpxe.zbin
[FINISH] bin/undionly.kpxe
rm bin/undionly.kpxe.bin bin/version.undionly.kpxe.o bin/undionly.kpxe.zinfo bin/undionly.kpxe.zbin
root@h2132090:/opt/ipxe/ipxe-small/src# ll -a bin/undionly.kpxe
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 66473 Jul 5 13:34 bin/undionly.kpxe
root@h2132090:/opt/ipxe/ipxe-small/src# ll -h bin/undionly.kpxe
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 65K Jul 5 13:34 bin/undionly.kpxe
root@h2132090:/opt/ipxe/ipxe-small/src# cat embed.ipxe
#!ipxe
kernel memdisk
initrd disk.img
boot


disk.img could be one of the following sizes:
163,840 bytes (160K) c=40 h=1 s=8 5.25" SSSD
184,320 bytes (180K) c=40 h=1 s=9 5.25" SSSD
327,680 bytes (320K) c=40 h=2 s=8 5.25" DSDD
368,640 bytes (360K) c=40 h=2 s=9 5.25" DSDD
655,360 bytes (640K) c=80 h=2 s=8 3.5" DSDD
737,280 bytes (720K) c=80 h=2 s=9 3.5" DSDD
1,222,800 bytes (1200K) c=80 h=2 s=15 5.25" DSHD
1,474,560 bytes (1440K) c=80 h=2 s=18 3.5" DSHD
1,638,400 bytes (1600K) c=80 h=2 s=20 3.5" DSHD (extended)
1,720,320 bytes (1680K) c=80 h=2 s=21 3.5" DSHD (extended)
1,763,328 bytes (1722K) c=82 h=2 s=21 3.5" DSHD (extended)
1,784,832 bytes (1743K) c=83 h=2 s=21 3.5" DSHD (extended)
1,802,240 bytes (1760K) c=80 h=2 s=22 3.5" DSHD (extended)
1,884,160 bytes (1840K) c=80 h=2 s=23 3.5" DSHD (extended)
1,966,080 bytes (1920K) c=80 h=2 s=24 3.5" DSHD (extended)
2,949,120 bytes (2880K) c=80 h=2 s=36 3.5" DSED
3,194,880 bytes (3120K) c=80 h=2 s=39 3.5" DSED (extended)
3,276,800 bytes (3200K) c=80 h=2 s=40 3.5" DSED (extended)
3,604,480 bytes (3520K) c=80 h=2 s=44 3.5" DSED (extended)
3,932,160 bytes (3840K) c=80 h=2 s=48 3.5" DSED (extended)

i was able to create a dos bootdisk with a 655,360 byte floppy image. so if there is a nic rom with more free space then 721833 byte it would be possible.

[jrsmile]

i did test some ipxe.isos im virtualbox i always get the following error message:
"could not start download: operation not supported."

this even happens when using a default general.h

i compile with:
make bin/ipxe.iso EMBED=embed.ipxe,memdisk,disk.img

#!ipxe
kernel memdisk pause
initrd disk.img
boot