@all, I have uploaded my slides here, LaTeX source code only though, you'll need to compile. The URI will be deleted sooner or later, though, because I need to clean that server installation (which is just a try for a setup and some scripts).

(03-11-2020, 04:43 PM)vain Wrote: freem, do you have any experience in using this? http://etherboot.org/wiki/removable#crea...loppy_disk I have an old machine with BIOS here, but no native PXE support in that BIOS. So I guess booting a little PXE stack from a floppy might be the only option.

Nope, sorry. I started playing with PXE (after years of being willing to, but never finding enough motivation to do so, like many here!) with modern hardware (iPXE through virtualbox and mano842 for the 1st try, adding beaglebone blacks installs on the 2nd try, and now only have the iPXE) which had built-in support for network booting.
For older systems that do *not* natively supports PXE, AFAIK, you either need to solder a ROM to add support to the NIC (or add a NIC with native support for PXE), flash the BIOS with a firmware that supports it, or rely on local storage for chainload (since it's what it really is). I guess the later solution (the floppy disk) is the easier, unfortunately.

(01-11-2020, 04:53 PM)venam Wrote: ...

Let me reply mail-like to the notes that speak about my talk, because it's far easier than bbcode for in-place comment.

> The appliance will boot from the network by using a protocol named "PXE" (Pre-boot eXecution Environment).

PXE is the specification, which requires a bunch of protocols (BOOTP and TFTP which are, AFAIK, simpler versions of the ones we all know). Some firmwares (modern ones, probably) also support DHCP and HTTP.

> - VLAN ?

Virtual lan, which is not a "real" VLAN (that term is used for level 2 switchs, I think, to make it explicit that a broadcast from some NICs won't propagate to others, between other things... that's something I still need to learn how to do).
I misused that term to make it explicit that I have 2 LANs: one which happens to be physical (it includes the internet router which do DHCP, the host of the virtual machines I use, and potentially many other systems) and a 2nd one which is hosted on a computer and can only communicate to the physical LAN through the host.
I should have done some graphics to help with that, but I got several hurry day because of real life, resulting in even less preparation that I would have done normally.
Sorry about that.

> - "secure" - LOL, you're a TFTP bro.

Indeed. But "secure" applies to the daemon. Basically, it means "chroot to the served directory" and is advised for both security and compat of some ROMs (according to manpage).

Hopefully I could clarify some points.

(03-11-2020, 04:43 PM)vain Wrote: freem, do you have any experience in using this? http://etherboot.org/wiki/removable#crea...loppy_disk I have an old machine with BIOS here, but no native PXE support in that BIOS. So I guess booting a little PXE stack from a floppy might be the only option.

Nope, sorry. I started playing with PXE (after years of being willing to, but never finding enough motivation to do so, like many here!) with modern hardware (iPXE through virtualbox and mano842 for the 1st try, adding beaglebone blacks installs on the 2nd try, and now only have the iPXE) which had built-in support for network booting.
For older systems that do *not* natively supports PXE, AFAIK, you either need to solder a ROM to add support to the NIC (or add a NIC with native support for PXE), flash the BIOS with a firmware that supports it, or rely on local storage for chainload (since it's what it really is). I guess the later solution (the floppy disk) is the easier, unfortunately.