Net bootable DOS RSS environment

[mr.syntrx]

At home, I don't have DOS running on any of my machines - I just net boot into it via PXE from my laptop (a Dell Latitude C400.)

To make this happen, you would need:

* A PC capable of network booting via PXE, ie something fairly modern

* PXELINUX (provided with SYSLINUX, from http://syslinux.zytor.com). Don't be fooled by the name - this is just a boot loader, and doesn't really have much to do with Linux.

* A DOS boot floppy

* A DOS NDIS network driver (UNDIS3.DOS will use the PXE stack, and will probably work on nearly anything)

* A DHCP server

* A TFTP server

* A SMB server

The system basically does this:

* Acquires an IP address via DHCP, fetches PXELINUX, and presents a menu asking if I want to jump to DOS, or boot normally

* Loads the DOS floppy image via the network, and boots it

* DOS then loads the floppy image, loads HIMEM.SYS etc, loads its own network driver, loads its TCP stack, runs 'net login', and maps the network volume \\aurora\rss as M:

* I get a command prompt, and can run RSS as normal. Archive files are stored on the network volume, which is actually an old SPARCstation with a tape unit attached, where they can be safely backed up.



Would be sufficient interest in this forum for me to bother writing an indepth how-to document for this?


Cheers

[440roadrunner]

You have completely lost me here. why would you need to do this? If you have a machine with a DOS boot floppy, why not just use that?

[mr.syntrx]

For newer machines that have no floppy drive at all.

In any case, the floppy disk is unreliable, and mostly extinct.

It also avoids me having to use DOS NTFS drivers, all of which are of questionable quality, to read/write to and possibly hose my NTFS partition.

[kc7gr]

At home, I don't have DOS running on any of my machines - I just net boot into it via PXE from my laptop (a Dell Latitude C400.)

To make this happen, you would need:

<BigSnip>


Would be sufficient interest in this forum for me to bother writing an indepth how-to document for this?


Cheers

I, for one, would love to see a detailed HowTo on this. I certainly have the capability to implement it here, and it could help if my main programming system eats itself.

Thanks much.

[kd5wyu]

I second this, for much the same reasons as kc7gr.

Plus, working PXE has other advantages as well for those that like to play with different machines.

-b-

[kb0nly]

Why bother, just make a bootable CD, all computers have CD-ROM's these days. If the computer also has a floppy drive toss in a new blank floppy and use that location to save read codeplugs.

No offense but your making this far too complicated for just booting into DOS for a little programming. As for the NTFS issue, it takes like five minutes to make a small FAT32 partition on a local hard drive for storage, so i don't see your reason there either.

You can also use partition magic and PQBoot to make a dual boot of DOS and Windows in about 15-20 minutes and set the boot priority to Windows with a few seconds delay, that way the computer always boots to Windows with only a minor increase in boot time, but when you need DOS you need only tap a key to get there on boot.

Frankly i don't see any advantage to having something that complicated, just more room for error or stuff to stop working, etc. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid, is something i live by.

[mr.syntrx]

In my environment, it is the simplest way of doing things.

All of the network services are already provided by my machines for other uses, e.g. DHCP and TFTP are there for my Sun Ray thin clients, and the pxelinux boot menu was about three minutes' work. I don't own a CD-ROM or floppy drive for this laptop, and I refuse to use floppies for anything even half-important, like codeplugs.

Floppies are not only unreliable, they're also s..........l..........o..........w. 100Mbps ethernet isn't.

The DOS environment in this case is portable - if I want to program something from another box in the house, it's no drama.