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+--- Thread: PXE-Like Boot? (/showthread.php?tid=8)
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PXE-Like Boot? - BostonBay - 12-09-2015
Can the PINE 64 boot from a TFTP server or NFS Share?
For example, could a bootstrap be placed on the micro-SD that would boot a Linux OS over the network? The bootstrap on the SD card would be simple and rarely change. The Linux OS on the TFTP or NFS share could be dynamic.
Thanks!
-Ken
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - tllim - 12-10-2015
(12-09-2015, 09:46 PM)BostonBay Wrote: Can the PINE 64 boot from a TFTP server or NFS Share?
For example, could a bootstrap be placed on the micro-SD that would boot a Linux OS over the network? The bootstrap on the SD card would be simple and rarely change. The Linux OS on the TFTP or NFS share could be dynamic.
Thanks!
-Ken
Sounds possible, but not yet try out.
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - tkaiser - 12-10-2015
Sure, it's an u-boot feature and you've to configure the kernel correctly. Whether it's useable depends on the Pine guys being able to figure out how to configure this using Allwinner's BSP.
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - BostonBay - 12-10-2015
Looks like there are functionalities in GRUB to boot from network, so that may be a possibility (but I am not a GRUB expert).
Made my pledge for a 1GB/Gigabit Ethernet board - Delivery in March. Looking forward to playing with it.
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - tkaiser - 12-10-2015
(12-10-2015, 08:03 AM)BostonBay Wrote: GRUB
GRUB? You should start from here on: http://linux-sunxi.org/U-boot
And if you're lucky and the Pine guys manage to get someone paid or community support you will able to benefit from http://linux-sunxi.org/Mainline_U-Boot
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - Groupers - 12-22-2015
You should be able to pull a filesystem down over a network connection with the kernel or something like that. I've never done it but I don't think the bootloader has to be involved if you don't want it to. I don't know if there are (dis)advantages to either approach but take a look at this.
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/nfsroot.txt
There may be other network boot methods which use Linux alone, surely bootloader support is unnecessary.
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - tkaiser - 12-22-2015
(12-22-2015, 08:19 AM)Groupers Wrote: surely bootloader support is unnecessary.
LOL! YMMD. You will be surprised how much stuff depends solely on the bootloader in question when entering ARM/Allwinner land.
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - JeffJibson - 04-26-2016
You might also want to look at the FEL, FEL USBBoot, BROM, links on linux-sunxi's site. Also, the link that I found that first showed me FEL: the-pine-a64-is-about-to-become=the-cheapest-ARM-64-bit-platform-to-run-Docker
I have a project I plan on using FEL on this forum: http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=782
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - baryluk - 04-30-2016
yes you can, but you will still need a sd card in the pine to hold u-boot to do dhcp and tftp operations and load the kernel and initrd images, after that kernel can do its things and do the same (+ nfs for example).
I do not think pine64 can run u-boot without reading it from sd card right now.
RE: PXE-Like Boot? - longsleep - 05-01-2016
Pine64 U-Boot has no support for networking.