China DOS Union

The functionality of tftpd32.exe is too poor. The speed of its tftp service is extremely slow. It's too slow when the client downloads the image. The dhcp function is also too weak. To make a boot image, you must use embot, otherwise there is no undi. PXELINUX can load ordinary image files but the conventional memory will be reduced by 90K. Original http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2003-June/002175.html

This boot image doesn't consider including ftp. Using an ftp client under DOS is very troublesome. There are already tftpd and tftp functions, and it can also download and upload.

Test again that when memdisk loads a non-standard image file larger than 2880K and uses the parameter keeppxe, there are often errors where it can't read drive A, and give up on pxelinux. Maybe pxegrub + memdisk will have the same phenomenon.

[ Last edited by xugaohui on 2006-3-16 at 11:59 ]

tftpd32.exe isn't as bad as you said, I've tried it, and the boot image doesn't need to be too large in the first place. Because I'm afraid that tftp transmission isn't as stable as ftp (actually, I've only used tftp for PXE booting, I'm not familiar with tftp). So if the boot image has ftp, it will be much more convenient. tftpd32 is indeed small and portable, can be placed on a USB flash drive, and there's no need to go to the trouble of installing dhcpd and tftp servers. Of course, the functional aspect being less stable than the latter is also tolerable. Personal opinion.

You're welcome!

I have completely used the software built into WINDOWS 2000 to achieve PXE DOS boot for GHOST network cloning or other maintenance work. DHCP is the built-in component of the 2000 Server Edition. TFTP also doesn't use third-party ones. As long as you select the "Remote Installation Service" of the 2000 system, a background service called "Trivial FTP Daemon" will be automatically installed. Just set it to start automatically, and it's very stable.
I am currently researching the use of PXE diskless boot for maintenance of disk-based systems. For example, for computer room managers who often temporarily take on some tasks, such as updating the computer system platform or installing new software, after using it for a period of time, if a dedicated diskless server can be made and various made images can be mounted, maintenance will be very convenient and easy! Hope fellow enthusiasts to study. My QQ: 19043255

A dozen or so megabytes of image? That's quite large,

But what I'm doing at work now is a 10G image, with a bunch of GHOST images on it, 98, 2000, XP, 2003, etc., and all kinds of tools are available. After the workstation PXE boots, you can use it casually, which is very convenient.

I'm using the Ardence software.

It's different from yours. I made a 16M floppy disk image, and after booting, it's drive A. You use Ardence, and after the client boots, it's a virtual 10G scsi hard disk. I also thought about doing this, but I lost the undi function. The server installation is also much more complicated, more troublesome than 3com vld. Maybe it's difficult for many people to install the server software. When the client's pxe version is too low, it may not be able to connect to the virtual hard disk. This method only needs a green software hanewin dhcp server.

[ Last edited by xugaohui on 2006-3-17 at 23:32 ]

Using software originally intended for XP for DOS seems a bit like misusing resources. But it's really quite easy to use. Installing and such isn't a difficult thing for everyone. And you also said it's mainly aimed at enterprise and other unit users. Is going too extreme in over - pursuing simplicity and being user - friendly?

This thing is really good. After netstart, how to transfer files between the host and the client? For example, how to transfer an iso file from the host to the client?

After netstart, execute the mapping of the network drive:
net use v: \\server\sharename
Map the share named sharename on the computer named serverv as drive V, and now drive V corresponds to the files under sharename. Now you can directly copy the ISO to the client's hard drive. You can also directly open the ISO file and execute LOADISO the ISO file.

Thanks to the landlord, I successfully transferred an ISO file from the host.

The PXE.img at http://www.argontechnology.com/ here doesn't work. It says
No Argon CMS server found!
Is it exclusive?

I've been looking for a way to PXE boot on a common computer without a PXE boot chip on the network card and without PXE functionality on the motherboard. Inspired by you, I looked again and found that the rbfg.exe that comes with Windows can do it. (That is, remote boot floppy generator)

rbfg + Avlgomgr_2006, all done (although RBF supports limited network cards, but basically sufficient)

Just seems like it won't boot when himem.sys is loaded

There is a conflict between Ardence and himem.sys. When using bxp on the server side and installing the DOS system on a virtual hard disk, there are many strange problems that you haven't encountered. Only the himem.sys that comes with FreeDOS and DR-DOS won't cause a crash when loaded. But after using their himem.sys, the compatibility is very poor. The version of the XMS driver is 2.0. Sometimes, if the memory is too large, it can't recognize the full capacity.

The following is the character interface of Argon MBA pxe.img in Virtual PC 2004 SP1. This pxe.img loads slowly. If you use it in Virtual PC, it is best to use the MBA image from www.emboot.com, which loads faster. VMware has its own PXE boot.
Argon Managed PC Boot Agent (MBA) v4.40
(C) Copyright 2002-2004 Argon Technology Corporation
(C) Copyright 2000 3Com Corporation
All rights reserved.

Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE)
(C) Copyright 1999 Intel Corporation
All rights reserved.


CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 03 FF 5A BF BF GUID: 00020003-0004-0005-0006-000700080009
DHCP.


Tried Windows' built-in rbfg.exe. It supports few network cards and also loads very slowly. It takes a long time to show the network card's address. It can't be fully compatible with PXE boot:
Microsoft Windows Remote Installation Boot Floppy
(C) Copyright 2001 Lanworks Technologies Co. a subsidiary of 3Com Corporation
All rights reserved.
SMC9332/DE500 (AA-XA)

Node: 0003FF5ABFBF
DHCP..
TFTP....PXE Menu Boot File v1.20
ERROR: Get BINL info failed!PXE Menu Boot File v1.20
ERROR: Preboot API not found!

[ Last edited by xugaohui on 2006-3-20 at 20:40 ]

Ardence software is pretty good. I made a diskless Windows 2000, and it seems to be no different from a disk-based one in operation.

Currently, I used WINNT 4.0 to make a DOS network boot disk. But my boot disk only supports one kind of network card. How can I achieve that one network boot DOS floppy disk supports multiple network cards at the same time! That is, my batch processing can automatically identify and load that DOS network card driver (*.DOS).
THANKS.!
QQ:16750931

DOS network boot disks generated with nt allow multiple network cards to be installed, but you only selected one. Just run setup from the boot disk, then select Change Network Configuration--->
Options:
╔═════════════════════╗
║ Change Settings ║
║ Remove ║
║ Add Adapter ║
║ Add Protocol ║
║ ║
║ Network configuration is correct. ║
╚═════════════════════╝
Click Add Adapter in the dialog box to add other network card drivers

[ Last edited by xugaohui on 2006-3-24 at 22:01 ]