Re: network support

[Tobias Wollgam]

> I started to integrate network support into grub2 using the code from
> etherboot 5.3.14.
>
> Although it is still very basic, I sent it now as I saw the post
> "question" about network support, so it might be time to discuss
> about it.
>
> What I've done so far is simply to add a "lspci" command as a grub
> module, which seems to work on my pc. Because it uses the pci code
> from etherboot, it should be a good starting point to start porting
> all their drivers.

very well, lspci, very usefull tool if one works with nics ...

> I was thinking that it could be a good idea to be able to use their
> drivers with no modification at all so that future management would
> be easier. New driver in grub would also mean new drivers in
> etherboot and the other way around.

Yes, I think not modifying the code would be a nice thing.

> In grub legacy, there was this problem when compiling a lot of
> drivers in. How do we avoid it here ? I was thinking that it could be
> possible to use the lspci to find out the device id and initialize
> only the right driver, but maybe it is not practical ? Is it done
> anywhere else like that or do they probe the card by trying the
> iniliazation routine of the driver ?
>
> Also, if we add a tftp command, what should we do with the downloaded
> file. Maybe it would be convenient to have some kind of ramfs to be
> able to copy the files there ?

I think it should be handled like in grub 1, but I do not know the 
capabilities of grub 2.