network support

[Vincent Guffens]

Hi,

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.

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.

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 ?

What should I do now ? It is not practical to send a patch as they are 
many news files coming directly from etherboot. Would it be an idea to 
have a new netboot branch in the cvs so that it would be possible to 
experiment with it without breaking anything else ?





--
                                Vincent Guffens
                                PhD Student UCL/CESAME
                                tel:   +32 10 47 80 30
Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history.
"Don't bother us with politics," respond those who don't want to learn.
                -- Richard M. Stallman