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Booting the DS700

Obtaining the WWENG2 boot image

To make the DecServer 700 work, you need to provide it with a kind of operating system. This can be loaded from the network over different protocols, or stored on and loaded from a PCMCIA flash memory card.
For the DecServer 700, the file you want to use is named WWENG2.

Please note that I will not copy and distribute the WWENG2 boot file. This is copyrighted material, and is still sold for serious money by Digital Network Products today. Please inquire there for WWENG2 boot software.
Thank you.

Booting from TCP/IP

The TC wants configuration by bootp or dhcp. It's quite easy to set up a bootp server (what makes more sense here than dhcp) on a dhcp server program. All that's needed is an entry like this in the dhcp.conf (you might want to consult the dhcpd's manual page):

host serial-01 { hardware ethernet 08:00:2b:38:fe:4f; fixed-address 10.0.1.241; filename "/srv/tftp/WWENG2"; }

Of course, there has to be a tftp server set up and running, with access to the bootfile given in the bootp (or dhcp) configuration.

Booting from flash memory

When a flash memory card is installed in the DecServer, and the boot image is stored thereon, the system can be booted from the flash card even if the boot server is down (or there is no boot server any more).

I have installed a regular PCMCIA flash memory card in my DecServer, and it is working happily with it. There seems to be a problem with current storage sizes, though: When I installed a 16 MB card, the DS recognized it as flash memory, but was not able to write the boot file to it. I then bought (on eBay) a 2 MB memory card, and with this, it worked.

When the card is installed, you need to do the following to write the boot image to the card. You have to provide a boot server with tftp support as described above for this:


Local> INITIALIZE FROM ETHERNET UPDATE FLASHRAM DELAY 0

Connection will then be closed immediately, and a reboot process will take place. Writing to the flash RAM takes some minutes, please be patient when the 7-segment display shows thre horizontal dashes. It's writing the card then.

After successful installation, you can check the boot file has been written:


Local> SHOW MEMORY

Dynamic RAM:                                     4 M bytes
                                                          
Non-Volatile RAM:                               32 K bytes
                                                          
Flash RAM:                                                
  Installed:                                           Yes
  Total size:                                    2 M bytes
  Boot block:                                        Valid
  Load Image:                                             
    Name:                                           WWENG2
    Size:                                    1568144 bytes
    Version:                Network Access SW V2.0 BL10-40

THIS DATA IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DATA, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

All product and brand names mentioned on there pages and in the source code are registered names and/or trademarks of the respective owner and are mentioned for identification purposes only.

For a full copyright notice, please see this link.

Last updated: 2004-05-05--16:03

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