Linux, Internet Cafe, Haiti...

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Jamon Camisso <jamon.camisso-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>

| I've forgotten how spoiled I've become with grub and such. Etherboot sounds
| like just the tool that is needed to make the whole mess of a system work.

Apparently Grub can boot off the network too!  But you have to have a
grub with the right network drivers.  I've never tried this.  The
precompiled Grub I looked at (FC4) had no drivers.

Here's an extract from "info grub":
    Although GRUB is a disk-based boot loader, it does provide network
    support. To use the network support, you need to enable at least one
    network driver in the GRUB build process. For more information please
    see `netboot/README.netboot' in the source distribution.

If you like Grub, it might be worth seeing what cards are supported.

(Etherboot probably has different versions for different network cards
too.  You had better be sure that you have the right versions for each
card you need to support.)


My experience setting things up in the field is at conferences, not
third world countries.  One thing I'm sure applies in both cases: do
the setup at home, as a dry run, before you go.  It's the only way to
find (most of) the things you need to take and to debug the setup in a
workable environment (fast internet, PC hardware stores, fewer
distractions, etc.).
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