On Fri, Sep 08, 2006 at 10:44:13AM +0200, Hubert Feyrer wrote:
> 
> I had a user ask how to PXE boot NetBSD (preferably i386 in my/g4u case) 
> on a 64bit machine. I don't know enough about PXE and its dependence on 
> the hardware architecture, so the question was raised if a 64bit pxeboot 
> is needed. Right now the amd64 port only has a /usr/mdec/pxeboot_ia32.bin 
> ...
> 
> Has anyone tried this, or can provide help how to PXEbboot NetBSD/i386 on 
> a 64bit machine?

Just pretend it is a 32 bit machine!
It doesn't 'become' 64 bit until after the kernel is loaded.

To boot a 64 bit kernel you need bootstrap code that understands
the 64 bit ELF - which the boot code in the amd64 tree does.

I believe the amd64 boot code (which is all 32bit code) can load
both amd64 and i386 kernels.
The i386 code can only boot i386 (I'm not sure why).

Of course, your root filesystems have to be different.

	David

-- 
David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk