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> CDROM drives have been commodity long enough that some people
> can't remember seeing a computer without one.

What does this have to do with netbooting? Unless you're talking about 
making an IPSlave-ish CDROM for the netboot client, I'm lost. 

> Everything I've ever seen (netbooting 3+ OSs on 4+ architectures in the
> last 5 years) assumed the reader knew the protocols and just needed a
> reference for the configuration files.  Add to the todo list an overview
> of the evolving protocols (bootpd, dhcpd, PXE...), a picture of the
> protocol stack (ethernet, IP, UDP) and how the netboot protocols fit in
> layers and sequence, and basic diagnostics (options to tcpdump to get
> useful traces to post to the list when something doesn't work).

That's a beautiful idea -- that, what Andy's writing up, and what I can put 
together ought to (hopefully) fit into a nice, coherent explanation of 
everything that's involved in netbooting. I think the goal here is to get 
something that allows the reader to get an overview without too many 
specifics if they just need to grasp the concept, but for the specifics to 
be accessible if they just need config examples. Agreed? 

> I'll help review or write any of the above if it'll get committed
> somewhere people can find it.

Why don't you get started on writing the "evolving protocols" and "basic 
diagnostics" sections for now, since you seem already to have a better grasp 
than Andy or I on this one. We can incorporate this all into one (or more, 
if appropriate) documents later, but what you've suggested will need writing 
no matter how it's approached. 

As to Jan's suggestion of involving the wider NetBSD community on this one, 
I think it'll be simplest to keep organized if we draft something here on 
port-dreamcast and then send it out for review/comment to the greater 
commuity. If anyone disagrees and wishes to ask for help elsewhere, that's 
fine, too...please just tell me, since I can feel myself working in a 
quasi-managerial role here. 

Alex Kirk 


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