Well you can do this with any computer you want, this is not only doable on a pi. You can do this on pretty munch any computer you want if it runs linux.

Unfortunately, I stil can't figure out how to do RPL boot which is the "old way" of netbooting computers. With this, I can boot any computer with ISA slots so it means that I can probably boot all of my computers without using any physical media. Unfortunately, the documentation is more than minimal and I'm still trying to find out how that thing works ...

Deksor wrote:

Well you can do this with any computer you want, this is not only doable on a pi. You can do this on pretty munch any computer you want if it runs linux.

Unfortunately, I stil can't figure out how to do RPL boot which is the "old way" of netbooting computers. With this, I can boot any computer with ISA slots so it means that I can probably boot all of my computers without using any physical media. Unfortunately, the documentation is more than minimal and I'm still trying to find out how that thing works ...

I have a friend who has been working in IT doing networking for many years now. I bet he would know, quite a few time's I've needed help he's suggested books from the early 90s I've been able to find from thrift book sellers online for 3 bucks. I just copy pasted your post to see if he says anything, because I was just wondering if this could be done with an older DOS rig 😎

edit: I have a feeling any existing software for this would require a machine running win NT

I know it can be done with anything not just a Pi, I've just been curious to fool around one one.. I enjoy programming odd hardware and those things are ridiculously fast compared to our retro machines 🤣

Indeed, you can create and boot handy PXELinux menus which provide installation media and tools for just about everything under the sun.

Every copy of x86 Windows on the market is Windows NT. The last version of DOS windows was Windows ME

What I meant is I doubt there is anything existing for linux since we were talking about PXE booting from a raspberry pi.. I'm wondering if the RPL boot he was mentioning has ever been done over a unix host.. I wouldn't doubt it but god knows where the information is.

I've found RPLD that runs under linux, but like I said, almost no informations on how to use it 🙁

My 486DX 33 can detect the server, but once it tries to receive stuff and to boot on it, it goes completely wrong

I'm currently building an NT4.0 server with a LOT of SCSI HDDs that I will put in raid (I'm planning to put two 9GB ones which will be in raid 0, one 18GB HDD that will be put in raid 0 with the two previous hdds that would act as one 18GB HDD, then I'll add a 36GB hdd that will be also put in raid 0 with the previous HDDs, then two other 36GB hdds that would be in raid 0 between each other and last but not least : a 72GB hdd. All 3 72GB stripes would be put in raid 5 together. Yep that is going to be a crazy thing that will be making a lot of noise 🤣)