🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <01bd605b$515d4780$360d3acb@tool>, "Ben Szyc" <jszyc@tpgi.com.au> writes:
> I am running Debian and i have 3 Bull (3com) diskless workstations and
> would appreciate help on getting it to boot up.
> 
> thanx :)

These are ex-tax office machines right?

You may have some real difficulty in getting them to boot Linux. It will
depend on which version you have (the Australian designed 386 or the
original 286/386sx).  As far as I can remember, neither version had
the boot prom chip seperate, it was part of the BIOS.

The later version includes the circuitry for the 3Com Etherlink II card,
so it might be possible to get it to take an alternate boot prom, but
not likely.  I am pretty sure the boot prom code was integrated into
BIOS, so a new chip would have to be burned for you which will be
complicated.

The original boot prom is almost unusable outside of 3+Share, 3+Open
or Microsoft Lan manager, as it uses an old 3Com proprietary network
protocol.  Those original boot proms are also setup to boot DOS
and might be quite specific in the way they work.

This, of course, doesn't mean it's impossible, but it's a lot of
work.

dave.


-- 
-------------------------------------------------------
David Rubie                           "Your brother's dead.
Macquarie Bank Ltd.                    Keep dancing!"
drubie@macquarie.com.au                (Sean Connery to Kim Basinger,
                                        "Never Say Never Again").