[c-nsp] Booting 7513 off ATA flash

[Anton Kapela]

While it's true that:

> > 1. install in slot0: a standard PCMCIA flash card with some
> basic IOS

And:

> This is what I do with my RSP4 CPUs - They boot off slot0 
> with the boot image (usually 12.2.27), then load the IOS 
> image off disk1. Problem is that the RSP4+ tries to boot off 
> disk1, fails (presumably due to the an alignment issue that 
> Rodney mentioned.

...both will work, I'd recommend that you put dual-PCMCIA styles aside
and instead use a standard 'boot image' on the flash SIMM that's
internal to the RSP4/4+. Boot images of any recent S-train vintage
*directly* support linear *and* ATA flash, and still fit in 8 megs or
less. This is true for VXR's as well!

It'll look something like:

#dir bootflash:
Directory of bootflash:/

    1  -rw-     7449704  Sep 20 2006 14:32:46 -05:00
rsp-boot-mz.120-32.S5.bin

This boot image cannot do much. It can check your stored nvram config,
activate and support a few supported interfaces, accept static routes
back to the mothership (assuming you're using the boot image from OOB
and want to avoid splurping 20 megs of IOS over your 28.8 modem) and
proceed to boot the image you specified in your config. An example is
below which boots two RSP's:

hw-module slot 2 image disk0:rsp-k4pv-mz.120-32.S5.bin
hw-module slot 3 image disk0:rsp-k4pv-mz.120-32.S5.bin

If no directive is found for hw-module or 'boot' parameters, it'll
simply scan for ATA and linear flash cards in the slots, booting the
first runable image it locates, which in the case of another 7507 is:

#dir disk0:
Directory of disk0:/

    1  -rw-    21614764   Oct 6 2006 19:06:12 -05:00
rsp-ik9sv-mz.123-20.bin

In short: KISS (keep it simple, etc) and use the internal flash SIMM
you've already (probably) got. Also, some of the FUD regarding using the
'same' boot image as your main train IOS is unfounded. I've used S-train
boot images (because they fit) coupled with 12.2, 12.3t, and 12.4
mainline for years without ill-effect. 

-Tk