DOS 5 Novell Remote Boot Workstations Hanging on Boot-up

We have already documented the use of DOS 5 remote boot workstations with Novell NetWare in Novell Newsletter Issue 13 (13th November 1991), but as we still seem to be receiving a large number of calls regarding DOS 5 remote boot workstations hanging, we have decided to re-issue the information as an IPB. What follows below has been taken directly from the 'readme' file supplied with the Novell utility RPLFIX.COM.

RPLFIX.COM is used to allow workstations to remote program load (RPL) properly with MS-DOS 5.x and above. This utility must be run after the boot image file (usually NET$DOS.SYS) has been created using the DOSGEN utility. RPLFIX will directly modify the boot image file; the boot image file's size and last modified date will be different after RPLFIX has been run. RPLFIX only needs to be run against the boot image file once. Attempts to run RPLFIX against an already modified boot image file are detected by the utility, and no further modifications will be made to the boot image file. If attempting to remote boot from a boot image file that has not been modified by RPLFIX, the workstation will most likely hang during boot.

Follow the instructions for DOSGEN (setting up remote reset workstations) in the Novell reference manuals. For NetWare v2.x, this information can be found in Chapter 9 of the "Supervisor Guide", or Chapter 2 of the "Using the Network" manual. For NetWare v3.x, this information is found in Appendix D of the Installation manual. After performing all steps as outlined in the appropriate manual to create the boot image file, run RPLFIX.COM.

RPLFIX can be found on the WSGEN diskette, or in the WSGEN subdirectory if you are installing using a network drive (or in RPLFIX.ZIP from file area 37 of the Apricot BBS). After you have located RPLFIX.COM, map a drive to the LOGIN subdirectory on the file server you wish to remote boot from. The DOSGEN procedure instructed you to create a boot image file in that subdirectory (usually named NET$DOS.SYS). If the drive you mapped to SYS:LOGIN was drive F, then you would enter the following:

RPLFIX only needs to be run if the version of DOS loaded on the floppy disk used with DOSGEN is 5.x or greater. Earlier versions of DOS do not require that this utility be run.

NOTE: If you renamed your boot image file, then you must use the new filename with RPLFIX:

where [d:] is the drive letter where the image file is located, and <boot image file> is the name of the file created with the DOSGEN utility.

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