Autopilot, a module for remotely doing things

[Brugnara Daniele]

Here I am again.. I'm studying grub code and thinking about this feature we are talking about.

A funny name could be "autopilot". I'm thinking this about a big container where to put more than a "pilot".

Let's see how my mind though this:

AUTOPILOT.mod

|

|____> UDP

|

|____> HTTP Server

|

|____> HTTP Client

|

|____> Serial

Each pilot will do the very same thing: receive/read a small cfg file and GRUB will do what it must to do.

For a first release, it should be enough to pass:

choice=1

or

choice=Windows 7 (64 bit)

Why two HTTP?

It's just an idea. We can think GRUB as a web service that allows it self being called from any application:

POST grub.local:8080/api/autopilot [!DATA!]

or see GRUB as a client that asks for a file to a centralized server: 

http://givemethatfile.please/aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

Security

This is a very important thing. Any suggestion will be very appreciated.

Pilots

The first release, can have only one pilot. There's no need to develop all 4 and more important, this four are not a final decision. Let's talk about this.

GRUB.cfg

All informations about this module can be stored into grub.cfg or better, a specific autopilot.cfg but I do not want to add too much complexity. 

I'm thinking something about:

[autopilot]

pilots_engaged = UDP[, HTTPSERVER[, SERIAL]]

UDP.port = 1664

HTTPSERVER.port = 8080

SERIAL.port = /dev/ttyUSB0

SERIAL.conf = 57600 8N1

[...]


As always, let's talk about this :)

Daniele.

On Sat Nov 29 2014 at 2:07:31 AM Brugnara Daniele <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi all.

I'm thinking about a system that boots with a wol packet. Who sends this packet in 99% of cases, is far away from that computer and it could be useful to boot into a different system instead of the default one. (please keep in mind that changing the default option in grub is not a option for this specific use case)

If a wol can be delivered successfully, an UDP packet containing simple datas should be enough to achieve this.

Something like this:

- MAC: the destination device mac address

- choice: a number (can be empty)

- commandLine: a full commandline (a choice or this..)

- more? I don't know for now..

This option should be enabled in the grub.conf by the user.

What do you think about? Could this be useful? Am I missing something, like a tool that does this automagically?

I've read about an eth-to-serial but it's not what I want.

PXE or bootp is not an option here. I don't want to manage another server... 

Thanks for your time.

Daniele.