Using the XMODEM serial protocol in 2022 #Programming @impraxical
Matt Keeter found a need to revive a 45 year old file transfer protocol to boot a system (an Oxide server sled) which receives its initial ramdisk over XMODEM.
What is XMODEM?
In an XMODEM transfer, the target file is broken up into chunks of a particular size and sent over the serial link to the device. After each chunk, the device replies with an acknowledgement. (See Wikipedia)
Implementing this protocol, especially on macOS proved very difficult!
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