[SunRescue] Install Solaris 2.5.1 on an IPX?

[David Rouse]

I've come across an IPX with SunOS 4.1.4_U1 and 40 MB of RAM on it.

What I'd like to do is install Solaris 2.5.1 on it, but I've had trouble 
with both booting from a cdrom and netbooting. I'm hoping that my 
problem is rescue-oriented enough to warrant posting here.

The external CD-Rom is an AppleCD 300 with a SCSI cable that steps down 
from the SCSI-I centronics to the mini SCSI-II on the IPX (at least 
that's my assumption). Anyhow, the IPX tries to boot from the cdrom but 
apparently can quite communicate correctly. I didn't write down the 
error messages, but if anyone thinks this can be fixed I'll try again 
and write everything down.

The netbooot server I'm trying to use is a 670MP running Solaris 2.5.1 
and DNS as the name service. Both the IPX and the 670MP have each other 
in their /etc/hosts  files, the 670MP has the IPX in its /etc/ethers 
file and I've run the add_install_client script on the Solaris 2.5.1 
install CD. The machines are on the same subnet, and I've corrected the 
IPX's habit of using the wrong broadcast address.

When I halt the IPX and 'boot net' everything runs fine until after the 
IPX prints out the 'root entry:' to the console. Then I get the message 
that: 'Unable to NFS mount 192.168.0.28:/cdrom/solaris_2_5_1_sparc, 
starting shell. On exiting the shell, enter usr fs name.'

I've taken the error message literally and did a 'share' on the 
/cdrom/solaris_2_5_1_sparc directory, exited the shell and told the IPX 
to use '192.168.0.28:/cdrom/solaris_2_5_1.' But then the cursor on the 
IPX just sits there, and has sat there, for 20 minutes or more (I'm 
using a Wyse as the console for the IPX).

I've looked through the sunhelp reference links, but nothing seems 
appropriate and the install manual seems to assume that nothing will go 
wrong. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

---
David Rouse
Network Manager
Goldsboro News-Argus