[rescue] net boot help

[Dan Debertin]

On Sat, 9 Jun 2001, Joshua D. Boyd wrote:

> However, when I turn on the javastation (or try to net boot the other two
> sparcs), I get the following message:
> Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet

I have no experience with the Javastations, just other diskless Sun
machines (ELC, SLC, etc.) . But I assume they work the same.

Anyway, you don't use bootp to boot these machines. You need to use a
combination of these daemons:

rarpd: responds to a RARP broadcast from the client, mapping its MAC
address to an IP address (on Solaris, it's called "in.rarpd".... why do
you suppose it runs under inetd? Very odd).

tftpd: responds to a GET request for a booter program. The booter program
will be called <IP-addr-in-hex>.<ARCH>. For example, my ELC (182.168.1.2)
asks for C0A80102.SUN4C. The booter program for Solaris can be found at
/usr/platform/$ARCH/lib/fs/nfs/inetboot.

bootparamd: Tells the client where to mount its root/swap partitions from.
Sometimes called rpc.bootparamd, depending on the UNIX.

NFS: All of the requisite NFS daemons that allow it to mount its
root/swap, i.e. mountd, nfsd, portmap/rpcbind, etc.


I've set up boot servers under FreeBSD, NetBSD and Solaris. I have not
done so with Linux, but I would assume that it comes with all of the above
tools. It's sort of fun, once you get it working. Let me know if you need
more information.

Dan

-- 
Dan Debertin
airboss at nodewarrior.org
www.nodewarrior.org