Hi Dalibor, Thanks! Your writeup is a _big_ help. I'm now up to installing the base system over the network. The dialog box's default url is: http://auric.debian.org/debian which is incorrect. What should it be?
TIA, -Tennis >-----Original Message----- >From: Dalibor Topic [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 04:45 >To: Tennis Smith >Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; debian-sparc@lists.debian.org >Subject: Re: Sparc netinst > > >Hi Tennis, > >Tennis Smith wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I'm trying to netinst to an ss20. I have a tftp server setup on >a win2k PC >> (funny huh?) and I'm trying to netboot with your latest sparc-mini.iso. >> Unfortuntely, it doesn't seem that the OpenBoot values for this >scenario are >> very well documented. I looked in the Debian docs and none of >the variants >> on this worked for me. > >I doubt you can netboot from an iso. An iso image file usually is the >image of a CD filesystem, which is supposed to be burned to a CDROM, and >ran from there. TFTP on the other hand requires images to be loaded to >be specially tagged for TFTP transfer over the network. > >I did a netinst on my sparc station 5 last weekend (and on a hamilton >clone), and I went through some (in retrospective avoidable) trouble to >get my system to run so here's my advice: > >First of all, make sure you read the file >http://auric.debian.org/~bcollins/disks-sparc/current/README.txt for a >lot of useful information. I assume the file you're looking for is >http://auric.debian.org/~bcollins/disks-sparc/current/sparc32/tftpboot.img >. Also Read the installation guide located here: >http://auric.debian.org/~bcollins/disks-sparc/current/doc/install.en.html > >Install tcpdump or some equivalent software of your server. It will >prove useful when you debug boot failures. Install a RARP deamon. >Install a TFTP deamon. > >When the sparc fires up, press STOP-A and type in boot net on the >OpenBoot prompt. The sparc will send out a request for an IP over the >ethernet connection, and when it gets one, it will ask for an image to >boot from. > >First make sure you set up the rarp deamon on the server. All other >methods for address resolution (bootp, dhcp) didn't work that well for >me. RARP should work with any sparc box, I guess. And it's very easy to >setup: just add the hardware address of the sparc (displayed on bootup) >to /etc/ethers and give it a free ip from your local network. So if your > server is 192.168.1.1 you could give it 192.168.1.3 for example, if >noone else on your LAN is using the IP. > >There is some inet.d killing and restarting magic involved in all this. >I ended up killing inet.d for good, and just running rarpd from the >command line in debug mode. Tcpdump showed a successful ARP request, so >that was done. > >The next thing the sparc wanted was the kernel. In order to give it a >kernel, you need a configured TFTP deamon, and image directory, and an >image file. The image you've got already from Bill's server, the rest >you have to do yourself: > >Make a directory to store tftp boot images in. I used /tftpboot. Then >configure the tftp deamon to look into that directory for files. You may >find the tftp deamon to be configured to look somewere else in your >inet.d configuration file. Do the inet.d reloading/restaring magic and >wave a dead chicken. > >Looking at tcpdump, you should see the sparc sending TFTP requests for a >specific file, some hex values 'dot' SUN4M for example. Create a link >tftpboot.img to that file (or just copy it if you're on windows). If all >goes well, you should see a ton of output scrolling by on your tcpdump >window and the sparc should display a hex counter to show you that it's >loading the image. > >You should be greeted by a friendly penguin framebuffer logo, and the >kernel loading messages scrolling by. Now, normally, you should see the >debian installer welcome screen and can go on installing. > >If on the other hand the kernel hangs itself up in a loop requesting >something about SCSI, then make sure you reset the NVRAM to factory >settings. It should be STOP-N or STOP-D, I think, and then powercycle >the box. That bug took me a day trying to figure out. Thanks to the >friendly folks on #gentoo-sparc on freenode for their help, I could get >past that one ;) > >Which brings me to another point: IRC. While you're installing the >sparc, and you have no real clue about sparcs, an IRC connection could >prove very helpful. I couldn't find a debian specific sparc channel >anywhere, so I'd recommend #gentoo-sparc for newbies. Although gentoo >doesn't have TFTP images, the friendly folks there seem to have done >more than a few TFTP based installations in their lives, and are of >great help. > >So you've got your box to boot with the kernel from Ben, and a ready for >an install. Debian will ask you if you want to partition the disks. >Avoid one mistake I did: don't use a single partition for the whole / . >Make a small /boot partition of say 50M and you'll be fine. Otherwise, >SILO (the kernel loader) may not be able to load the kernel, and will >not be able to write itself to disk, *after* you've installed debian, >and you may have to re-install from scratch. The error message you get >from SILO in woody is not very helpful, but Mike Michlmayr helped me >interpret it properly. [1] > >Finally, another mistake I made not worth repeating: I installed my box >with the images from woody, and after it finally installed (after a day >and a half of fighting with it), I went straight to unstable *without* >upgrading the kernel to 2.4.21 first. Bad, bad, bad, as a circular >dependency between kernel 2.4.21 and libc broke apt somehow. Spend >another half day cleaning my system, and removing packages to fix >dependencies. [2] I succeeded, though, and now the box is running >testing. and kernel 2.4.21. Lessons learned: *Avoid* the images from >woody of you don't plan to use woody, and use Bill's images to save you >the hassle. > >And now, have some fun with the sparc, >dalibor topic, >a fresh-baked debian-sparc user. > >[1] So, if you have a chance, do as I do: man the debian booth during >some Expo/Conference things (LinuxDays Luxembourg for me) and ask the >residing Debian developers/gods/long-time-users for help when you get >stuck during the installation. ;) >[2] dpkg didn't let me forcefully remove 'login', though. You should >have seen the looks on the faces of debian devs around me as I typed >that. I had a small audience behind me while I took the box apart with >dpkg to fix the breakage in apt resulting from the half-succesful update >to unstable. My first debian install, and I had people watching in >horror over my shoulders as I purged bits and pieces of libc, ssh, etc >off the box. Ah, that was fun! > >