Adam Di Carlo wrote: > > I'm going though your instructions on TFTP + NFSROOT; I've never done > this and documenting "cold" (without any way to test) so I'd > appreciate some clarifications. > > BTW, I think it would be nice if we enabled TFTP boot on x86 and all > architectures. I don't think it'd be hard; we'd just have to > repurpose the Sparc method. I believe that the big varience between > platforms is how you actually kick up the TFTP boot installation; > i.e., on x86 (??) you can use LILO/syslinux arguments. > > On to the text, from the sparc_release_notes file: > > 2. put the linux kernel image on your TFTP server after you have > uncompressed > it: > > $ zcat linux > kernel-2.0.33 > > Where does the kernel image come from?
Oops, now it is named linux-a.out and it is in the latest disks-sparc release. BTW, kernel is now 2.0.35 ;-) > 3. untar the root archive on your NFS server (could be the same as your TFTP > server): > > $ cd /tftpboot > $ tar xvzf root.tar.gz > > Be sure to use the GNU tar (other tar programs, like the SunOS one, badly > handle devices as plain files). > > 4. export your /tftpboot/debian-sparc-root directory with root access to > your > client. Eg. add the following line to /etc/exports (linux syntax): > > /tftpboot/debian-sparc-root client(rw,no_root_squash) > > Is that supposed to be /boot or /tftpboot on a debian system? Mine is /tftpboot but it seems not to be Debian compliant. I surely set it by hand ;-) It is really the path put as last argument to the tftp entry in /etc/inetd.conf. Debian set it to /boot by default. I guess I changed it not to populate the /boot directory on my PC box (my TFTP+NFS server) with non i386 kernels. Maybe putting the "sparc" literal to the kernel filename is wise to avoid misinterpretation of kernel files (eg. kernel-2.0.35-sparc) when you put it under /boot. > 5. create a symbolic link from <your client IP addr in dotted notation> > to debian-sparc-root in the /tftpboot directory: > > $ ln -s debian-sparc-root 192.168.1.3 > > for a client IP address which is 192.168.1.3. > > 6. now you can boot your client as above. > > Really? It will automatically pick that up? 'boot net' will use an > NFS root dir if it can? Yes. sparc kernel is compiled with NFSROOT, BOOTP & RARP options. After the kernel is loaded in memory, it broadcasts BOOTP & RARP requests. I just make use of RARP, so I can describe it a bit. Don't know about BOOTP, sorry :-(( Your RARP server send back to the client its IP address based on the MAC addr registered in its internal tables (with rarp -s ... in the linux world). Then the client try to mount the /tftpboot/<client IP addr> directory as its root fs. It assumes the RARP server is also an NFS server. Hey, here is why I really chose /tftpboot as the TFTP directory ;-) It is hardcoded in the kernel to compose it's root fs path to NFS server !!! Hope it helps. -- Eric Delaunay | "La guerre justifie l'existence des militaires. [EMAIL PROTECTED] | En les supprimant." Henri Jeanson (1900-1970)
