Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 11:47:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Gallatin <gallatin@cs.duke.edu> To: sthaug@nethelp.no Cc: dfr@nlsystems.com, freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: How difficult is it to make a netbootable installation? Message-ID: <14141.38122.393804.533653@grasshopper.cs.duke.edu> In-Reply-To: <84709.926782605@verdi.nethelp.no> References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9905132331110.509-100000@herring.nlsystems.com> <84709.926782605@verdi.nethelp.no>
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sthaug@nethelp.no writes: > > > I have an Alphastation 200 here with no floppy. Thus I'd like to know > > > how easy it would be to create install media that enables me to do the > > > whole installation using Ethernet. The install would be to a 1 GB SCSI > > > disk. > > > > You should be able to netboot the kernel inside the boot.flp image. You > > will need to use vnconfig to get it out. We should probably arrange to > > have useful netbootable kernels available in the release tree (maybe in > > /kernels). > > Thanks, this got me at least part of the way. I got it to load the kernel > via tftp. Then it starts with: > > bootstrap code read in > base = 1f2000, image_start = 0, image_bytes = 5f1027 > initializing HWRPB at 2000 > initializing page table at 1e4000 > initializing machine state > setting the affinity to the primary CPU > jumping to bootstrap code > > halted CPU 0 > > halt code = 2 > kernel stack not valid halt > PC = 4 > boot failure > > This is with the kernel from the 4.0-19990413-CURRENT snapshot at > ftp.cdrom.com. I gunzipped the kernel (after extracting it from the > boot.flp image with vnconfig), and got this file: > > -rw-r--r-- 1 sthaug wheel 6230055 May 15 17:23 /tftpboot/kernel > > The size is at least consistent with image_bytes = 5f1027. > > Any ideas? TIA! > You actually need to load the netboot bootloader via tftp (its a coff format file, the SRM console doesn't grok elf), then netboot loads the kernel via NFS. Specify an 'rp' (or root path) field in your bootptab entry, this should tell netboot where to get the kernel from. I'm not sure if netboot is easy to find for somebody doing a first-time install, so I've left one for you at ftp://ftp.cs.duke.edu/pub//gallatin/netboot. As an example to clarify things for you, I netboot machines with the following bootptab entries: .freebsdalpha:ht=ethernet:sa=W.X.Y.Z:rp="W.X.Y.Z:/freebsd/diskless.alpha":bf=/freebsd/diskless.alpha/boot/netboot boil:ha=0000f8715a24:ip=152.3.145.95:tc=.freebsdalpha Hope this helps, Drew To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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