From owner-freebsd-doc Fri Oct 12 4:44:24 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mta02-svc.ntlworld.com (mta02-svc.ntlworld.com [62.253.162.42]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C135C37B406 for ; Fri, 12 Oct 2001 04:44:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: from eborcom.com ([62.255.96.74]) by mta02-svc.ntlworld.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.00 201-229-121) with SMTP id <20011012114402.XICA29790.mta02-svc.ntlworld.com@eborcom.com> for ; Fri, 12 Oct 2001 12:44:02 +0100 Received: (qmail 8017 invoked by uid 1001); 12 Oct 2001 11:43:51 -0000 Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 12:43:51 +0100 From: Tom Hukins To: Jean-Francois Dockes Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-net@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Updated 'diskless operation' section for the handbook Message-ID: <20011012124351.A7169@eborcom.com> Mail-Followup-To: Tom Hukins , Jean-Francois Dockes , freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-net@FreeBSD.org References: <200110121003.f9CA37p10022@hautmedoc.dockes.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="UugvWAfsgieZRqgk" Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <200110121003.f9CA37p10022@hautmedoc.dockes.com>; from jean-francois.dockes@wanadoo.fr on Fri, Oct 12, 2001 at 12:03:07PM +0200 Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org --UugvWAfsgieZRqgk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On Fri, Oct 12, 2001 at 12:03:07PM +0200, Jean-Francois Dockes wrote: > > I recently configured a diskless FreeBSD machine, and I found the > handbook section to be outdated to the point of irrelevance. > > I wrote an updated version, which I hereby submit for review, as suggested > by the documentation project 'Submitting documentation' section. Great work! Your document seems very useful, although I've never used diskless booting. The attached patch contains fixes for some of the English, a minor stylistic change (linking directly to a man page) and a few examples of removing unecessary space within tags. The last point is something you've done throughout the document, which causes it to render peculiarly. For example, you've got space after a word before a full-stop in several places. The end of the patch contains a few examples of this. Hopefully your work can be incorporated into the Handbook soon. Thanks, Tom --UugvWAfsgieZRqgk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="diskless.patch" --- diskless-chapter.sgml.orig Fri Oct 12 12:33:02 2001 +++ diskless-chapter.sgml Fri Oct 12 12:18:26 2001 @@ -1109,8 +1109,8 @@ A FreeBSD machine can boot over the network and operate without a local disk, using file systems mounted from an NFS server. No system - modification is necessary, beyond standard configuration files. - Such a system is easy to set up because all the necessary elements + modification is necessary, beyond standard configuration files, and + such a system is easy to set up because all the necessary elements are readily available: @@ -1156,15 +1156,15 @@ There are many ways to set up diskless workstations. Many elements are involved, and most can be customized to suit local taste. The following will describe the setup of a complete system, - emphasising simplicity and compatibility with the + with an emphasis on simplicity and compatibility with the standard FreeBSD startup scripts. The system described has the following characteristics: The diskless workstations use a shared - read-only root filesystem, and a shared - read-only /usr. + readonly root filesystem, and a shared + readonly /usr. The root file system is a copy of a standard FreeBSD root (typically the server's), with some configuration files overriden by ones specific to diskless @@ -1179,9 +1179,9 @@ - As described, this system is insecure. It should - live in a protected area of a network, and be untrusted by - other hosts. + The security of the whole system (server+workstations) + is probably very bad. It should live in a protected area + of a network, and be untrusted by other hosts. @@ -1191,8 +1191,8 @@ Configuring DHCP/BOOTP - There are two protocols that are commonly used to boot a - workstation that retrieves its configuration over the network: BOOTP + There are two main standard protocols used by a booting + workstation to retrieve its configuration over the network: BOOTP and DHCP. They are used at several points in the workstation bootstrap: @@ -1206,7 +1206,7 @@ It is possible to configure a system to use only BOOTP. - The &man.bootpd.8; server program is included in the + The bootpd server program is included in the base FreeBSD system. However, DHCP has a number of advantages over BOOTP (nicer @@ -1222,8 +1222,8 @@ The isc-dhcp server can answer both BOOTP and DHCP requests. - As of release 4.4, isc-dhcp is not part of the base - system. You will first need to install the + isc-dhcp is not part of the base + system (as of release 4.4). You will first need to install the /usr/ports/net/isc-dhcp3 port or the corresponding package. Please refer to for general information about ports and packages. @@ -1324,11 +1324,12 @@ Preparing a boot program with <application>Etherboot</application> - Etherboot's Web - site contains + You can find extensive - extensive documentation mainly intended for Linux - systems, but nonetheless containing useful information. The following + etherboot documentation + on its home site + . This documentation is mainly intended for Linux + systems, but contains a lot of useful explanations. The following will just outline how you would use etherboot on a FreeBSD system. @@ -1488,9 +1489,9 @@ conf/31200 for the small adjustment needed in clone_root . Also see PR - conf/29870 - about a small adjustment needed in - /etc/rc.diskless2. + + conf/29870 about a small adjustment needed in + /etc/rc.diskless2 . @@ -1498,8 +1499,8 @@ Configuring swap If needed, it is possible to do swapping over NFS, to a file - on the server. The exact bootptab /filename> or - dhcpd.conf options are a little mysterious + on the server. The exact bootptab or + dhcpd.conf options are a little mysterious and poorly documented. Anyway, here is what worked for me, using isc-dhcp 3.0rc11. @@ -1558,7 +1559,7 @@ - Running with a read-only <filename>/usr</filename>Running with a readonly /usrIf the diskless workstation is configured to run X, you will have to adjust the xdm configuration file, which puts the error log on /usr by default. --UugvWAfsgieZRqgk-- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message