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Re: DHCP, BOOTP and linux



Adam Di Carlo wrote:
> 
> "Eray Ozkural (exa)" <erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr> writes:
> 
> > In linux-2.2.18 I have been perfectly unable to use kernel level network
> > autoconf with DHCP because it simply wouldn't work with my 3c905/c.
> 
> Works for me... I don't have that exact card, however.
> 

That might be my fault, or a problem with that model.

> > The BOOTP didn't work either. I then realized that it was broken for
> > my card at least and switched to 2.4.1 for my net box. The 2.4.1 did
> > have BOOTP but it didn't seem to have DHCP. Anybody knows why?
> 
> I dunno -- do you have the necessary kernel options compiled in?
> You'd have to see the DHCP documentation for what exact options these
> are, I forget.
> 

I'm right now in the 2.4.1 tree, looking at xconfig and then menuconfig.
No, it's not listed in the configuration. There's only BOOTP and RARP.
I am at a loss.

> > host stardust {
> >   hardware ethernet 0:1:2:e0:62:55;
> >   filename "/boot/bootimage.stardust";
> > }
> > That was supposed to work for BOOTP clients, too. (is it?)
> 
> Well, if you configure your subnet right.  I do:
> 
> subnet 64.22.101.120 netmask 255.255.255.248 {
>   range dynamic-bootp 64.22.101.124 64.22.101.126;
> 

yes, this would be the problem. my config was

subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  range 10.0.0.10 10.0.0.100;
}

I must've overlooked it. The dynamic-bootp seems to be mandatory.

> > And I'm not sure whether dhcp really obsoletes bootp anymore.
> 
> Yes, it certainly does.
> 

Good to hear that :)

> > has anybody managed to use DHCP for a clean nfs root setup?
> 
> No, haven't gotten around to trying that.
> 

Hmmm. There's nothing corresponding to home directory for bootfiles
but there is the root-path and bootfile-name options. Have to try these,
but will be difficult without DHCP support in the kernel. I guess the
bootfile name had worked.

> Sure, sounds fun.  Doesn't etherboot the packet driver stuff and
> requires custom compilation based on the needed packet driver?  You'll
> need to check the copyright of the packet drivers as well.
> 

etherboot might be problematic as you say, but I believe I could get some
permission for imggen. the rom-o-matic page is also very nice, if you've
used it:
http://rom-o-matic.net/

the images I made with that worked where I couldn't succeed with netboot.

> > We'll have to support both net-boot methods and a "magic floppy" approach.
> > Well, we already have some sort of a magic floppy ;) But it looks like
> > we'll need to spend some thought on the interaction between the server
> > and the client (that is the machine to install).
> 
> Yes, that would be nice.   I think I could pretty easily add a
> boot-floppies secondary package created during the process that let
> you install it and have a boot server for i386 machines, or sparcs, or
> whatever.

Great!

Is there support for non interactive install in the boot-floppies
module? Even if not, it could be like this: the server has a shell
on the nfsroot'd client, and installation proceeds from there. User
enters information from a terminal on the server. Can this be done?

Sincerely,

-- 
Eray (exa) Ozkural
Comp. Sci. Dept., Bilkent University, Ankara
e-mail: erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr
www: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~erayo



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