Fwd: Re: Netbooting
On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 04:50:15PM -0500, Rolf Brudeseth wrote:
> Chris,
>
> I see that you are active on the debian mailing lists. Maybe you can point
> me in the right direction. These question pertain to IBM CHRP systems
> (RS/6000 & pSeries). I have been able to compile the 2.4.18 linux kernel
> and I am able to boot the kernel via BOOTP from Open Firmware.
Well, yes, but unfortunately I can still only answer questions about which
I have an idea of the answer ;)
> Now I would like to install debian over NFS, but I find the documentation
> to be somewhat sparse. I have some questions below that are as well phrased
> as my understanding of the process ;-). However, it should give you an idea
> where I am stuck.
>
> From Open Firmware, I assume that the command has to be something similar
> to:
>
> 0> boot net root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=server_ip:/path ip=client_ip:server_ip
>
I believe this should be boot enet: and then the rest, interpreting
from penguinppc.org/projects/yaboot/doc/netboot.shtml. There are
specific instructions there about nfsroot setup.
I tried the bootp procedure there only once, and seemed to have some
timing problems (it worked once out of 4 tries or so). But I did get
it to work. Have you tried that? Here is a link that was posted not
too long ago for CHRP:
http://caesar.elte.hu/~krichard/43p-140/index.html
> - In the command above, does the path reference the directory that contains
> the root image or the actual root image file?
> - If directory, how does the kernel know to execute root.bin?
>
I'm not familiar with these kernel arguments at all. According to the
BootPrompt HOWTO, though, the path should be the server directory, not
an image file. It actually mounts that directory as the booted
computer's root.
> - Which of the following files do I need?
> driver-1.bin
> driver-2.bin
> rescue.bin
> root.bin
>
You need the rescue.bin (which is a compressed floppy image of the
kernel) buried inside powermac/images-1.44 for the installer to find
when installing the kernel and modules. You could put it within your
root filesystem, I suppose, or anywhere your machine could access
within an ext or hfs filesystem, like another nfs share or on the hard
disk if it has one.
Rather than use driver-1.bin and driver-2.bin, use drivers.tgz, and make
sure it's in the powermac/ folder. It contains the modules.
root.bin contains the installer's root filesystem as a floppy image. I
don't know if this is the proper way, or even if it will work (I'll
post this to the list to see if someone chimes in); but in order to
mount the installer's root filesystem from root.bin to your server's
nfsroot directory for your candidate installation computer to mount in
turn, you could
mv root.bin root-fs.gz
gunzip root-fs.gz
mount -o loop root-fs /server_dir
I suspect this would be a temporary solution, but for the installer
you really only need something temporary anyway. (It doesn't work to
copy the files directly into the server directory because of
permissions and special device problems).
> - Where do I put the deb files from basedebs.tar?
You shouldn't extract the debs; debootstrap expects to find the .tar.
it can be anywhere that the being-installed system can see; same as
drivers.tgz but it doesn't have to be in a particular-named folder.
> - Below is the NFS part of the .config file. Does the CONFIG_ROOT_NFS
> statement need to be true?
>
> #
> # Network File Systems
> #
> # CONFIG_CODA_FS is not set
> # CONFIG_INTERMEZZO_FS is not set
> CONFIG_NFS_FS=y
> # CONFIG_NFS_V3 is not set
> # CONFIG_ROOT_NFS is not set
> CONFIG_NFSD=y
> # CONFIG_NFSD_V3 is not set
> CONFIG_SUNRPC=y
> CONFIG_LOCKD=y
> # CONFIG_SMB_FS is not set
> # CONFIG_NCP_FS is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_PACKET_SIGNING is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_IOCTL_LOCKING is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_STRONG is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_NFS_NS is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_OS2_NS is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_SMALLDOS is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_NLS is not set
> # CONFIG_NCPFS_EXTRAS is not set
> # CONFIG_ZISOFS_FS is not set
> # CONFIG_ZLIB_FS_INFLATE is not set
Absolutely no idea there, sounds like it would be a good idea.
--
*------v--------- Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 --------v------*
| <http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/installmanual> |
| debian-imac (potato): <http://debian-imac.sourceforge.net> |
| Chris Tillman tillman@voicetrak.com |
| May the Source be with you |
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