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newworld netboot mini-howto



well i was bored so i decided to figure out how to netboot a powermac,
heres how:

install bootpd (for debian apt-get install bootp)
install tftpd (for debian apt-get install tftpd)
edit /etc/inetd.conf as required you should have these two lines:

bootps dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/sbin/bootpd      bootpd -i -t 120
tftp   dgram   udp     wait    nobody  /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /tftpboot

now edit /etc/bootptab, you should have an entry like this:

socrates:\
        hd=/tftpboot:\
        bf=yaboot:\
        ip=192.168.0.1:\
        sm=255.255.255.0:\
        sa=192.168.0.4:\
        ha=000502F1ABBB:

notice the fscking backslashes, i forgot the one after socrates: which
makes it fail in obscure ways.  

change the ip addresses and netmask to match your site.  the hardware
address is annoying, but required.  the way i found it out was to
simple try and netboot the mac and looked in the logs and found:

Sep  8 23:50:37 plato bootpd[15289]: unknown client Ethernet address 00:05:02:F1:AB:BB

(if you don't get any message like this try adding -d to the bootps
line in /etc/inetd.conf)  now you know the MAC address so you can add
it to /etc/bootptab.  

in /tftpboot i have the following:

[eb@plato eb]$ ls -l /tftpboot/
total 2173
-r--r--r--    1 root     root      2155419 Sep  8 22:19 vmlinux-2.2.17
-r--r--r--    1 root     root        56828 Sep  8 22:19 yaboot
-r--r--r--    1 root     root          144 Sep  9 00:05 yaboot.conf
[eb@plato eb]$

now last but not least edit /tftpboot/yaboot.conf:

device=enet:
partition=0
timeout=50
init-message="Debian GNU/Linux"
default=linux

image=vmlinux-2.2.17
        label=linux
        root=/dev/hda3
        read-only

now save all changes reboot the mac while holding down the `n' key and
you should get a yaboot prompt.  add ramdisk images just like you
would on a disk based yaboot bootstrap:

image=vmlinux-2.2.17
        label=linux
	initrd=root.bin
	initrd-size=8192

i will post these instructions on my web page soon for future use
since i don't know of any other site that explains in sufficient
detail how to netboot macs.

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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