Re: Installing Debian on a RS/6000 Question

[Christian Walther <cptsalek@gmail.com>]

Hi Sandy,

I remember that I had problems specifying the correct values for a
boot net, too. That's why I "hardcoded" all values in NVRAM. On
startup, when the keyboard is initialized, you either press F1 if your
box is equipped with a supported graphics adaptor, or 1, when you're
using a serial console.
A menuing system pops up after the rest of the system initialization
is completed. I'm not infront of the box right now, so I don't know
all the steps that are needed. But you can configure the first boot
method to be net, and you can configure the internal network
interface.
Specify not only IP-address and subnet mask, but the gateway, too.
Network booting won't work if the gateway is missing - even when the
server is in the same network and thus a gateway is not needed.
If you don't want to use the menuing system, you can use the
OK-Prompt, too. You might want to look up the correct variables by
using printenv.

Please note that this method of booting requires a running
bootp-Server somewhere. To set it up properly you'll need to figure
out the MAC-address of the machines internal network interface. You'll
find it for example in the menuing system in the "system information"
section.

bootp is configured by specifying the mac- and ip-address, the
subnet-mask, gateway, and name of the file to boot.

HTH,
Christian