Net boot installation of Debian GNU/Linux on SPARC IPX
Debian GNU/Linux net boot installation for SPARC IPX.
This document is intended to help people who are about
to install Debian GNU/Linux
on a sparc station IPX. These computers are very old. To make things
worst, despite the fact they have a floppy driver, it becomes dirty
very often and stops working (nothing is forever!!!). By default,
these computers don't have CD drivers (but you can always attach a SCSI
CD driver if you have one!). The following document is a quick guide
to help you installing Debian GNU/Linux
on a sparc station IPX with no working floppy and with no CD driver,
ie net booting.
The main documentation for installing
Debian GNU/Linux for sparc is what you should read in order to get a
successful installation. In here I'm only going to talk about some of the
steps that I didn't get from the manual (yes, I read the fine manual and
wasn't very useful). The IPX sparc stations I have had problems because
they had no floppy drivers working. The only way of installing was
booting from the net and usign tftp. This is the way the whole story
goes...
I did an installation on a SPARC IPX usint tfpt, rarpd and -of course-
I booted through the network. The details of the installation follows:
tftp
Install tftpd on the server machine. Add the corresponding
line to /etc/inetd.conf and restart inetd by issuing the
command `/etc/init.d/inetd restart`
nfs
Make sure you allow the server machine to mount the necessary
directories by editing /etc/inetd.conf and restarting the
daemon.
Kernels earlier than 2.4.X
If your kernel version is less than 2.4.X then make sure the
kernel module rarp is being loaded (try `modprobe rarp`) and
issue the following:
arp -s sun4c-hostname MAC
rarp -s sun4c-hostname MAC
where MAC is the ethernet address of the IPX sparc.
Kernels older or equal than 2.4.X
If your kernel version is greater or equal than 2.4.X then
install the package rarpd (`apt-get install rarpd`) and edit
the file /etc/ethers with something like this:
MAC IP-sun4c
where MAC is the ethernet address of the sparc IPX and
IP-sun4c it's IP address.
/etc/hosts
Edit /etc/hosts in the server machine and add your sparc IPX
line, which is something like:
IP-sun4c DNS-sun4c name-sun4c
where IP-sun4c is the IP address of the IPX sparc, DNS-sun4c
is its whole Domain Name Service and name-sun4c is the sparc
IPX 'hostname'.
/etc/hosts.allow
Make sure that the sparc IPX is allowed to enter to your
server by editing /etc/hosts.allow in your server with
something like:
rpc.mountd, portmap, in.tftpd: IP-SPARC
where IP-SPARC is the IP address of the sparc.
boot net ...
Finally (this is the really tricky bit) boot the sparc IPX with
the following command:
boot net nfsroot=/tftpboot/{sun4c-IP-address}/
nfsaddrs={sun4c-IP-address}:{boot server-IP-address}::255.255.255.0:::
Note: I got this booting command from the debian-sparc
mailing list. Don't ask! Use it!
Booting ... Installing ...
That's it, your machine should be booting now and the
installation process is on its way...
This page was written by
Sergio Mendoza. Please feel free to email me if you have comments or
suggestions about this document.
