Subject: Re: PWS 600au not nettbooting from linux
To: Urban Boquist <urban@boquist.net>
From: Uwe Lienig <Uwe.Lienig@fif.mw.htw-dresden.de>
List: port-alpha
Date: 11/22/2005 10:34:55
Urban Boquist wrote:
>>>>>>Uwe Lienig writes:
> 
> 
> Uwe> I try to net boot a 600au [...]
> 
> Uwe> tcpdump doesn't even show a request to the tftp port.
> 
> Uwe> The SRM shows: Sending BOOTP packet ..file open failed for
> Uwe> ewa0/0.0.0.3.0
> 
> This sounds exactly like what I saw on a 500AU a while ago. As long as
> the SRM was in control the builtin tlp-card worked fine but as soon as
> the NetBSD boot block took over nothing ever left the card. I don't
> remember the details but I googled a little on netbsd.org and draw the
> conclusion that it migh be some problem with the PHY.
There isn't even a indication that the bootblocks get loaded onto the 
600au. If the boot blocks would be transferred, there should be some 
traffic to and from the tftp port. But I haven't found anything going on 
there.

The other things that makes me wonder is, that the same 600au has been 
installed a 2.0.2 via net boot. But I used NetBSD/alpha on a 3000/800 as 
a dhcp server. I couldn't get the 600au to boot off linux/i386 as the 
dhcp server. It seems to me, that there is some kind of magic in the 
BOOTREPLY generated from the dhcp server (or the underlying tcp stack?) 
that differs between NetBSD and linux.

> 
> I also tried to boot from a floppy and run ifconfig manually but was
> still unable to get it to work, tried all combinations of media and
> options, tried different hubs / switches. Nothing seemed to help. Have
> you tried that?
> 
> Finally I stuck a cheap tlp-clone into the box and it worked without
> problems. I never got the time to investigate further (as usual :)...
> 
> Best regards,
> 
>         -- Urban

I'd like to get this working due to the hassle I would have if I have to 
use some other approach to install NetBSD on the 600au. Last but not 
least I'm curious to get this problem solved.

Regards
-- 


Uwe Lienig
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