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Re: iMac netboot issues



On Mon, 6 Apr 2009 01:27:35 -0400 (EDT)
der Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost> wrote:

> >> I'm trying to netboot an iMac.  The netboot server is 3.1 on i386.
> 
> >> [...]  I got it to the point where it loads ofwboot.xcf, but then it
> >> fails to even try to do NFS, and I can't see what's wrong.

I've been seeing the exact same thing with a Mini. Except that the bootp
case has been almost identical to the dhcp case (the reply packets differ
in length by a few bytes between the two).

I resorted to replacing ofwboot.xcf with netbsd.INSTALL in all places,
which at least worked with the Mini. The install kernel was then
able to nfsmount partitions. This came in handy in using dd to load
the Mini's boot partition with an image prepared with hfsutils on
another machine. (Yes, I do intend to find time to write up a more
detailed howto on this for the machines it'll cover.)

> [tsutsui%ceres.dti.ne.jp@localhost]
> > When I tried it on the first iMac about 10 years ago, it didn't work
> > with dhcpd(8) but worked with bootpd(8).
> 
> I tried bootpd instead, but either I did it wrong or that works even
> less well than dhcpd does: it doesn't even load ofwboot.xcf.  (I'm not
> sure which I consider more likely; I have so little experience dealing
> with NetBSD/macppc that I tend to suspect PEBKAC whenever I see a
> problem I don't understand.)

In this case I suspect implementation differences in the OF, given that
the Mini shows the same behavior whether it's getting bootp or dhcp.

> [uwe%stderr.spb.ru@localhost]
> > I wonder if it might be related to this:
> >   http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-macppc/2007/05/14/0000.html
> > Summary - at least for ppc minis apple broke dhcp by using jumbo
> > packets that ar larger than dhcp maximum message size.  May be iMacs
> > suffer from that too.
> 
> Well, the packets I saw the iMac sending when ofwboot.xcf is trying to
> do whatever it is it's trying to do were, according to tcpdump, 331
> bytes (the DISCOVER) or 328 bytes (the REQUEST), with the OFFER and ACK
> packets from dhcpd being 328 bytes.  This doesn't sound to me like the
> issue outlined in that list mail - I can dig up the tcpdump capture
> file and answer the question definitely if that'd help.
> 
> > I ended up booting my mini kernel off of cd for diskless boots.
> 
> I may have to do that.  Any particular notes on creating a CD for the
> purpose?  I don't mind if it's not bootable in the sense of the iMac
> being willing to boot off it directly, as long as there's a boot
> command I can type to make it work.  Will a 9660 filesystem containing
> ofwboot.xcf work?  ofwboot.xcf and the kernel?  I do have another
> macppc machine I can build custom kernels on.  (Wish I had a working
> CD-RW.  I have a drive and some media, but I've been unable to get the
> drive to recognize once-burnt media, including to erase and re-burn.)

IIRC, you can use a 9660 filesystem with ofwboot.xcf and a kernel, but
OF doesn't handle RockRidge, Joliet and other extentions. I also haven't
checked to see what level of 9660 OF will handle, so I expect you'll have
to resort to calling files by their EIGHT.EXT;V names. From what I've
seen, I'd also expect the kernel would have to be the one to handle nfs.

Of course, I had to get a system installed on the Mini before I had
a disc writer I could use to make a CD.... :-/

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