On 17 Jan 2005, at 19:06, Manuel Bouyer wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 06:13:35PM +0000, Matthis Rouch wrote:
>> Dear all, I am trying to install NetBSD on my SparcStation 5, through
>> the netBoot method, using as host my apple powerbook. I have a 
>> keyboard
>> to tell the sparcstation to netboot, but I need to know its MAC 
>> address
>> to set things up in the host's ethers and hosts files.
>> I know I could get a usb to serial cable, or a screen , but my goal is
>> to this without buying anything if possible.
>> So, my questions are:
>> 1. is there any may to know the MAC address without a console/screen?
>> (would it be written inside or something?? ;)
>> 2. Alternatively, is there a way to configure rarpd so that it will
>> take any MAC address and put an IP on it?
>
> You could run tcpdump on another box and look for packets from the 
> sparc.
>
> But I'm not sure the keyboard is functionnal if no screen is connected.
> On sparc, if the POST doesn't detect a keyboard or a screen, it 
> switches
> to serial port A automatically.
>
I've tested it and the keyboard is functional: when I type netboot, the 
host unix box's rarpd prints: "got a packet". But arp is not tcp so I 
don't know if tcpdump will work. As there is no system on the 
sparcstation, I would need to generate something from open prom which 
would be caught by tcpdumb ... any ideas?