---------------------- Forwarded by Jonathan Sturges/ESD/GMR on 03/13/99
12:00 PM ---------------------------


Jonathan Sturges
03/11/99 08:13 AM

To:   port-vax@netbsd.org
cc:

Subject:  Q: bootparamd & netbooting from Linux

Hi,
I'm trying to netboot my VS2k into sysinst (I plan to install the OS on
local disks).

So far, it works (almost) great.  Everything is setup.  However, I cannot
make the Linux rpc.bootparamd behave!  It sees the "whoami" request from
the VS2k but then says "whoami failed."  This implies, to me, that there is
a discrepancy between the hosts file and the bootparams file...  which
there isn't... or there's something else I've missed.  The bootparamd man
page in Linux is thin.

Oddly enough, if I use "callbootd" to test bootparamd, the "whoami" call
fails, but a "getfile" (I think that's the right name) succeeds for the
root fs, so it would seem my bootparams file is OK.  It's looking now like
maybe gethostbyaddr() is hosed?  /etc/nsswitch.conf looks OK, BTW.

I used to support diskless clients under SunOS 4.1.x a few years ago, and
bootparamd was easy to configure and not too picky....  so what's different
here?

Can someone who's done this from Linux help me out?  I read the netboot FAQ
but it doesn't make mention of any Linux bootparamd oddities.  FWIW, I'm
running RH5.1/Alpha on a Multia.

thanks,
Jonathan