der Mouse writes:
- I want to netboot this, preparatory to putting it to more productive
- uses than sitting around at a Username: prompt (I know no logins for
- its VMS install).  The Alpha netbooting page
- http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/netboot/intro.alpha.html
- says that any SRM machine can netboot, and goes on to describe
- netbooting via bootp.  When I tell this machine "show device", the
- network is called ESA0,and when I "boot esa0", tcpdump on the boot
- server (using "ether host 8:0:2b:....") shows a bunch of stuff I don't
- recognize, and apparently bootpd doesn't either (sent to MAC addresses
- ab:0:0:1:0:0 and ab:0:0:2:0:0).
- 
- Is it possible that what I have here isn't SRM but some VMS-specific
- console code, and I have to find SRM and update the firmware before I
- can do anything NetBSDoid with this machine?  Or is the netboot
- documentation incomplete, or what?

	I would bet it's trying to MOP boot, rather than BOOTP
boot.  As I remember (and I'm verifying by booting another
DS10L, SRM supports both MOP and BOOTP.  Set the SRM variable
esa0_protocols BOOTP to get it to use BOOTP, or set up the MOP
server.  

	Warning, it's undocumented (other than the source) but
_don't_ add the file extension on the MOP boot request.
Additionally, the file to be booted needs to be named in all
caps, and with a .SYS extension.. (at least NetBSD's MOP daemon
enforces these restrictions.

- I coukld just pull the disk and move it to one of my existing alphas to
- do the install.  But if there is a console firmware issue involved,
- that may not be sufficient.

	You should be able to reset the protocols, and even
upgrade SRM via bootp/mop (I regularly update the SRM versions
using MOP, it's easier than updating dhcpd.conf for each new
host.)

--
Eric Schnoebelen		eric@cirr.com		http://www.cirr.com
		Seen on a T-shirt in Pasadena:
			FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION -
			it comes bundled with the software.