While everyone's talking about sparc install's...

I am trying to install NetBSD-1.2 on an IPX.

I am netbooting from a NetBSD/i386 machine, as there seems to be a problem with the disklabel.  I have
gone through the manual page for diskless, etc.  Last week, I had it to the point where it would boot,
but I could get the nfs-root filesystem to mount with write permission.

This week, I seem to have regressed!  From the ok prompt (ROM Rev. 2.3) I type:

(all IP addresses have been changed to protect the innocent)

ok boot net netbsd -s

which gives:

Boot device: /sbus/le@0,c00000   File and args: netbsd -s
b200
>> NetBSD BOOT [$Revision: 1.4 $]
boot: client IP address: XXX.XXX.XXX.clientIP
boot: client name: client.my.domain
root addr=XXX.XXX.XXX.serverIP path=/home/export/root/NetBSD.sparc (with correct address)
Can't open network device `/sbus/le@0,c00000'
open: netbsd: Unkown error: code -1
device[/sbus/le@0,c00000]: 

At first I suspected that my transceiver was loose, or that there was some kind of cabling problem, but
tcpdump ether host showed all kinds of crazy action.

Relevant sections of files are:


/etc/ethers	:
-----------------

8:0:20:b:a0:18		client.my.domain



/etc/inetd.conf	:
-----------------

tftp		dgram	udp	wait	root	/usr/libexec/tftpd	tftpd -s /usr/tftp



/usr/tftp stuff	:
-----------------

lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      23 Apr  3 12:15 CCAE2410.SUN4C -> boot.sparc.netbsd.sun4c
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   29296 Feb  2 16:56 boot.sparc.netbsd.sun4c



/etc/bootparams	:
-----------------

client.my.domain	root=server.my.domain:/home/export/root/NetBSD.sparc swap=server.my.domain:/home/export/swap/ipx



/etc/exports	:
-----------------

/home/export/root/NetBSD.sparc /home/export/swap/ipx -rw -maproot=root -alldirs XXX.XXX.XXX.clientIP



BTW, I kill -HUP 'd mountd and rarpd after setting these up.


Someone on the port-sparc list mentioned something about having trouble netbooting due to the "the buggy
ncr53c9x chip."  Is this an issue on an IPX?  Does it have anything to do with the error message I
described?

I have now solved the disklabel problem by booting with floppies and running edlabel (it was giving me
bad magic number errors when I labelled it with disklabel) but it sure
would be handy to do the rest of the install via nfs.



- Ari

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Ari Rubenstein				Internet Portal Services

arubenstein@staff.portal.ca		phone:	(604) 257-9400
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