> In both cases everything runs fine until the client does:
> 
> 12:30:29.469152 rarp who-is 8:0:20:1f:25:7c tell 8:0:20:1f:25:7c
> 12:30:29.470387 rarp reply 8:0:20:1f:25:7c at 192.148.164.20
> 12:30:29.516933 192.148.164.20.1023 > 255.255.255.255.111: udp 96
> 12:30:31.513737 192.148.164.20.1023 > 255.255.255.255.111: udp 96
> 12:30:35.514650 192.148.164.20.1023 > 255.255.255.255.111: udp 96
> 12:30:43.514490 192.148.164.20.1023 > 255.255.255.255.111: udp 96
> 
> at which point we get the error above.
> 
> Why is the client not trying to talk to portmap on the boot server?
> Neither Solaris nor NetBSD (1.4) pay any attention to
> 255.255.255.255.111 (I'm running portmap -l and nothing is logged).

Well after comparing the source of boot from 1.3 and 1.4 I could not
see that anything relevant had changed...

I also remembered that hobbit (the NetBSD 1.4 machine) was running an
IPv6 kernel (kame-19990614-netbsd14-snap.tgz) so I rebooted using the
vanila 1.4 kernel and bingo!

ok boot net netbsd -s
Resetting ... 

SPARCclassic, No Keyboard
ROM Rev. 2.12, 32 MB memory installed, Serial #3380091.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:1f:25:7c, Host ID: 8033937b.


Rebooting with command: net netbsd -s                                 
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ledma@4,8400010/le@4,8c00000   File and args: netbsd -s
>> NetBSD/sparc Secondary Boot, Revision 1.8
>> (pk@flambard, Sat May  8 21:54:06 MEST 1999)
boot: client IP address: 192.148.164.20
boot: client name: classic1
root addr=192.148.164.2 path=/export/root/hobbit
Booting netbsd @ 0x4000
1818624+129672+177260+[99876+117976]=0x2401f8
OBP version 3, revision 2.12 (plugin rev 2)
console is ttya
...
...

so given that kame is currently being integrated this might be worth
looking into.

Also of interest, I upgraded hobbit to NetBSD 1.4 by netbooting off
the Solaris boot server.  And it must have been doing the portmap
request to the broadcast address then.  The only change is that the
Solaris system now has another ethernet card attached to the net that
this new classic is attempting to boot from.

Note that in the successful boot above the Solaris machine is serving
the root filesystem and swap.

--sjg