Well, thanks to the help of the kind people on this list I _nearly_
have this working!

I now have a console cable which works and can netboot this off my
linux/AXP box to the point where the kernel is looking for the root
fs.

Here is the output from the console:

mountroot: trying nfs...
nfs_boot: trying RARP (and RPC/bootparam)
nfs_boot: client_addr=0xa000004
nfs_boot: timeout...
nfs_boot: timeout...
nfs_boot: timeout...
nfs_boot: bootparam whoami, error=60
mountroot: trying ffs...
no file system for ln0
cannot mount root, error = 79

Does error=60 mean that it got no response from the bootparam server?

When I run rpc.bootparamd -d, I see no debug output.

curiously tho, doing a tcpdump shows this:

21:57:08.485148 vax.1023 > 10.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96

it looks like the kernel has got the wrong bcast address.
(The LAN here is a 10.0.0.0/24 network.  The VAX is 10.0.0.4 and the alpha
which which is the boot server is 10.0.0.3)

Any thoughts?

thanks again guys.

- Damian
damian@ccc.bu.aust.com