After what many hours trying to netboot the T1000 to install Solaris Express, I wondered “how hard is it for debian?”.<\/p>\n
Easy. get the sparc64 boot.img, put it on TFTP server, add “filename “boot.img”;” or similar to dhcp, boot the T1000 from the service console something like this “bootmode bootscript=”boot net:dhcp”\\n restart -c” and install away!<\/p>\n
As for Solaris?<\/p>\n
Well… dhcpd.conf:<\/p>\n
option space SUNW;
\noption SUNW.root-mount-options code 1 = text;
\noption SUNW.root-server-ip-address code 2 = ip-address;
\noption SUNW.root-server-hostname code 3 = text;
\noption SUNW.root-path-name code 4 = text;
\noption SUNW.swap-server-ip-address code 5 = ip-address;
\noption SUNW.swap-file-path code 6 = text;
\noption SUNW.boot-file-path code 7 = text;
\noption SUNW.posix-timezone-string code 8 = text;
\noption SUNW.boot-read-size code 9 = unsigned integer 16;
\noption SUNW.install-server-ip-address code 10 = ip-address;
\noption SUNW.install-server-hostname code 11 = text;
\noption SUNW.install-path code 12 = text;
\noption SUNW.sysid-config-file-server code 13 = text;
\noption SUNW.JumpStart-server code 14 = text;
\noption SUNW.terminal-name code 15 = text;
\noption SUNW.SbootURI code 16 = text;<\/p>\n
host hurricane {
\nhardware ethernet 0:14:4f:1e:28:e;
\nfixed-address 192.168.1.19;
\noption host-name “hurricane”;
\nfilename “sparc64-etch-boot.img”;
\n#\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 filename “sol-nv-b103-sparc”;
\n#\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 option SUNW.install-server-ip-address 192.168.1.1;
\n#\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 option SUNW.install-server-hostname “saturn”;
\n#\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 option SUNW.install-path “\/mnt\/sol-nv-b103-sparc\/”;
\n#\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 option SUNW.root-server-ip-address 192.168.1.1;
\n#\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 option SUNW.root-server-hostname “saturn”;
\n#\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 option SUNW.root-path-name “\/mnt\/sol-nv-b103-sparc\/Solaris_11\/Tools\/Boot”;<\/p>\n
}<\/p>\n
(obviously changing the comments around) and having the Solaris Express DVD mounted and NFS exported…. it *still* doesn’t work. It goes “unable to mount filesystem” with no further hints (even when tcpdumping the network).<\/p>\n
Documentation for doing the simple thing of using $dhcp_server and $nfs_server to network boot a Solaris install on a Sparc box is *COMPLETELY* missing.<\/p>\n
Now, I’m a smart guy (and if you don’t believe that, at least believe I’m not stupid). If I can’t get it to boot the installer, what chance do others have?<\/p>\n
I’ll try OpenSolaris out when it’s on SPARC (and please<\/strong> oh please<\/strong> oh please<\/strong> just have an easy way to net boot the installer using a linux host). Please take the debian way (just a single file on tftp).<\/p>\n So now it’s goodbye Solaris (I’m not going to have something I can’t\u00c2\u00a0 re-install, upgrade or security patch) and it’s hello Debian (and sanity).<\/p>\n Yes, this does mean I’ll care about Drizzle on Linux Sparc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After what many hours trying to netboot the T1000 to install Solaris Express, I wondered “how hard is it for debian?”. Easy. get the sparc64 boot.img, put it on TFTP server, add “filename “boot.img”;” or similar to dhcp, boot the … Continue reading