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<sect1 condition="supports-tftp" id="install-tftp">
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<title>Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting</title>
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If your machine is connected to a local area network, you may be able
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to boot it over the network from another machine, using TFTP. If you
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intend to boot the installation system from another machine, the
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boot files will need to be placed in specific locations on that machine,
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and the machine configured to support booting of your specific machine.
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You need to setup a TFTP server, and for CATS machines, a BOOTP server
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<phrase condition="supports-rarp">, or RARP server</phrase>
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<phrase condition="supports-dhcp">, or DHCP server</phrase>.
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<phrase condition="supports-rarp">The Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) is
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one way to tell your client what IP address to use for itself. Another
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way is to use the BOOTP protocol. </phrase>
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<phrase condition="supports-bootp">BOOTP is an IP protocol that
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informs a computer of its IP address and where on the network to obtain
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a boot image. </phrase>
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<phrase arch="m68k"> Yet another alternative exists on VMEbus
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systems: the IP address can be manually configured in boot ROM. </phrase>
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<phrase condition="supports-dhcp">The DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration
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Protocol) is a more flexible, backwards-compatible extension of BOOTP.
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Some systems can only be configured via DHCP. </phrase>
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</para><para arch="powerpc">
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For PowerPC, if you have a NewWorld Power Macintosh machine, it is a
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good idea to use DHCP instead of BOOTP. Some of the latest machines
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are unable to boot using BOOTP.
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</para><para arch="alpha">
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Unlike the Open Firmware found on Sparc and PowerPC machines, the SRM
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console will <emphasis>not</emphasis> use RARP to obtain its IP
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address, and therefore you must use BOOTP for net booting your Alpha.
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You can also enter the IP configuration for network interfaces
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directly in the SRM console.
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Alpha systems can also be net-booted using the DECNet MOP (Maintenance
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Operations Protocol), but this is not covered here. Presumably, your
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local OpenVMS operator will be happy to assist you should you have
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some burning need to use MOP to boot Linux on your Alpha.
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</footnote></para><para arch="hppa">
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Some older HPPA machines (e.g. 715/75) use RBOOTD rather than BOOTP.
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An RBOOTD package is available on the parisc-linux web site.
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The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is used to serve the boot
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image to the client. Theoretically, any server, on any platform,
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which implements these protocols, may be used. In the examples in
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this section, we shall provide commands for SunOS 4.x, SunOS 5.x
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(a.k.a. Solaris), and GNU/Linux.
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<title>Enabling the TFTP Server</title>
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To get the TFTP server ready to go, you should first make sure that
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<command>tftpd</command> is enabled. This is usually enabled by having
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something like the following line in <filename>/etc/inetd.conf</filename>:
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<informalexample><screen>
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tftp dgram udp wait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd in.tftpd /tftpboot
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</screen></informalexample>
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Debian packages will in general set this up correctly by default when they
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Look in that file and remember the directory which is used as the
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argument of <command>in.tftpd</command>; you'll need that below. The
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<userinput>-l</userinput> argument enables some versions of
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<command>in.tftpd</command> to log all requests to the system logs;
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this is useful for diagnosing boot errors. If you've had to change
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<filename>/etc/inetd.conf</filename>, you'll have to notify the
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running <command>inetd</command> process that the file has changed.
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On a Debian machine, run <userinput>/etc/init.d/inetd
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reload</userinput>; on other machines,
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find out the process ID for <command>inetd</command>, and run
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<userinput>kill -HUP <replaceable>inetd-pid</replaceable></userinput>.
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</para><note arch="i386"><para>
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To use the Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) method of TFTP
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booting, you will need a TFTP server with <userinput>tsize</userinput>
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support. On a &debian; server, the <classname>atftpd</classname> and
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<classname>tftpd-hpa</classname> packages qualify.
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</para></note><para arch="mips">
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If your TFTP server is a GNU/Linux box running Linux 2.4.X you'll need
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to set the following on your server:
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<informalexample><screen>
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echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_no_pmtu_disc
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</screen></informalexample>
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to turn off Path MTU discovery, otherwise the Indy's PROM can't
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download the kernel. Furthermore, make sure TFTP packets are sent from
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a source port no greater than 32767, or the download will stall after
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the first packet. Again, it's Linux 2.4.X tripping this bug in the
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PROM, and you can avoid it by setting
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<informalexample><screen>
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echo "2048 32767" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range
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</screen></informalexample>
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to adjust the range of source ports the Linux TFTP server uses.
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<sect2 id="tftp-images">
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<title>Move TFTP Images Into Place</title>
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Next, place the TFTP boot image you need, as found in
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<xref linkend="where-files"/>, in the <command>tftpd</command>
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boot image directory. Generally, this directory will be
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<filename>/tftpboot</filename>. You'll have to make a link from that
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file to the file which <command>tftpd</command> will use for booting a
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particular client. Unfortunately, the file name is determined by the
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TFTP client, and there are no strong standards.
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</para><para arch="powerpc">
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On NewWorld Power Macintosh machines, you will need to set up the
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<command>yaboot</command> boot loader as the TFTP boot image.
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<command>Yaboot</command> will then retrieve the kernel and RAMdisk
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images via TFTP itself. For net booting, use the
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<filename>yaboot-netboot.conf</filename>. Just rename this to
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<filename>yaboot.conf</filename> in the TFTP directory.
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</para><para arch="not-powerpc">
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Often, the file that the TFTP client will look for is
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<replaceable>client-ip-in-hexclient-architecture</replaceable>. To
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compute <replaceable>client-ip-in-hex</replaceable>, take each byte of
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the client IP address and translate it into hexadecimal notation. If
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you have a machine handy with the <command>bc</command> program, you
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can use the program. First issue the <userinput>obase=16</userinput>
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command to set the output to hex, then enter the individual components
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of the client IP one at a time. As for
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<replaceable>client-architecture</replaceable>, try out some values.
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</para><para arch="i386">
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For PXE booting, you can use the boot loader included with
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<classname>syslinux</classname>: <filename>pxelinux.0</filename>. The boot
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loader should be copied into the <filename>/tftpboot</filename>
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folder. Then create a subdirectory within
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<filename>/tftpboot</filename> named
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<filename>/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg</filename>, and within that directory
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create a text file <filename>default</filename>. Here is an example of
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a <filename>default</filename> file's contents:
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<informalexample><screen>
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append initrd=initrd.gz devfs=mount root=/dev/ram
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</screen></informalexample>
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<userinput>devfs=mount</userinput> is important, because without it
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there may be problems mounting the initrd.gz file system once the
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</para><para arch="i386">
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Finally, copy the <filename>vmlinuz</filename> and
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<filename>initrd.gz</filename> files (for the netboot installation method)
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from the Debian ftp archive into the <filename>/tftpboot</filename> folder,
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where the bootloader will be looking for them.
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<sect3 arch="mipsel">
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<title>DECstation TFTP Images</title>
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For DECstations, there are tftpimage files for each subarchitecture,
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which contain both kernel and installer in one file. The naming
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convention is tftpimage-<replaceable>subarchitecture</replaceable> or
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tftpimage-<replaceable>subarchitecture</replaceable>.gz. If the
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tftpimage is gzipped (the name ends with .gz), you need to unpack it
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first with <userinput>gunzip
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tftpimage-<replaceable>subarchitecture</replaceable>.gz</userinput>,
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as DECstations cannot boot compressed files by TFTP. Copy the
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tftpimage file you would like to use to
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<userinput>/tftpboot/tftpboot.img</userinput> if you work with the
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example BOOTP/DHCP setups described above.
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The DECstation firmware boots by TFTP with the command <userinput>boot
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<replaceable>#</replaceable>/tftp</userinput>, where
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<replaceable>#</replaceable> is the number of the TurboChannel device
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from which to boot. On most DECstations this is "3". If the
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BOOTP/DHCP server does not supply the filename or you need to pass
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additional parameters, they can optionally be appended with the
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<userinput>boot #/tftp/filename param1=value1 param2=value2 ...</userinput>
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Several DECstation firmware revisions show a problem with regard to
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net booting: the transfer starts, but after some time it stops with
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an <computeroutput>a.out err</computeroutput>. This can have several reasons:
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The firmware does not respond to ARP requests during a TFTP
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transfer. This leads to an ARP timeout and the transfer stops. The
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solution is to add the MAC address of the Ethernet card in the
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DECstation statically to the ARP table of the TFTP server. This is
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done by running <userinput>arp -s
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<replaceable>IP-address</replaceable>
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<replaceable>MAC-address</replaceable></userinput> as root on the
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machine acting as TFTP server. The MAC-address of the DECstation can
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be read out by entering <command>cnfg</command> at the DECstation
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The firmware has a size limit on the files that can be booted
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There are also firmware revisions that cannot boot via TFTP at all. An
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overview about the different firmware revisions can be found at the
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<ulink url="http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/pmax/board-list.html#proms"></ulink>.
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<title>Alpha TFTP Booting</title>
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On Alpha, you must specify the filename (as a relative path to the
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boot image directory) using the <userinput>-file</userinput> argument
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to the SRM <userinput>boot</userinput> command, or by setting the
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<userinput>BOOT_FILE</userinput> environment variable. Alternatively,
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the filename can be given via BOOTP (in ISC <command>dhcpd</command>,
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use the <userinput>filename</userinput> directive). Unlike Open
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Firmware, there is <emphasis>no default filename</emphasis> on SRM, so
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you <emphasis>must</emphasis> specify a filename by either one of
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<title>SPARC TFTP Booting</title>
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SPARC architectures for instance use the subarchitecture names, such
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as ``SUN4M'' or ``SUN4C''; in some cases, the architecture is left
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blank, so the file the client looks for is just
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<filename>client-ip-in-hex</filename>. Thus, if your system
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subarchitecture is a SUN4C, and its IP is 192.168.1.3, the filename
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would be <filename>C0A80103.SUN4C</filename>.
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You can also force some sparc systems to look for a specific file name
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by adding it to the end of the OpenPROM boot command, such as
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<userinput>boot net my-sparc.image</userinput>. This must still reside
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in the directory that the TFTP server looks in.
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<title>BVM/Motorola TFTP Booting</title>
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For BVM and Motorola VMEbus systems copy the files
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&bvme6000-tftp-files; to <filename>/tftpboot/</filename>.
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Next, configure your boot ROMs or BOOTP server to initially load the
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<filename>tftplilo.bvme</filename> or
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<filename>tftplilo.mvme</filename> files from the TFTP server. Refer
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to the <filename>tftplilo.txt</filename> file for your subarchitecture
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for additional system-specific configuration information.
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<title>SGI Indys TFTP Booting</title>
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On SGI Indys you can rely on the <command>bootpd</command> to supply
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the name of the TFTP file. It is given either as the
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<userinput>bf=</userinput> in <filename>/etc/bootptab</filename> or as
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the <userinput>filename=</userinput> option in
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<filename>/etc/dhcpd.conf</filename>.
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<sect2 id="tftp-low-memory">
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<title>TFTP Installation for Low-Memory Systems</title>
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On some systems, the standard installation RAMdisk, combined with the
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memory requirements of the TFTP boot image, cannot fit in memory. In
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this case, you can still install using TFTP, you'll just have to go
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through the additional step of NFS mounting your root directory over
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the network as well. This type of setup is also appropriate for
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diskless or dataless clients.
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First, follow all the steps above in <xref linkend="install-tftp"/>.
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Copy the Linux kernel image on your TFTP server using the
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<userinput>a.out</userinput> image for the architecture you are
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Untar the root archive on your NFS server (can be the same system as
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<informalexample><screen>
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# tar xvzf root.tar.gz
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</screen></informalexample>
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Be sure to use the GNU <command>tar</command> (other tar programs, like the
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SunOS one, badly handle devices as plain files).
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Export your <filename>/tftpboot/debian-sparc-root</filename> directory
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with root access to your client. E.g., add the following line to
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<filename>/etc/exports</filename> (GNU/Linux syntax, should be similar
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<informalexample><screen>
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/tftpboot/debian-sparc-root client(rw,no_root_squash)
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</screen></informalexample>
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NOTE: "client" is the host name or IP address recognized by the server for
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the system you are booting.
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Create a symbolic link from your client IP address in dotted notation
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to <filename>debian-sparc-root</filename> in the
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<filename>/tftpboot</filename> directory. For example, if the client
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IP address is 192.168.1.3, do
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<informalexample><screen>
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# ln -s debian-sparc-root 192.168.1.3
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</screen></informalexample>
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<sect2 condition="supports-nfsroot">
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<title>Installing with TFTP and NFS Root</title>
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Installing with TFTP and NFS Root is similar to
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<xref linkend="tftp-low-memory"/> because you don't want to
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load the RAMdisk anymore but boot from the newly created NFS-root file
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system. You then need to replace the symlink to the tftpboot image by
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a symlink to the kernel image (for example,
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<filename>linux-a.out</filename>).
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RARP/TFTP requires all daemons to be running on the same server (the
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workstation is sending a TFTP request back to the server that replied
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to its previous RARP request).