On Mon, May 27, 2002 at 11:27:30PM +0200, Roine Thunberg wrote:
  | 
  | rpc.bootparamd doesn't respond at all
  | 
  | my /etc/bootparams looks like this
  | 
  | 	skumburk# cat bootparams
  | 	sparcy  root=sparcys-gw:/opt/sparc/exports/root
  | 
  | my sparc 4 responds with this...
  | 
  | 	Booting NetBSD
  | 	Using BOOTPARAMS protocol: ip address: 192.168.0.2bootparamd:
  | 	'whoami' call failed
  | 	Bootp: no reply
  | 
  | 	etc. etc.
  | 
  | Should I fumble with bootptab and bootpd? Or should I retry and retry and
  | retry... ?

In my personal experience, I've found that NetBSD's rpc.bootparamd is
a bit too flaky, and its very particular about its config file format
(with crappy diagnostics when you've given it the wrong config).
I haven't been bothered to attempt to debug this much more, since I
generally use dhcp for all my systems (see below).

Recently (in time for NetBSD 1.6), the sparc netboot blocks and the
sparc GENERIC kernels were changed to try BOOTP/DHCP before
bootparams (as part of an effort to make netbooting various NetBSD
architectures consistent).  So, if you're not using bootparams for
anything else, I'd setup dhcpd and use that instead of bootparams
for your sparc, because many other things use it.

For what it's worth, the /etc/dhcpd.conf entry for my diskless SS5 is:
        host icarus {
                fixed-address           icarus;
                hardware ethernet       08:00:20:00:ba:be;
                filename                "icarus/netbsd";
                option root-path        "/diskless/icarus";
        }

(The kernel is in the tftp area as "icarus/netbsd", and in the
diskless root area.  Which are the same thing on my system, but
don't have to be)


Luke.

-- 
Luke Mewburn  <lukem@wasabisystems.com>  http://www.wasabisystems.com
Luke Mewburn     <lukem@netbsd.org>      http://www.netbsd.org
Wasabi Systems - NetBSD hackers for hire
NetBSD - the world's most portable UNIX-like operating system