On Mon Jun 27, 2005 at 10:34:56AM -0500, Sean Davis wrote:
> On 6/26/05, Volker A. Brandt <vab@bb-c.de> wrote:
> > Sean Davis writes:
> > > *: (OT!) If anyone knows of a way to netboot a solaris install without having
> > > a solaris box as the install server, please let me know, I'd like to give it
> > > a shot, for curiosity's sake if nothing else. Basically, I'd be looking to
> > > install Solaris 9 or 10 from a NetBSD machine to the Netra.
> > 
> > I do that all the time.  What exactly is the problem?
> 
> None, really, just not sure how to do it - Solaris CDs have some odd
> partitioning to them, and I don't know how to deal with that in
> NetBSD.


I have an i386 NetBSD 3.99.3 server acting as a jumpstart host for sparc 
clients.  

Assuming a solaris 10 release of 0305, servername "server", clientname 
"client" and base exported path /jumpstart



First I could not use the "check" or setup scripts, I had to write /etc/bootparams, 
/etc/ethers, /etc/hosts and rules.ok by hand.


A copy of my /etc/bootparams, this should be one line:

client  
root=server:/jumpstart/OS/Solaris_10_sparc_0305/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot 
install=server:/jumpstart/OS/Solaris_10_sparc_0305 
boottype=:in 
sysid_config=server:/jumpstart/Sysidcfg/netra 
install_config=server:/jumpstart 
rootopts=:rsize=4096


When the client is booted the Solaris_10/Boot directory is nfs mounted /.
The client will usually mount its real disk in /a during the installation 
process.  The Solaris_10/Product directory is the location the client uses
to install all of your selected software sets via "pkgadd -R /a".


Other gotchas:


NFS options
I set rsize to 4096 since the default client option for solaris is 32k for 
nfs. I found that on a 100mbit lan, 4096 was a "sweet spot" having worse 
performance with 1024 or 8192.


Route problems
Your Sysidcfg/netra/sysidcfg file should have "default_route=" set but
you may still need to tell your client its default route from bootparamd

/etc/rc.conf
bootparamd=YES          bootparamd_flags="-r 192.168.0.1 -f /etc/bootparams"


Even if the client and server are on the same lan and the client has its 
address from your rarpd, it will hang at a point in the install unless you 
ping it.  You can fix this behavior by setting net.inet.icmp.maskrepl=1 in 
sysctl.conf or just online.


Cheers,

-- 
Courtney R. Spencer