Subject: NetBSD 1.5.1 netboot from 1.5, chicken and egg problem...
To: NetBSD-help <netbsd-help@netbsd.org>
From: cpctc <cpctc@vt.edu>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 09/12/2001 09:08:44
Short version:
- Can I build a 1.5.1 kernel on a 1.5 machine?
- Can I boot a 1.5.1 installation with a 1.5 kernel?
- Is there a pre-compiled 1.5.1 DISKLESS kernel (binary for i386) available
for ftp somewhere?

I have a NetBSD 1.5 (i386) machine with NFS, DHCP/BOOTP, and TFTP configured
to support remote network diskless booting for other 1.5 machines.

I've untarred the 1.5.1 base.tgz and etc.tgz and kernel.tgz sets so that I
can netboot a remote diskless machine into 1.5.1.  But the 1.5.1 install
kernel doesn't include:

    options         NFS_BOOT_DHCP,NFS_BOOT_BOOTPARAM

So even when I boot with 'boot netbsd -a', and tell it that root is on 'ne2'
(a PCI ne2000 clone network card), it doesn't try to do bootp or dhcp, and
thus doesn't get a kernel from the server and can't boot.

NetBSD 1.5's netboot.com doesn't support this network card.

I can't get GRUB (0.90) to build on NetBSD 1.5.

The gzip'ed GENERIC binary kernel is too big to fit on a 1.44MB floppy, and
the GENERIC_TINY and GENERIC_LAPTOP don't include the NFS_BOOT options.

So I need a way to boot this machine; once it's booted, I should be able to
build kernels myself over NFS, but how do I boot the first time?

If there's no easy answer... then as a NetBSD distribution question:
Shouldn't the INSTALL kernel have the NFS_BOOT* options in it?

Thanks.