Subject: Re: newbie's question of SRM and netboot
To: Terminator <jimmyzhou@bigfoot.com>
From: Erik E. Fair <fair@clock.org>
List: port-alpha
Date: 08/17/2001 11:44:11
I did my intial Alpha install a few years ago on a DigitalServer 3305
(nee AlphaServer 800), netbooting from NetBSD/sparc; my experience
was that if the ethernet is honest-to-god DEC built (e.g. a DEC
DE500-{X,A,B}A FastEtherworks PCI card, or built-in to the
motherboard), or really DEC supported (I don't know the proper list
of these), SRM will be happy to netboot through it.
However, if you've got a PCI card that just has a DEC TULIP
(2114{0,3} chip) on it, but is not DEC-made, all bets are off; SRM
will likely see it, but might not set the MII PHY stuff right.
After that, it's a matter of setting up the boot server to do what
SRM wants in terms of bootp and tftp; do read the FAQ on netbooting -
there is valuable information in there.
Erik <fair@clock.org>