I've been trying to get my 3/50 to boot from a linux machine, and have
gotten to the pointwhere it currently is able to download the boot
image, then dies:

Boot: le(0,0,0)
Using IP address 134.173.48.92 = 86AD305C
Booting from tftp server at 134.173.48.53 = 86AD3053
Downloaded 101800 bytes from tftp server.

Using IP address 134.173.48.92 = 86AD305C
No bootparam server; still trying

(at this point I abort)

Obviously the problem is that there's no bootparam server running.  
The question du jour is: how do I get a bootparam server running on
the linux machine?

Another problem I ran into was that the /etc/bootptab apparently isn't
being read.  The bootptab entry looks like:

sping:ht=1:\
        :bs=auto:\
        :hd=/tftpboot:
        :bf=86AD305C.SUN3:\
        :ds=134.173.4.23:\
        :gw=134.173.48.200:\
        :ha=08002001827E:\
        :ip=134.173.48.92:\
        :to=-28800:

However, according to the syslog, the file being requested is 86AD305C
rather than /tftpboot/86AD305C.SUN3 .  As a temporary workaround, I
modified the tftp daemon:

if (!strcmp(filename,"86AD305C")) filename =
"/tftpboot/86AD305C.SUN3";

This works okay, but it would be more desirable to have it working
correctly.  The bootp entry in /etc/services is:

bootps          67/udp

and the corresponding entry in /etc/inetd.conf is:

bootps  dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/sbin/in.bootpd -d

I'm pretty sure that bootpd isn't ever even being executed, though.
While booting, I ran:

bash# while (/bin/true) do
> ps -aux|grep boot|grep -v grep
> done

and the only output I got was:

root      9853  0.0  3.0   40  216  ?  D  14:12   0:00 /tftpboot



This second problem is less pressing, unless somehow it is what is
indirectly causing the first problem.

As long as I've still got your attention, another thing I'd appreciate
is an overview of the 3/50's diskless booting process.  I'm flying
absolutely blind without anything like a manual, and some sort of a
road map would be very helpful.

Thanks.

---
ken