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From: "Patrick N. Fitzgerald" <fitzgepn@cs.purdue.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc
Subject: Booting a Sun3/50 with root on NFS
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 14:46:32 -0500
Organization: Department of Computer Sciences, Purdue University
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Hello!
I recently bought a couple of Sun3's, a 3/50 and a 3/140. I am currently
working on getting the 3/50 to boot. I'm using a Linux machine on the same
ethernet network as the RARP/TFTP/NFS/bootparamd server, and I believe I have
everything set up on it.
I have gotten the Sun to work as predicted all the way through loading the
miniroot image. Because I don't have a dedicated disk for the Sun, I've
set up a space on the Linux host to act as the / directory for the Sun. When
I try to load the miniroot image, I get an error about in the early stages
of loading the kernel that says "short read" or a similar error. I know the
package is valid because I have downloaded it many times and tried over and
over to get it to work.
I have also tried untar'ing the archives for the base and etc packages
manually on the server. This worked well, and I edited the appropriate files
in /etc as well. It does not appear to have come with a precompiled binary
kernel image to boot from. Is there another package I need to get a ready
made kernel image?
After this, I tried to use the "netbsd-gen" kernel from the ftp archive as
a boot image, but it freezes shortly after it tries to mount the networked
swap file.
I also tried using the "netbsd-rd" kernel from the ftp archive as a boot image.
It appeared to work well, and dropped me directly into ssh> and told me to
prepare the hard drives. Since the Sun has no hard drive, I skipped this
step and went straight on into trying to boot the miniroot kernel. And, as I
said before, this halted with a "short read" error and locked up the system.
Does anyone have any suggestions for my problem? I've been searching the 'web,
for what it's worth, and I can't find any help there. Also, what kernel image
am I supposed to use to boot the system once it's installed? Is it contained
in the miniroot itself?
Any help you can give me will be sincerely appreciated.
Thanks for your time,
Patrick N. Fitzgerald
_____________________________________________________________________________
_ _ | Patrick N. Fitzgerald
_____ (.)___(.) _____ | (fitzgepn@cs.purdue.edu)
(____ /\_______/\ ____) | "All along this path I tread,
/||\__\_________/__/||\ | My heart betrays my weary head
/||\ /||\ | With nothing but my love to save
just sittin' on a lily pad.... | --From the cradle to the grave."-E.C.
____________________________________|_______________________________________