Problem booting diskless SS1

[Patrick Goebel]

In article <6632 at brazos.Rice.edu> scl at sasha.acc.Virginia.EDU (Steve
Losen) writes:

>I have recently set up a diskless SS1 client on another SS1 disk server.
>The diskless client doesn't boot up all the way without manual
>intervention.  It tftpboots and prints out the correct bootparam
>information (where its root and swap are coming from), loads and starts
>executing vmunix.  After probing for devices and printing them all out, it
>prompts for a root partition on the floppy disk.  The prompt looks
>something like this.
>
>root (fd%d%c):

I experienced the very same problem while attempting to boot a diskless
SPARC 1 off our 4/330 server.  Our SPARC 1 DOES have an internal floppy
disk drive but that is really beside the point--I configured /export/root
and /export/exec directories on the server (in addition to various and
sundry other details during suninstall) so that the SPARC 1 should just
ignore the floppy drive and boot over the ethernet.

Being a novice at this game, I called 1-800-USA-4SUN and within 10 minutes
(!) had the solution from one of their (very knowledgeable) tech support
staff.  The trick is to NOT use the GENERIC kernel for the diskless
client.  Instead, build a new kernel using the DL60 configuration file.
(DL is for diskless and 60 is for 4/60, I believe.) I won't clutter the
net with the details of rebuilding a kernel from a configuration file, so
if you have any further questions, give me a shout at

patrick goebel--romeo at lindy.stanford.edu
Budding System Administrator