Help with /etc/dms needed badly!

[Steve Dempsey]

In article <5876 at jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>, barrett at jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan
Barrett) writes:
> 
> 	I am having severe problems attempting to boot a DS3100 as a
> diskless node, using a DECsystem 5400 as the file server.
> [...stuff deleted...]
> 	If you have successfully done a diskless boot using "/etc/dms"
> under either Ultrix 3.1D or Ultrix 4.0, please tell me what we have done
> wrong!!

We have not done it with risc machines yet but have 100 diskless VS2000s.

> [much detail deleted]


> 	Then it said something like "/ mounted on /dlclient0/whatever.root,
> 	/usr on /dlenv/root.mips, swap on /dlclient0/whatever.root/dev/swap".
> 	[NOTE THE ERROR -- WE WANT TO SWAP ON LOCAL DISK rz3c.]

You must edit the config file (/sys/conf/mips/WHATEVER?) and change
the config line to something like:

     config vmunix swap on rz3c

You may also have to add the controller & disk devices (copy from
disked system config file) because the standard diskless config expects
no disks (imagine that :-).

> 	Then it hung.

Hanging at this point indicates that nfsd may not be running on the
server; check with nfssetup AGAIN and run ps and rpcinfo to verify that
it's really alive.

> (4)	So, after investigating, we discovered that /etc/dms did not
> 	compile the secondary loader, /dlclient0/whatever.root/etc/netblk.o,
> 	although it did update netblk.c with the current information.  So,
> 	we compiled netblk.c by hand:

Probably unnecessary since dms didn't bother with it.


> 	Question:  Do we need lockd statd, and/or rwalld?

Useful, but not required.

>  ... [there is no config file]
>
> 		/dlenv0/root.mips/usr/sys/conf/mips/WHATEVER
> 
> 	Should there be?  Who makes it?

Gotta be around somewhere.  You can make your own in /sys/conf/mips
and build the kernel that way.

> o	Is anything missing from /etc/ttys, maybe?  An entry for the
> 	console itself, instead of "/dev/console", maybe?  We have a
> 	VS262 monitor.

Doubtful.  You should see the `automatic reboot in progress...' and other
output from rc & rc.local.

Finally, as hagan at scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (John Dotts Hagan) writes
in article <27278 at netnews.upenn.edu>, you should consider sacrificing
15Mb for an `a' partition and mount /usr, et. al. from elsewhere.
If I had a pile of RD53's, I'd put one in every diskless VS2000 and
be done with it.  Complete diskless booting still has its advantages,
especially when you get a trashed boot block, or whatever.  I've had
occasion to boot a '3600 from a '2000 to fix broken file systems, etc.
Much neater than loading the standalone from tape, especially on a
machine with no tape drive :-).

Hope this helps.


        Steve Dempsey,  Center for Computer Assisted Engineering
  Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523    +1 303 491 0630
INET: steved at longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu, dempsey at handel.CS.ColoState.Edu
UUCP: boulder!ccncsu!longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu!steved, ...!ncar!handel!dempsey