Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 08:21:47 +0200 (MET DST) From: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Cc: Nicolas.Souchu@prism.uvsq.fr, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, mbouget@club-internet.fr Subject: Re: tftp in bootp process Message-ID: <199806040621.IAA08871@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> In-Reply-To: <199806040528.WAA00537@antipodes.cdrom.com> from "Mike Smith" at Jun 3, 98 10:28:08 pm
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> > tftp is not used anymore in the diskless boot process. Unfortunately the
> > documentation (especially, the handbook) has not been updated. The
> > best source of documentation is the netboot(8) manpage.
>
> Ah, last time I looked at the netboot sources, it still fetched and
> read the configuration file. The netboot(8) manpage was stolen from
on this you are right, but the tftp stuff is only a relic of the past
and probably has been left in for backward compatibility only. In my
local copy of the sources I have #ifdef'd out this section of code
for a long time.
> NetBSD and never updated. It doesn't describe the (primitive, Sun
> -inspired) NetBSD diskless environment very well, and its applicability
> to FreeBSD is even less. I quote from netboot(8) just for perspective:
>
> In phase 2, the boot program loads a kernel. Operation in this phase de-
> pends on the design of the boot program. (The design described here is
> the one used by Sun and NetBSD/hp300.) The boot program:
>
> I can't imagine what this manpage is doing apart from confusing people.
Which manpage are you looking at ? The one attached below is from
a stock 2.2.6-RELEASE . It was rewritten almost completely about
one year ago by Tor Egge (if i remember well) and myself, to account
for the extensive (in functionality; the code did not change much)
changes in netboot to get all info from the bootptab, and to the
kernel (this time more extensive changes done by Tor Egge) to give
better support for diskless.
To me this page seems very clear. If something is missing, it is just
a set of related kernel config options.
cheers
luigi
NETBOOT(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual NETBOOT(8)
NAME
netboot - Allows remote booting of the operating system
SYNOPSIS
netboot is used for booting the operating system over a network card. The
program is either loaded into a ROM, or run from DOS.
DESCRIPTION
netboot loads parameters such as IP addresses, kernel name and filesystem
names from a bootp server, tries to mount the specified root and swap
filesystems, loads the specified kernel from the root filesystem using
NFSv2, and then gives control to the kernel.
The bootp server must be configured appropriately. An example configura-
tion for /etc/bootptab is the following:
.default:\
:sm=255.255.255.0:\
:gw=your.gateway.ip:\
:hn:ht=ether:vm=rfc1048:\
:rp="rootfs.ip:/rootfs/path":\
:T128="swapfs.ip:/swapfs/path":\
:T129=swapsize:\
:T130="root,mount,options":\
:T131="swap,mount,options":\
:ra=255.255.255.255:
client01:bf="kernel.300":ha=00400530d6d9:tc=.default:
client02:bf="kernel.280":ha=00400530d6d3:tc=.default:
...
For a precise description of the bootptab parameters, see bootptab (5) .
The netboot code uses options as follows.
sm indicates the subnet mask.
gw is the ip address of the gateway.
hn instructs the bootp server to send the hostname in the reply.
ht=ether
indicates that the hardware is ethernet.
vm=rfc1048
indicates the use of rfc1048 extensions.
rp specifies where the directory mounted as the root filesystem is
located. The IP address of the server must be specified, fol-
lowed by a : and the directory pathname.
T128 specifies where the directory containing the swap file is locat-
ed. The IP address of the server must be specified, followed by
a : and the directory pathname. The actual swapfile is a file
named swap.X.Y.Z.T where X.Y.Z.T is the IP address of the client.
If this argument is given, the swap file must exist.
T129 specifies the size of the swap file, in KB. Must be specified as
a 8 digits long hexadecimal number. 16 MB swap thus becomes
T129=00004000. This argument is optional; if missing, the size of
the swap file is read from the server.
T130 specifies root mount options, such as soft, intr, tcp, etc. This
argument is optional. The default is to use UDP.
T131 specifies swap mount options. This argument is optional.
bf is the name of the kernel. If not specified, it defaults to "ker-
nel".
ra is used to override the reply address.
FILES
/usr/mdec/nb8390.rom rom image for NE1000/NE2000 cards
/usr/mdec/nb8390.com DOS executable for NE1000/NE2000 cards
/usr/mdec/nb3c509.rom rom image for 3C509 cards
/usr/mdec/nb3c509.com DOS executable for 3C509 cards
SEE ALSO
bootpd(8), bootptab(5)
BUGS
To use netboot with Western Digital/SMC cards or 3C503 cards, a recompile
is needed after a little Makefile tweaking.
May 15, 1997 2
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