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ollyb
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 11:04 am    Post subject: floppy, headless sparc 20 install?? Reply with quote

Hi
I've just acquired a couple of sparc 20s, but have no keyboard or monitor. I've read threads on using a debian floppy to boot, and on console installs, and I was just wondering if, technical ability notwithstanding, this is going to be possible. I'm not looking for instructions, just a "yes" or "no". On a different note, I was reading about only being able to boot of some scsi drives (something to do with 2048 vs 512 bit sectors or something??). Is it only sun cdroms that will work for this, or are there any others that'll work.

cheers!!

Olly
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Weeve
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 2:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We currently don't have any boot floppies, but we do have netboot images available on the mirros. This would allow you to do a headless, cd-less install as well.

Netboot images
http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu/experimental/sparc/tftpboot/sparc/

A HOWTO on how to setup a netboot server on an existing Gentoo/SPARC installation
https://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=23160&action=view

The Netboot server HOWTO will still be pretty relevant if you are using another Linux distribution.
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ollyb
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cool, i'll take a gander at those. Thanks!! So (this might seem like a silly question) I take it the sparc 20s support netbooting "out of the box" then??

Cheers
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Weeve
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, all of the sun4 lines support netbooting as far as I know. Once the netboot server is setup, all you would need to do is type "boot net" at an OBP prompt and it'll boot over the network.
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ollyb
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks. Having just bought a DB25 null modem cable on ebay, I'm slightly worried that the connector on the back of the sparc 20s is in fact a printer port rather than a 25pin serial port. Is it a serial port?

Thanks
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Weeve
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 8:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There is a 25 pin serial port on the back with the label A/B. The printer port has an icon to represent what it does iirc.
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ollyb
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 02, 2004 9:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

phew!!
well, while waiting for my serial cable to arrive, I also ordered a 13w3 to vga adaptor. So I power on the machine with the vga adaptor in (but no keyboard) and the screen does nothing - is this because it has detected that I have no keyboard, so is using the console instead of the monitor, or have I just spent good money on a piece of rubbish?

thanks!
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Weeve
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 02, 2004 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Correct, if the ss20 does not detect a keyboard, it will default to using the serial console for regular i/o.
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encieno
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 2:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

one note, installing from stage one over console takes a while.... reallly long time. i just got done with an ultra 10 a few days back. one suggestion would be to output as much stuff as possible to either /dev/null or make a temp file somewhere on the drive... such as compiling, the processor was outrunning the 9600 connection and slowing stuff down to a crawl waiting for the screen updates.. emerge sync in some cases took well over 2 hrs on console, >/tmp/boohoo would take maybe 10 or so.
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ollyb
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well finally the dodgy db25 null modem cable and the dodgy db25 to db9 connector I bought on ebay came through, and to my utter surprise the OBP prompt came up on my terminal. Yay! I have the rarp and tftp servers all set up and running fine, but there seems to be a problem with the ethernet connection. if i do "test net" it shows both the AUI and TPE interfaces, succeeding the internal loopback test but failing the external one (i'm using the TPE). My network switch also doesn't register the fact that the sparc's connected. But if i do "test net-tpe" it succeeds the internal and external tests on the tpe, and my switch suddenly registers that it's there.
The odd thing is that there's another network card in there, and if i plug the cat5 in there before i boot, then boot, the switch sees that it's there, but won't do this with onboard ethernet.
Here's what it says....

Code:
ok test net

Using AUI Ethernet Interface
 Internal loopback test -- succeeded.
 External loopback test -- Lost Carrier  (transceiver cable problem?)
send failed.

Using TP Ethernet Interface
 Internal loopback test -- succeeded.
 External loopback test -- Lost Carrier  (transceiver cable problem?)
send failed.

net selftest failed. Return code = -1
ok test net-tpe

Using TP Ethernet Interface
 Internal loopback test -- succeeded.
 External loopback test -- succeeded.
ok boot net
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ledma@f,400010/le@f,c00000  File and args:
Lost Carrier  (transceiver cable problem?)
Cable problem or twisted pair hub link-test disabled.
Use the PROM command "help ethernet" for more information.

Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Lost Carrier  (transceiver cable problem?)
Cable problem or twisted pair hub link-test disabled.
Use the PROM command "help ethernet" for more information.


Thanks for all the help!!

Olly


Last edited by ollyb on Thu Mar 04, 2004 2:45 pm; edited 1 time in total
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ollyb
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

oh, and with "boot net-tpe", it just prints the following and then sits indefinitely....
Code:

ok test net-tpe

Using TP Ethernet Interface
 Internal loopback test -- succeeded.
 External loopback test -- succeeded.
ok boot net-tpe
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ledma@f,400010:tpe/le@f,c00000  File and args:
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Weeve
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You might try adjusting the setting of tpe-link-test? in OBP

To see what it's currently set to, use

Code:
printenv tpe-link-test?


To change it, try

Code:
setenv tpe-link-test? false


or whatever the opposite of the current value is for you.
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Vu
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 11:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

encieno wrote:
one note, installing from stage one over console takes a while.... reallly long time. i just got done with an ultra 10 a few days back. one suggestion would be to output as much stuff as possible to either /dev/null or make a temp file somewhere on the drive... such as compiling, the processor was outrunning the 9600 connection and slowing stuff down to a crawl waiting for the screen updates.. emerge sync in some cases took well over 2 hrs on console, >/tmp/boohoo would take maybe 10 or so.


That doesn't happen when you're doing it through ssh does it?

Vu.
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you ssh into the install, no this doesn't happen. However the netboot images do not have an sshd to do this with, so you have to do the whole install from whatever console you are using.
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ollyb
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

After (literally) hours of trying to sort this netbooting out, I'm still having no luck :-(
the only difference i can see when setting the tpe-link-test? to false is that the switch no longer recognises that the sparc is connected (and doesn't see any of the packets coming in on the sparcs switch port (it's a managed switch, so i can view the raw data). It seems odd though that when it's set to false the sparc reports the tpe link as up but the AUI as down, but when set to true, it says they're both down.
Also, I've noticed that when i do "boot net-tpe" it just sits and does nothing (though the switch receives packets) but when i do just "boot net" it keeps reporting the failed RARP attempts...
Code:
ok test net

Using AUI Ethernet Interface
 Internal loopback test -- succeeded.
 External loopback test -- Lost Carrier  (transceiver cable problem?)
send failed.

Using TP Ethernet Interface
 Internal loopback test -- succeeded.
 External loopback test -- succeeded.
ok boot net
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ledma@f,400010/le@f,c00000  File and args:
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet


I'm running the rarpd on a debian box that's also serving as an ethernet bridge, with the command
Code:
rarpd -A -v -d

with br0 or eth0 stuck on the end of the command.
If anyone has any more ideas, I'd be greatly appreceitive.

Thanks once again
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ollyb
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Working :D
I think the problem was that the machine that was the rarp + tftp server had more than one interface, and the one it was meant to be listening on wasn't brought up at boot. This was fine for the rarp requests (i used tcpdump and found they were working fine) but as the tftpd was being handled by inetd it didn't work.

I'm so happy!!
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