Problems setting up a diskless Linux stations with netboot

[Karsten Brinkmann <kbr@orga.com>]

Hi,

i am trying to get netboot working to let a 486 PC boot Linux over
a network.

The client is a 486er with 8 MB RAM and a 3COM 3C509 ethernet card (ISA).
The server: Pentium with 64 MB RAM and a 3COM 3C905 ethernet card (PCI).

I installed Suse5.1 on the server and installed netboot.

In order to make the client net-bootable i did as follows:
a)
  I built a custom kernel for the client with BOOTP and RARP and NFS root
  enabled and tagged it with mknbi-linux as described in the netboot 
  documentation:

excerpt from /etc/inetd.conf:
===============================================================================
#
# Tftp service is provided primarily for booting.  Most sites
# run this only on machines acting as "boot servers." 
#
tftp          dgram   udp     wait    nobody  /usr/sbin/tcpd  in.tftpd /
bootps  dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/sbin/bootpd  bootpd -d4 -c /boot
===============================================================================

b) i enabled both TFTP and BOOTP in the serverīs /etc/inetd.conf. I
   entered the client into /etc/hosts and /etc/hosts.allow and
   created an entry in /etc/exports to export /boot/otest-hermann/root
   to the client. I put a reasonable amount of programms in the
   clientīs (net)root filesystem.

c) i created  /etc/bootptab  on the server like this:

  otest-hermann:hd=/boot:vm=auto:ip=194.122.136.136:\
             :ht=ethernet:ha=006097CE3558:\
             :rp=/boot/otest-hermann/root:\
             :bf=bootImage-otest-hermann

[The kernel image for the client was copied to /boot/bootImage-otest-hermann]

d) i created a netboot floppy for the 3C509 

e) i rebooted the server

f) i switched on the diskless client and put the netboot floppy in the drive

Result: The client was sending request but the server did not answer.

        -> i rebooted the server again: After the network initialisation
           the client found the kernel image but then the client hung 
           and i got "NFS server 194.122.136.135 server not responding still 
           trying"
           [194.122.136.135 is the server, 194.122.136.136 the client]
 
        -> IMPORTANT: THE CLIENT WAS ONLY BOOTING IF I REBOOT THE SERVER.
           JUST SHUTTING DOWN AND RESTARTING THE NETWORK (init 1 - init 2)
           DID NOT WORK! OF COURSE I DONīT WANT TO REBOOT THE SERVER EVERY
           TIME I WANT TO DO A NETBOOT.
           
Can anybody tell me what went wrong? I think that i didnīt make an
error.

Thanks,

Karsten
-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Karsten Brinkmann, ORGA Kartensysteme GmbH                        |
| An der Kapelle 2, 33104 Paderborn                                 |
| Tel: +49 +5254 991-828 Fax: +49 +5251 991-749 Email: kbr@orga.com |
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