Re: Problems using VendorTags in /etc/bootptab

[Klaus Espenlaub <espenlaub@informatik.uni-ulm.de>]

James Pearson wrote:
> This almost works fine, except that the loaded kernel wants to mount
> "/tftpboot/ip_address_of_diskless_client" as the root partition - i.e.
> it ignores the "rp=" tag in /etc/bootptab (the "rp=" tag works fine when
> not using the Vendortags).

It ignores the root partition setting and uses the compiled in path by
default.  But this is not an etherboot issue, it's mknbi-linux which does
that (using the kernel compiled-in value and ignoring the BOOTP value).
So you don't need to change anything with the ROM contents, just the boot
image file must be changed to fix this (at least as long as you're using
BOOTP - DHCP needs a fixed (4.6.x) version otherwise it never provides the
setting to the next stage boot loader).

There are a couple of command line switches for mknbi-linux which either set
a kernel command line option to a constant value, use the BOOTP value or don't
pass it at all, effectively using the kernel default value.

The parameter "rom" is used to specify that the BOOTP value should be used.
See the mknbi-linux docs (or the source).

> I'm not using the most up to date versions of etherboot (v4.2) and
> bootpd (v2.4).
> 
> Would more recent versions of either/both these packages fix this
> problem? Or am I missing something?

I think the code should be OK - heaps of other things changed, but I think
etherboot 4.2 is fine.  The mknbi tools have been reimplemented since 4.2, so
the new docs don't match any more.

HTH

Klaus
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