Re: etherboot & NFS problem - part of the problem solved

[Rajesh Fowkar <Mail@dempos.com>]

Hi Chris,

Initially I had copied the kernel in /tftpboot and the Diskless client was booting the kernel and than giving -13 error.

Now I thought of copying the kernel to the actual workstation directory /tftpboot/rajeshpc and changed the dhcpd.conf file to point to /tftpboot/rajeshpc/kernel.

Now the root filesystem is getting mounted but the init part gives error since the init is I think dynamically linked. The diskless node gives a list of errors like

killing process getty
killing process init etc.
error in mounting shared libraries etc.

I am not getting the login prompt. All these error are reapeating on the screen.

How can I solve this problem to get the login prompt on the Diskless client.

Thanks in advance.

Warm Regards

Rajesh


>
>First of all test the mount point on your local linux server:
>
>	bash# mount -t nfs your_server:/tftpboot/xxxxxx /mnt/tmp
>
>(Of course, you must have a /mnt/tmp directory !)
>
>Further try following to nfs root for the diskless client:
>2 ways:
>
>ONE:	Use bootloader GNU Grub. Compile it with network support 
>	(uses etherboot network drivers !!)
>	Install boot loader to disk and boot from disk (on client)
>	Now you are at the GRUB prompt:
>
>	grub> bootp
>
>	(Now you see the server and client address)
>
>	grub> root (nd)
>
>	(Use the network connction as root for the boot loader (not linux !)
>
>	grub> kernel /tftpboot/xxxxxx/vmlinuz root=/dev/nfs 
>			nfsroot=ip_of_server:/tftpboot/xxxx/root ip=........
>
>	(All in one line, then the command ...)
>	
>	grub> boot
>
>The advantage here is to try the kernel without any image and to use the 
>kernel parameter line for the boot (no bootp or any automatic for the
>first test (see /usr/src/linux/Documentation/nfsroot.txt, 
>	/usr/doc/HOWTO/mini/NFS-Root, /usr/doc/HOWTO/BootPrompt-HOWTO).
>
>The second way is to boot via ldlinux.sys (syslinux.cfg), like on the
>RedHat boot disk (!). Here in syslinux.cfg the kernel parameter line can
>also be added.
>
>I prefer GRUB for all those experiements. I added support for diskless
>boot of GRUB itself. So the boot image is nbgrub, and you never had to
>use mknbi(-linux) any more !!!
>With the use of the grub config file (menu.lst) you can also
>automatcally
>boot the linux, everything diskless !! (I use this at home !)
>
>With friendly regards
>
>	Christoph plattner
>

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