Re: About netboot

[markus@infoscape.com]

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Jiang Xiong writes:
 > I think it's because of some error settings of my root dir for that
 > diskless station on my Linux bootp server.  But since it doesn't reach the
 > step of 'rc.S', I am not able to figure out what's the problem on earth
 > because of my limited knowledgement with Linux.
 >
 > Would you give me some hints to deal with it ?  It seems the / has been
 > mounted, but I can't see this by 'showmount' on the server.

If your server is a Sun, then "showmount" should show the client. I do
now know, which other servers support the "showmount"
command. Increase message logging on the server (by editing the
"/etc/syslog.conf" file and sending a SIGHUP signal to your "syslogd")
and check all of the error messages.

 > Another question is that which directories need to be 'hard' copied to the
 > exported directory for nfs booted station ?  Is /dev necessary, or able
 > to be auto-mounted via /etc/fstab ?
 >
 > Thank you very much for your kind help.

While it is possible to play some tricks (most notably, when using the
"transname" patch on a Linux server), you really need to know what you
are doing before you try to share files between the server and several
clients. In the beginning, I would not try sharing anything other than
"/usr", and "/home". If you do not use the "transname" patch, then at
the very least, each client should have their own "/", "/dev", "/etc",
and "/var" directories. Make sure that the client process has access
to a valid "/lib" directory.

It might be helpful to check the list of processes that are running on
your Linux client. I think it was some modifier key (ALT, SHIFT, CTRL,
...) in combination with SCROLLOCK. For debugging, you could also
consider to replace your "init" process with a statically linked
shell. Alternatively, you can load an initial RAM disk that launches a
shell from "/linuxrc". Check the Linux kernel source code and the
included documentation for what is done at system startup.


Markus

--
Markus Gutschke                         Internet: markus@infoscape.com
Infoscape, Inc                          Phone:    +1-415-537-3778
657 Mission Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94105

Disclaimer: The above message represents my personal opinion; It does
            not constitute an offical statement by Infoscape!

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