BOUNCE netboot@baghira.han.de: Admin request

[owner-netboot@baghira.han.de]

>From netboot-owner  Sat Oct  4 12:00:10 1997
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From: lschultz@x2.alliance.net
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Date: Sat, 4 Oct 1997 05:34:26 -0400
To: netboot@baghira.han.de
Subject: Problems using netboot-0.7.2
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Hello,

I just subscribed to this mailing list, so I hope my question isn't
out of line.  I read through the web archives, but didn't see anything that
would help me out with this problem.

I'm attempting to use the netboot package to allow me to boot an
HP 466DX diskless workstation.  I'm told that this is part of HP's Windows
Client line.  I apologize for not having more information about the system,
but I bought it from a used computer store thinking it would be a fun toy.
The diskless computer itself is a 486DX2/66 with 4M RAM soldered on the MB
with an onboard NE2100 network controller and Cirrus Logic GD5430 video
chip.  It appears to already contain a bootprom, since after doing it's 
POST testing it flips to a screen which reads:

    TCP/IP BOOT-PROM 1.51, HPWC 1.52M
    (c) Copyright 1989,1994 Schasiepen GmbH, Dirk Koppen EDV-Beratungs-GmbH

The BIOS allows me to choose which method to use for booting, and I
selected BOOTP.  I supplied the BIOS with client and server IP addresses
and saved the choices.  Rebooting the machine, it shows loading the bootprom
(or so I assume, as you can interrupt it at this point), then shows:

ARP.			(checking to find out it's IP address.  tcpdump on
                         the Linux server shows that this is answered)
BOOTP.			(getting the BOOTP information from the server.
			 This also gets answered, as I can see the info
			 from the debug logs)
TFTP.			(grabbing whatever file is mentioned in
		         /etc/bootptab)

All of this goes amazingly well, and I was thinking I might get off easy on
this whole thing.  Following this, it shows a counter of the TFTP transfer.
The thing seems to count in hex, and shows a maximum transfer size of "241
Kbytes" (images larger than that get frozen at 241).  Following the
transfer, the screen shows "sorted XXX Kbyte" (where XXX matches the size
transferred) then "invoking primary bootstrap".

Now, I'd like the diskless client to use Linux, so I compiled a 2.0.30 
kernel that was extremely barebones (included TCP/IP, support for the net
interface, and support for nfsroot).  If I then take that zImage and put
it into the tftp directory, the diskless computer will show:

Loading..................
Uncompressing Linux...
 
 incomplete literal tree


 -- System halted

Not very encouraging.  So, I grabbed the netboot package thinking that I
was missing something.  I took the zImage file and ran it through mknbi
like this:

	mknbi-linux zImage -o /tftpboot/bootfile

Trying to boot this doesn't even get me the "Loading" part.  It freezes
after transferring, "sorting" and "invoking" and leaves little video 
corruption "flashes" all over the screen.  They seem to flitter all over
the thing, but nothing further happens.

I'm hoping there is a way to get this thing to boot.  The machine is 
_completely_ diskless, I have no way to get anything onto this machine other
than the netboot (ie, no floppies, no nothing).

Does anyone have an idea as to what I'm missing or what I might try to get 
the diskless station running?  

The BIOS allows a number of choices for boot methods (RPL, BOOTP, IBM LAN
Server, NFS, HP LAN Manager for Unix, MS LAN Manager, Novell 802.2 Boot
Frame, Novell 802.3 Boot Frame), so if I need to change what it's currently
set to (BOOTP), please let me know.

Thanks for your help!

	--Steve Philp
	--lschultz@x2.alliance.net