[comp.unix.wizards] booting sun3 client from sun2 server

bparent@sdcc6.UUCP (07/09/87)

I'm trying to boot a sun 3/50 using a sun 2 as an nd server.  I know the people
at Sun don't recommend it, but they say it is possible.  I've already tried
calling their software support number, but they can't seem to help me.
(No offense intended to the parties involved.)  Does anyone out there have
direct experience with this who also wouldn't mind talking to me about it?

Brief description:
	The Sun 2, we'll call server2, currently has a sun 2 as a client.

	The Sun 3, we'll call client3, has successfully been booted using 
	another Sun 3, we'll call it server3, as a server.

	The client's root partitions for client3 are identical on both
	server2 and server3.

	When booting client3 (single user) using server2 as the nd server,
	the last thing that prints out is:

		Singleuser boot -- fsck not done.
	
	The next thing that *should* print out is the # singleuser prompt.
	But I never see it; instead, after a minute or so I get the message:

		nd: disk server not responding, still trying

	Using etherfind(8C), it appears that server2 *only* responds to
	requests from client3 when client3 uses a broadcast packet.
	Then server2 sends lots of stuff to client3 (probably the tftpboot stuff
	and then the rc.boot file to execute), and then client3 sends 
	packet after packet to server2 with no responses from server2.

Did I say brief?  Sorry.
Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

Brian Parent	ARPA - bparent@sdcc6.UCSD.EDU
		uucp - ...!ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc6!bparent
		voice - (619)534-6090

mhl@rust.UUCP (07/10/87)

I have done this before, and it works if the 3/50 is old enough to have
the old proms. If you got as far as you described you are ok.

Set up your server2 to have 2 /pub partitions and make sure that you
install the 68020 /pub on the /pub that you will be giving to client3.

Do not have identical roots for client2 and client3 use the 68010 and
68020 versions for the different roots.

One thing that I have found very usefull is to install programs
like cat, ls, od, csh in the clients root /bin. These will get 
overlaid by /pub/bin when it mounts, but if you have messed up
your /etc/fstab you cant really see anything.

Good luck.

decwrl!decwet.dec.com!lucovsky