I still need to support a Sun SPARC VME/Solaris 2.6 board for our organization. One issue is having the right SCSI disk available to replace failed disk Problems with types of scsi (SCSI-2,3, SE, LVD) and connectors, and not have enough SUN infrastructre. I will try to get the VME sparc to boot from network server. The network disk will contain a ufsdump of the orginial disk. The network server is running centos 4.x. I also got a sparc XL that I can test net boot with. RARP Sun's OBP 'boot net' get is IP addresss using RRP from the rarpd server. On the linux server add the MAC address of the SPARC to /etc/ethers, and run the rarpd. # vi /etc/ethers (add MAC_Address, and IP for reverse address resolution). # /etc/init.d/rarpd start Sparc LX Borrowed a old Sparc LX from shane (D.Hall's group). Internal disk was disconnected: ST11200N, 1.05 GB, Hawk2, 50 pin J2: Set Jumper were: Pin3 Enable_Motor_Start, Pin5 Parity_Option J5: SCSI ID set to 3. SBUS Slot0: Empty SBUS Slot1: S11W/S16D P/N 015-00032-02 with 80 pin. Seems to be a EDT.com high speed parallel or 16-bit dual analog interface Removed S11W/S16D from slot1, and installed an X1018a (207-2739-02) SE Fast/Wide SCSI/Fast Ethernet. sbus card's hme is /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/SUNW,hme@1,8c00000 mac address is: 08:00:20:1d:16:45 sbuf cards scsi is /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/SUNW,fas@1,8800000/sd On LX, did: ok boot /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/SUNW,hme@1,8c00000 On kelvin (centos 4.x): rarpd ARP is used to provide the LX with its IP number from its MAC address. TFTP is then used to upload the boot block to the LX. 1. add to /etc/ethers : 08:00:20:1d:16:45 128.171.110.138 This does the MAC Addr to IP number translations using the rarpd. 2. add to /aux/spex/tftp cp ../guidedog/usr/platform/sun4m/lib/fs/nfs/inetboot inetboot.sun4m ln -s inetboot.sun4m 80AB6E8A.SUN4M (128.171.110.138 in hex + architecture). rarpd can also provide the boot loader vai tftp. The boot file for ethernet can be found in the /usr/platform/ARCH/fs/nfs/ directory (for NFS mounts) 3. run rarpd to assign IP from /etc/ether and provide tftp boot file. # rarpd -A -d -e -v -b /aux/spex/tftp tftpd - run a tftp server. # in.tftpd -l -s -v -v /aux/spex/tftp bootparamd The loaded boot block has NFS support so the OS can be mounted via NSF. Setup bootparamd ( boot parameter server) to provide the diskless client information to it's NFS disk. # cat bootparams hilodog root=kelvin:/aux/spex/hilodog/root # rpc.bootparamd -d -s -l -------------------------------------------------------- loading kernel, but getting stuck at here: Ref: http://znark.com/tech/netbootsparc.html - network boot server for SPARC. (archived the html file in this directory). sunstuff.org - some sun hardware info, resellers, etc. http://www.smtps.net/netboot_flash_obp.html - So you want to flash the PROM on your SPARC without installing Solaris? http://tomz22.wordpress.com/2007/10/17/sun-sparc-lx/ a bog on SUN Sparc XL and netboot xxx