blog.crox.net

Initially written on 2006-05-17

On my other (x86/amd64) diskless machines, I use PXE with pxegrub. My setup is quite similar to (and inspired by) this one.

Now, on sparc machines, there is no BIOS nor PXE. But you don't need all that, since you have the Open Boot... This is how I managed to make my Sunblade 100 totally diskless (using a "vanilla" kernel, the latest version being currently 2.6.16.16).

Note: In this example, 10.0.0.10 will be my dhcp/nfs/tftp server which I will refer to as 'fileserver'. 10.0.0.30 is the sunblade.

- when configuring the kernel:

[*] Default bootloader kernel arguments (ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=10.0.0.10:/diskless/sunblade)

(in "Networking" -> "Networking support" -> "Networking options")

[*]   IP: kernel level autoconfiguration
 [*]     IP: DHCP support
 [*]     IP: BOOTP support
 [*]     IP: RARP support

(in "File systems" -> "Network File Systems")

<*> NFS file system support
[*]   Provide NFSv3 client support
[*] Root file system on NFS

Configure all other settings as you would do for a disk install, but make sure you compile your NIC driver in the kernel (not as module)

Then:

make
make modules_install
make tftpboot.img ROOT_IMG=/dev/null

(the resulting tftpboot.img will be in arch/sparc64/boot/tftpboot.img)

I copied tftpboot.img to fileserver as tftpimage-2.6.16.16, and added the following entry in my dhcpd.conf:

host sunblade {
    hardware ethernet 00:03:BA:08:12:34;
    fixed-address 10.0.0.30;
    always-reply-rfc1048 on;
    filename "sunblade/boot/tftpimage-2.6.16.16";
}

Finally, to net-boot your diskless Sunblade you'll need to enter

boot net:dhcp

in the Open Boot prompt. When you are happy with it, you can set it as default:

setenv boot-device net:dhcp cdrom disk net

Notes:

- apparently, instead of using make tftpboot.img you can just "elftoaout" vmlinux

- another alternative would be to use tilo, which comes with silo, to build the image

If you get this:

[blocks B ] sys-devel/gcc-sparc64 (is blocking sys-devel/kgcc64-3.4.6)

Check this thread on the gentoo forums:

There are a couple of architectures on Gentoo that have a 32-bit userland, but need a 64-bit kernel compiler. kgcc64 is an attempt to provide one package for all of those architectures rather than the gcc- packages that exist now. The way we migrated over to this caused the issue you are seeing.

Basically, you'll need to

emerge --unmerge gcc-sparc64 && emerge sys-devel/kgcc64

see the following stories:

1. http://battellemedia.com/archives/003447.php

2. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10554/532/

3. http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/03/19/135590.html (in French)

The first article describes the program. I also found most comments by the readers worth reading - and altogether they summarize pretty much everything I would have to say about it :o)

I came across this project the other day. Apparently it should work with any SIP-based VoIP client. (They list X-Lite, Gizmo and SJphone.)

I haven't had a chance to test it, but I sure will - they provide a source-form linux version. I may even contribute a gentoo e-build, since so far I couldn't find one...

What makes this project even more interesting to me is the fact that Phil Zimmermann, the original creator of PGP, is behind it.