SUMMARY: Can not boot SS2 diskless from a server

From: Grant Basham (grant@umigw.miami.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 02 1992 - 19:31:45 CST


> Config: OS 4.1.1 - Server: 4/470 'fs1' - Client: SS2 4/75 'amp'
>
>Workstation amp lost its SCSI drive. The drive was replaced and I am trying
>to boot it as a diskless client off the server to get a miniroot loaded
>so I can format/nfs/restore the drive. I have done an 'add_client -i'
>on 'fs1' and it ran without incident. I go to the Client and
>'b net -a', like it says in the manual. It proceeds much as illustrated,
>getting the IP address and host name, reporting the server name and
>root pathname correctly, so a net connection is made; then fails with:
>
>Boot: cannot get port for mount service: timed out (status 5)
>... saying it cannot NFS mount root
>Boot: unable to mount root (error 0x5)
>Boot:
....

Problem solved: The bootparam file had a 'ghost-entry' that was killing
things; a bare node name was on the last line of the file before I added
the ampss3 client:

...
ampslc6 root=ampfs1:/export/root/ampslc6\
        swap=ampfs1:/export/swap/ampslc6
apache
ampss3 root=ampfs1:/export/root/ampss3\
        swap=ampfs1:/export/swap/ampss3
+

I spotted it when 'ypcat bootparams' listed a blank line between my
regular diskless nodes and the problem node I had just added. Apache
is a recently added ipc. I don't remember adding it to a client list,
but I did install it, so I must have. Deleted apache line and remade
the NIS database and things booted fine.

Thanks to:
 kwthomas@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu (Kevin W. Thomas)
 mdl@cypress.com (J. Matt Landrum)
 Gustavo Vegas <gustavo@davinci.concordia.ca>
 octela!valadimir!jfd@uunet.UU.NET (John F. Detke)
 Mike Raffety <miker@sbcoc.com>
 derek@nexus.ca (Derek Mallard)

for timely and appropriate suggestions, including
 o checking contents and permissions on /etc/bootparams, /etc/exports,
and /etc/exports/client...
 o make sure to do the NIS make and 'exportfs -a' after foolin with
   the database files.
 o boot with -v to get more info.

John Detke keeps "active" diskless clients for all his architectures.
When he needs to bring up a client diskless he just changes the entry
in /etc/ethers and boots. That would have saved me a day. Good idea.



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