NetBSD Problem Report #43933

From www@NetBSD.org  Sun Oct  3 02:19:10 2010
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Date: Sun,  3 Oct 2010 02:19:10 +0000 (UTC)
From: jasper@pointless.net
Reply-To: jasper@pointless.net
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: NetBSD-5.1_RC4 i386 isn't very helpful when it comes to pxe installs
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>Number:         43933
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       NetBSD-5.1_RC4 i386 isn't very helpful when it comes to pxe installs
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    install-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          doc-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Oct 03 02:20:00 +0000 2010
>Last-Modified:  Tue Oct 05 21:30:03 +0000 2010
>Originator:     Jasper Wallace
>Release:        NetBSD-5.1_RC4
>Organization:
just me
>Environment:
NetBSD net4521.pointless.net 5.1_RC4 NetBSD 5.1_RC4 (NET4521) #0: Sat Oct  2 23:
12:35 BST 2010  root@limpit:/home/jasper/develop/netbsd/netbsd-5/tree/l.i386/obj
/sys/arch/i386/compile/NET4521 i386

>Description:
The install notes for NetBSD-5.1_RC4 don't mention pxe at all, and there is no com0 version of pxeboot in the install sets. Since installboot is a netbsd program you run into a chicken and egg problem if no netbsd machine is available.

(On a Soekris NET4521 the non-com0 pxeboot displays messages fine, but when the kernel boots no console messages are displayed, so something is missing in the way that the kernel figures out what to use as the console).

>How-To-Repeat:
Try so install NetBSD-5.1_RC4 on a pxebooting headless box.

>Fix:
either include a pxeboot_ia32_com0.bin in i386/installation/misc or work out why the kernel dosn't find the console properly.

Include docs for setting up a pxe boot server for installing netbsd with the correct recipe for loading miniroot.kmod etc.

fwiw it's worth i'm using this in my dhcpd.conf:


host net4521 {
        hardware ethernet  00:01:02:03:04:05;
        fixed-address 10.0.0.9;
        if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 10) = "PXEClient:" {
            filename "/srv/tftp/pxeboot_ia32-com0.bin";
        } elsif option vendor-class-identifier = "NetBSD:i386:libsa" and
                filename = "netbsd" {
            filename "tftp:/srv/tftp/netbsd-5-GENERIC";
            next-server 10.0.0.1;
        } elsif option vendor-class-identifier = "NetBSD:i386:libsa" and suffix (filename, 4) = "kmod" {
            filename "tftp:/srv/tftp/miniroot.kmod";
            next-server 10.0.0.1;
        }
}

and entering these two commands manually at the pxeboot prompt:

load tftp:/srv/tftp/miniroot.kmod
boot tftp:/srv/tftp/netbsd-5-g

the 'suffix filename, 4) = "kmod"' is beacause telling pxeboot to "load tftp:/srv/tftp/miniroot.kmod" results in it requesting the file:

"/stand/i386/5.1/modules/tftp:/srv/tftp/miniroot.kmod/tftp:/srv/tftp/miniroot.kmod.kmod"

in it's next dhcp request so we force it back to using tftp.

(the /srv/tftp stuff is cos the tftp server i'm using insists on full paths)


>Audit-Trail:
From: David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: install/43933: NetBSD-5.1_RC4 i386 isn't very helpful when it comes to pxe installs
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 20:35:39 +0100

 On Sun, Oct 03, 2010 at 02:20:00AM +0000, jasper@pointless.net wrote:
 > >Synopsis:       NetBSD-5.1_RC4 i386 isn't very helpful when it comes to pxe installs
 ...
 > (On a Soekris NET4521 the non-com0 pxeboot displays messages fine,
 > but when the kernel boots no console messages are displayed,
 > so something is missing in the way that the kernel figures out
 > what to use as the console).

 The non-com0 pxeboot is using the bios console output calls - which
 end up on the serial port.
 You should be able to use the command 'console com0' to pxeboot
 to get the pxe code to use the serial port - and then pass the
 value into the kernel.

 (I think that is enough for the kernel to use the baud rate that
 is already in use as well.)

 	David

 -- 
 David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk

From: Jasper Wallace <jasper@pointless.net>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: install-manager@netbsd.org, gnats-admin@netbsd.org, netbsd-bugs@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: install/43933: NetBSD-5.1_RC4 i386 isn't very helpful when it
 comes to pxe installs
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2010 21:01:45 +0100 (BST)

 On Mon, 4 Oct 2010, David Laight wrote:

 > The following reply was made to PR install/43933; it has been noted by GNATS.
 > 
 > From: David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>
 > To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
 > Cc: 
 > Subject: Re: install/43933: NetBSD-5.1_RC4 i386 isn't very helpful when it comes to pxe installs
 > Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 20:35:39 +0100
 > 
 >  On Sun, Oct 03, 2010 at 02:20:00AM +0000, jasper@pointless.net wrote:
 >  > >Synopsis:       NetBSD-5.1_RC4 i386 isn't very helpful when it comes to pxe installs
 >  ...
 >  > (On a Soekris NET4521 the non-com0 pxeboot displays messages fine,
 >  > but when the kernel boots no console messages are displayed,
 >  > so something is missing in the way that the kernel figures out
 >  > what to use as the console).
 >  
 >  The non-com0 pxeboot is using the bios console output calls - which
 >  end up on the serial port.
 >  You should be able to use the command 'console com0' to pxeboot
 >  to get the pxe code to use the serial port - and then pass the
 >  value into the kernel.
 >  
 >  (I think that is enough for the kernel to use the baud rate that
 >  is already in use as well.)

 That works, tho the command is "consdev".

 -- 
 [http://pointless.net/]                                   [0x2ECA0975]

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