Some issues

[Steffen Grunewald]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2004 at 03:57:28PM +0200, Thomas Lange wrote:
> >>>>> On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:39:34 +0200, Steffen Grunewald <steffen.grunewald at aei.mpg.de> said:
> 
>     > Please consider using this in your examples, too.
> Will be made in the future.

Thanks!

>     > Not in kernel, no module. Probably commented out by mistake?
>     > (CONFIG_FS_XFS is set to "m" in kernel-config from fai-kernels 1.7.1)
> xfs is on by default only in the 2.6 kernel from fai-kernel, not in the 2.4
> kernel.

I see. For traditional reasons, I'm still stuck with 2.4.

>     > I'm now trying to figure out how to netboot an Alpha: the naked kernel
>     > doesn't do the trick, and a boot floppy seems to be impossible (large
>     > kernel, no boot loader). Any ideas from the list?
> You can make the kernel smaller by removing unused network devices.

Of course. There's still the problem that aboot doesn't support
floppies, and milo isn't to be found in sarge (only kmilo).
*If* there's a way to build a netboot image that contains all the
necessary stuff - and the appropriate kernel line - I'd be happy with
that. Something similar to debian-installer netboot image. 5MB are no
big deal then :-) 
If I only knew how to build one... I already asked Steve for help, but
he'd be busy with getting Sarge out of the door.
That's why I asked the list (and I'll be allowed to repeat this here):
Is there someone who already built a netboot image for Alpha, who
wouldn't mind to share some know-how? Need to set the usual stuff
"root=/dev/nfs ip=::::::dhcp FAI_ACTION=... FAI_FLAGS=...". (Is there a
way to leave this out of the kernel/bootimage, and get from the DHCP
server? It's not PXE now... so fai_chboot would have to be adapted.)

Any ideas are appreciated. I'm pretty new to Alphas.

Cheers,
 Steffen

-- 
Steffen Grunewald * * * Merlin cluster admin (http://pandora.aei.mpg.de)
Albert-Einstein-Institut (MPI Gravitationsphysik, http://www.aei.mpg.de)
       Science Park Golm, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
e-mail: steffen.grunewald(*)aei.mpg.de * +49-331-567-{fon:7233,fax:7298}