This article was first written in June 2005 for the BeezNest technical
website (http://glasnost.beeznest.org/articles/271).
This article will explain how to netboot a Sun machine using RARP with a Debian/GNU Linux server.
Install package rarpd:
$ sudo apt-get install rarpd
Configure your TFTP server:
Adapt the options in /etc/init.d/rarpd to match the directory where you TFTP server delivers its files from.
Create a /etc/ethers file:
xx.xx.xx.xx machine
Take care of «machine» name being resolvable from /etc/hosts or whatever other name-resolution system on your server.
Put the boot image in the TFTP-served directory, and rename it to the IP-address of the machine in hexa. Utility
sipcalc can do the conversion for you.
$ sudo apt-get install sipcalc
Reboot the machine and stop-a (if on the console) or break (if on a serial console) to get the «ok» prompt. There, type «boot net», enter, and it will happily load your image from the TFTP server.
