Solaris 8 install on Sparc without CD-ROM

Question

I would like to install Solaris 8 on a Sparc 20 workstation that does not have a CD-ROM drive. I believe it should be possible to do an installation from another machine over the network. Does anyone have experience doing such an install? The host that I hope to install from is an x86 linux box, if that makes any difference.
Any advice / hints would be appreciated.
joey richards
[email protected]

Answer 1

Isn't is easier to temporarily attach a scsi cdrom to the
sparc, just for installing the os?
But you can boot/install solaris over the network.
The boot procedure is documented here:
http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.40.6/REFMAN1M/@Ab2PageView/25227
You'll need:
- a "rarp" deomon that maps the sun's ethernet addes to an
ip-address.
- a "tftp" daemon that has a copy of the boot code for the
client. Stored under the hex encoded IP address of the
discless client with it's architecture name appended, like
this (example for a client at addr 172.20.0.72):
% pwd
/tftpboot
% ls -l AC* inetboot.sun4m.solaris.8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root other 24 Jul 23 2000 AC140048 -> inetboot.sun4m.solaris.8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root other 8 Jul 23 2000 AC140048.SUN4M -> AC140048
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 117204 Jul 16 2000 inetboot.sun4m.solaris.8
You'll find the "inetboot" somewhere on the solaris 8 boot
cd. (...lib/fs/nfs/inetboot ?)
- a rpc.bootparamd server, that tells the client where it
can NFS mount it's root filesystem.
An entry for a discless client named "disclessclient" looks
like this:
disclessclient root=server:/cdrom/cdrom0/s0/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot \
install=server:/cdrom/cdrom0/s0 \
boottype=:in rootopts=:rsize=32768
Of cause the server must have the "Software 1 of 2" solaris
cdrom mounted and must "NFS export" it. Note, the discless
client needs "root" access to the filesystem; i.e. do not
map the root uid to nobody.
Bringing in linux to the equation complicates matters, for
sure...