Subject: Newbie Question, Please help

From: "Robert Rusek" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 15:08:42 -0700

I just got a SGI Challenge S.  I need advice on which flavor of Linux I should install, RedHat or Debian.  Which is the better choice.  I also need to find out how to install this.  I already attempted and failed to install the RedHat 5.1.  I am using a RedHat 7.0 box to do the install (bootp/tftp/nfs) but I am not even able to get the setup to run.  I am using the latest version of DHCP/BOOTP (ics 2.0) to try to boot.  It gets the address then claims it is sending the vmlinux file via tftp.  On the SGI it just times out.

Any advice, pointers, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Robert Ruserk

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From: "John D. Davis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 16:47:57 -0700 (PDT)

You should make sure that the vmlinux kernel is nfsroot configured. Check
the config-* file for CONFIG_ROOT_NFS=y.  Also read the nfsroot.txt in the
cvs Documentation directory for more info.  I found that getting the linux
filesystem from a linux box works best.  The major and minor nodes for the
/dev directory are correct.  Also, a useful installation page is located
at:

http://www.stafwag.f2s.com/indy/?lang=eng

I found this helpful.
john davis

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From: Chris Ruvolo <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 14:46:48 -0400

On Tue, Jun 05, 2001 at 03:08:42PM -0700, Robert Rusek wrote:
> It gets the address then claims it is sending the vmlinux file via tftp.
> On the SGI it just times out.
> 

From the HOWTO (http://www.oss.sgi.com/mips/mips-howto.html):

7.6 My machine doesn't download the kernel when I try to netboot

Your machine is replying to the BOOTP packets (you may verify this using a
packet sniffer like tcpdump or ethereal), but doesn't download the kernel
from your BOOTP server. This happens if your boot server is running a kernel
of the 2.3 series or higher. The problem may be circumvented by doing a
"echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_no_pmtu_disc" as root on your boot server.

Good luck.
-Chris