Subject: Decstation 5000/25 with no TFTP

From: Justin Pauley <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 23:32:03 -0500

I have a Decstation 5000/25 that I would like to install Linux onto.
However, because this particular firmware won't allow any TFTP transfers
over a meg I cannot find a solution. The decstation has ethernet and has
a floppy drive. I would appreciate any directions someone could give me
on how to solve the problem of installing Linux on it. Additionally, if
someone has a linux box that uses a mips processor and would care to
sell it to me I would love to buy it from you if I cannot get mine
working. It is for an assembly class at Winthrop Uni (www.winthrop.edu)

Thanks,
Justin Pauley

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From: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 09:27:04 +0100 (MET)

> on how to solve the problem of installing Linux on it. Additionally, if

 You can use MOP to boot Linux (and probably any other) ELF images using
mopd running on a Linux server.  I haven't heard of any DECstation model
that would fail this way of booting.  I have made a suitable version of
mopd available at my site, specifically: 
'ftp://ftp.ds2.pg.gda.pl/pub/macro/mopd/' (for raw sources + patches) and
'ftp://ftp.ds2.pg.gda.pl/pub/macro/SRPMS/' (for source RPM packages; i386
and mipsel binaries are available nearby, too).

 All you need to do on the server is to put vmlinux in /home/tftpboot/mop
with a suitable name so that it can be seen by the daemon (see mopd(8)). 
Then you can boot your DECstation client with "boot 3/mop <arguments>"
(either manually or by setting the REX's "boot" variable). 

-- 
+  Maciej W. Rozycki, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland   +
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+        e-mail: [email-masked], PGP key available        +

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From: Karsten Merker <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 19:00:53 +0100

> > over a meg I cannot find a solution. The decstation has ethernet and has
[SNIP]
> mopd running on a Linux server.  I haven't heard of any DECstation model

As mopd requires an ELF image and the offical Debian netboot images
are tftpimages in ECOFF, you should try using MOP with 

http://people.debian.org/~merker/experimental_packages/bf-pre3.0.24-20021224/unpacked/mopimage-r3k-kn02

As URL for getting kernel and modules give

http://people.debian.org/~merker/experimental_packages/bf-pre3.0.24-20021224/unpacked/

to the installer. These are installer images built from the Debian
"boot-floppies" CVS and contain an important fix regarding the Personal
DECstation series, which is not in the last official release.

HTH,
Karsten
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