Sun client from non-Sun server

[Martin Reed]

Well, call me wierd if you like, but I need to get a bunch of diskless
Suns running SunOS 4.0.1 served from a Pyramid (OSx 4.4c) which is running
NFS. I've sort of done it, but don't feel very confident over the result.
Opinions solicited.

What I've done is provide tftpboot and bootparams from a Sun server.  The
bootparams state that the client's root and swap are on the Pyramid. The
client's fstab then mounts /usr off the Pyramid too.  It works! But then
sunview would core dump during startup. Using trace(1) (a wonderful
invention!) showed problems around a truncate system call.  A quick peek
at the source revealed that sunview tries to *extend* a file in /usr/tmp
(a font cache) using truncate.  This use of truncate is a (necessary)
extension in SunOS 4.0. Looks like the Pyramid NFS hasn't heard about this
yet. No matter - I mounted a smidgen of Sun disk on the client as /usr/tmp
and voila! A 3/75 limps in to life. No other problems arise (well, the
Comp Room overheated and the Pyramid Ethernet went funny, but that's just
life). A grep through the SunOS source apparently showed one other place
where truncate was so used, namely in ldconfig. Just make sure that the
/etc/ld.so.cache file is big enough (8k in this case). In my case I had
just tar'ed a working root from elsewhere, so no problem.

The point of all this is, what else might bite me in the neck in the dead
of night? I accept that some application may be in trouble, but I accept
that risk.

BTW, I guess this would work for running a 4.0 client from a 3.x
server.
        Martin Reed, Racal Imaging Systems Ltd
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