Network boot problems

[David Ross]

This is to let you know the answer to my question:

>I have two SPARCstation 1's - one diskless and a client of the second.
>They are running SunOS 4.0.3 and I have installed the Name Server resolver
>library but we are still using YP.
>
>When booting the client I get the messages:
>  Booting from: le(0,0,0)vmunix
>  21a00  Using IP address 129.128.8.234 = 818008EA
>  hostname: spectrum.ucs.ualberta.ca
>> Boot: null domain name returned by bootparam server
>...
>
>The client is obviously getting it's correct IP address and hostname, so
>what does "null domain name" mean?  This seems to have started when I put
>in the resolver library.  I've tried different combinations of fully
>qualified and unqualifed host names in hosts, ethers, and bootparams, but
>no luck.  If anybody can tell me what heck I'm doing wrong, I'd be glad to
>hear it.  I'll be upgrading to 4.1 soon - will 4.1 solve my problems?  Is
>it a resolver lib problem or I am out to lunch?

The problem was basically two parts and I got both answered by people on
the net - thanks again!

First, on the same subnet has the SPARC server and client, is a Silicon
Graphics Iris.  It turns out the Iris answered the client's bootparam
request before the SPARCstation did!  (I confirmed this with etherfind).
Of course, the Iris didn't know anything about the client, so it returned
no information (hence "null domain name" I suppose).  Anyway, shutting
down bootparam in the inetd config file solved that problem.

I also had to ensure that I had fully qualified domain names in
/etc/ethers and /etc/bootparams and zowy - everything worked!

----
David A. Ross, Programmer/Analyst  | Internet: david_ross at mts.ucs.UAlberta.CA
University Computing Systems       | Bitnet:   userdar at ualtamts.BITNET
352 Gen Serv Bldg, Univ of Alberta | Uucp:   ..!alberta!uqv-mts!david_ross
Edmonton, Alberta, Can.  T6G 2H1   | Phone:    1-403-492-2462