[K12OSN] Network booting iMac clients

[Bill Moseley]

I'm not using K12LTSP, but rather Edubuntu at this time, but a number
of people have noted that the K12LTSP project has good support for
booting powerpc clients -- and that's where I'm having trouble.

I've got an i386 server and both i386 and powerpc clients.  I've
watched both boot using Wireshark.

With the i386 I see the DHCP exchange and the boot file name returned
/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0.  I then see the client do a request for that
file using TFTP.

With the powerpc clients I see DHCP go through the same process,
except it returns Boot file name: /ltsp/powerpc/yaboot.  But then I
never see the powerpc client do a TFTP request.

Is there an extra parameter that must be passed from DHCPD back to the
client that says fetch the file?

I'm using a recent G4 powerpc iBook and holding down "n" when booting.
I get the flashing network icon.

I also tried the option+command+o+f to get to the Open Firmware
screen. There I entered:

    boot enet: 0

and watched the same DHCPD interaction with Wireshark but not TFPT
request from the client.

The DHCPD server is returning the correct "Next Server" IP address,
and also "Server Identifier" with the same IP.

Now Open Firmware did time out and respond:

  BOOTP/BSOP failed: no FILENAME specified can't open: enet:0

But Wireshark is showing the file name.

One minor thing that didn't seem right is after a while the iBook
sent a DHCP Inform and the dhcpd server responded with DHCP ACK but
with a filename /ltsp/i386/nbi.img.



I tried taking nice to the Mac, and swearing a bit, too, but it
didn't respond.


Here's my dhcpd.conf file:

    authoritative;

    subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.0.20 192.168.0.250;
        option domain-name "example.com";
        option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
        option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
        option routers 192.168.0.1;
        option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;

        option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386";
        if substring( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9 ) = "PXEClient" {
            filename "/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0";
        } else {
            filename "/ltsp/i386/nbi.img";
        }
    }

    group {
        option root-path "/opt/ltsp/powerpc";
        filename "/ltsp/powerpc/yaboot";

        # Define powerpc machines by their MAC address.

        host ibook {
            hardware ethernet 00:14:51:32:BA:44;
            fixed-address 192.168.0.15;
        }

        host mac1 {
            hardware ethernet 00:30:65:f3:50:58;
        }
    }

Thanks,




-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley at hank.org