Jumpstart Pain

So, here’s the jumpstart errors that I’ve run into recently, and what the problem was:

Command:

 boot net:speed=100,duplex=full - install

Hangs on:

 Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet

This error basically means that no one is answering your servers ‘who am i’ requests — in other words, your boot server is not answering/seeing its ARP requests.

 In this case, for me, it was that my ‘net’ device was set to a device that was connected to a cluster heartbeat, and not a real network.  Could also be because you have not set up your boot server properly.  Try a net-watch-all from the eeprom and see what networks have traffic.

Command:

 boot /pci@1f,700000/network@1:speed=100,duplex=full - install -v

Hangs on: Requesting Internet address for MAC

You probably forgot to start/restart rpcbootparamd

/usr/sbin/rpc.bootparamd start

Hangs on:

boot: cannot open kernel/sparcv9/unix
Enter filename [kernel/sparcv9/unix]:

Snoop Says: NFS R LOOKUP3 Permission denied

Check that your boot server is actually properly sharing the Tools/Boot Directory — I actually had to do an nfs.server stop and nfs.server start.

Says: Select A Language…

You’re not finding your sysidcfg file — check bootparams on the bootserver, make sure that sysidcfg is shared properly from the install server.

Searching for JumpStart directory…
not found
Check for matching shortname entry in /etc/hosts on install server.  Also make sure IP/Netmask not specified in sysidcfg.