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diff --git a/gpxe/contrib/Diskless-From-NT/Diskless-From-NT.txt b/gpxe/contrib/Diskless-From-NT/Diskless-From-NT.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..54c2b746 --- /dev/null +++ b/gpxe/contrib/Diskless-From-NT/Diskless-From-NT.txt @@ -0,0 +1,565 @@ + + +The Diskless Terminal running from NT server Mini-HOWTO +Pavel Tkatchouk, ptkatcho@portal.ca +v0.1, June 19th 1999 + +Table of Contents + +1. Introduction. + + 1.1 What is it for? + 1.2 Do we need this HOWTO? + 1.3 A bit of History. + +2. Project description. + + 2.1 Packaging. + 2.2 Image. + 2.2.1 Kernel. + 2.2.2 MRFS. + 2.2.3 Building MRFS. + 2.3 Remotefs. + 2.4 Booting sequence. + 2.4.1 BOOTP, TFTP. + 2.5 Bootprom. + +3. Resources. + +4. Copyright. + +5. Feedback and credits. + + +1. Introduction. + + +1.1. What is it for? + +This document describes how to build software distribution to run Java client on diskless +terminal booted from Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT workstation. Package can also be easily +modified to be used as Linux terminal or X Windows terminal's software. I found it also +convenient for setup over the Ethernet of floppyless PS's, hard disk of which for some +reason can not be accessed (sealed case under warranty, etc.). + + +1.2. Do we need this HOWTO? + +To be honest, I'm not sure. There are few excellent HOWTO's (see 3. Recources) that up until +recently I considered quite sufficient to build what I've done two years ago. But since my +project uses MS Windows as a file server vs. traditional NFS there were some know-how's +involved which number of people wanted to see in some formal document. + + +1.3. A bit of history. + +My project at that time (1996) was to find OS/JVM that will allow to run Java application +on hardware we manufacture. Hardware is practically generic x86 PC except it has no keyboard, +hard drive, floppy drive, mouse, but touchscreen over LCD, plus some POS specific peripherals +(badge reader, credit card reader, etc.). Due to cost consideration it had no any significant +storage, so OS and Java client along with support binaries, libraries etc. had to be loaded +remotely. Because our clients are exclusively Windows shops, Server had to be Windows as well. +During evaluation of different commercial OS'es along with JVM's available it become apparent +to my surprise that most promising solution was GPL one - Linux. + + +2. Project description. + +2.1. Packaging. + +The whole distribution consists of remote file system (RemoteFS) residing on MS Windows +server (NT Workstation, NT Server or Windows9x) and tagged bootable image. + + +2.2. Image. + +Image (~1.5MB) is generated by mknbi utility that comes with Etherboot package +<http://etherboot.sourceforge.net>. It can include minimal root file system (MRFS) +like in my case (since I had to boot client from MS Windows server and Linux kernel doesn't +support SMBFS-Root, only NFS-Root. So I had to keep rootfs in the ramdisk). To generate +image the following script can be used. + +#!/bin/sh +# mkrootnet: makes tagged netbootable image +# This image includes kernel and minimal root filesystem +# to do initial boot. +# +# Copyright (c) Pavel Tkatchouk 1996. All rights reserved. +# Permission is granted for this material to be freely +# used and distributed, provided the source is acknowledged. +# No warranty of any kind is provided. You use this material +# at your own risk. +# +DEVICEFILENAME="/tmp/file" # temporary file to be used as device +FSBLOCKS=4096 # uncompressed filesystem size in K +BOOTDISKDIR="/usr/BOOT/ROOTFS" # root filesystem model +MOUNT="/mnt2" # temporary mount point +ROOTFS="/tmp/rootfs" # root filesystem image +ROOTFSGZ="/tmp/rootfs.gz" # compressed root filesystem image +KERNEL="/usr/KERNELS/vmlinuz-nt" # kernel image +KERNELTMP="/tmp/vmlinuz" # temporary copy of kernel image +BOOTIMAGE="/tmp/img" # tagged image to be booted by client +# if you want ramisk more than default 4096 set CMDLINE, don't forget to +# adjust $FSBLOCKS +# CMDLINE="ramdisk_size=8192" # parameters to pass to the kernel +# +echo "check:" +echo "- if tftp server's download dir mounted to /mnt" +echo "- loopback device is built-in or loaded" +echo "\n press Enter when done" +read tmp +UPLOAD="/mnt/tmp" # tftp server's dir to upload bootimage +echo -e "\nZeroing $DEVICEFILENAME of $FSBLOCKS k" +echo "to be used as device for root filesystem model" +dd if=/dev/zero of=$DEVICEFILENAME bs=1k count=$FSBLOCKS +echo -e "\nMaking file system on $DEVICEFILENAME" +mke2fs -m 0 $DEVICEFILENAME +echo "Mounting $DEVICEFILENAME as a loopback device" +mount -o loop -t ext2 $DEVICEFILENAME $MOUNT +curdir=`pwd` +cd $BOOTDISKDIR +echo -e "Copying files from $BOOTDISKDIR to $DEVICEFILENAME, please wait" +find . -print|cpio -pmd $MOUNT +echo "Unmounting $MOUNT" +umount $MOUNT +cd $curdir +echo "Copying $DEVICEFILENAME to $ROOTFS" +dd if=$DEVICEFILENAME of=$ROOTFS bs=1k +echo "Compressing $ROOTFS, it may take a while" +echo "Please wait..." +if [ -f $ROOTFSGZ ];then + rm -f $ROOTFSGZ +fi +gzip -c $ROOTFS>$ROOTFSGZ +rm -f $ROOTFS +echo -e "\nCreating netbootable image" +cp $KERNEL $KERNELTMP +mknbi -d ram -i rom -r $ROOTFSGZ -k $KERNELTMP -a $CMDLINE -o $BOOTIMAGE +echo "Uploading $BOOTIMAGE to $UPLOAD" +cp $BOOTIMAGE $UPLOAD +echo "Cleaning after ourselves" +rm -f $KERNELTMP $DEVICEFILENAME $BOOTIMAGE +echo "All done" + + +In the above script actual image is generated by the following comand + +#mknbi -d ram -i rom -r rootfs.gz -k vmlinuz-nt -o img + +where: + rootfs.gz - minimal root file system (MRFS); + vmlinuz-nt - kernel; + img - resulting image. + + +Note: +Default ramdisk size is 4096. It was enough for RedHat4.1 based minimal file system, but +apparently not enough for 5.2 based. When this happens "end request:I/O error, dev 01:00 ..." +error shows up. To fix that either use "mknbi -a ramdisk_size=8192" to pass parameter to the +kernel (doesn't require kernel recompilation), or change /usr/src/linux/drivers/block/rd.c: +int rd_size= from 4096 to 8192 or whatever and rebuild the kernel. + + +2.2.1. Kernel. + +Kernels 2.0.30 and 2.0.36 have been used by author, although nothing is preventing you from +experimenting with others. Kernel should include ramdisk support. The following +<link to .config> configuration has been used to build <link to binary (kernel 2.0.30)>. +You may find some components unnecessary, just exclude them and rebuild. + +Don't forget to change root device after you built the kernel (rdev vmlinuz /dev/rd). + +Gotcha's: apparently smbfs is broken in 2.2.x kernels. Symptoms: remote share is mounted +just fine but after a while fails with "smb_request: result = -32" errmsg. I've heard +SuSe has fix for that. + +2.2.2. MRFS. + +Minimal root file system is required to get Linux up and running along with networking until +it can mount remote file system to run X/Java from there. After image gets loaded from the +server MRFS is decompressed into ramdisk. If you can afford a lot of ram on your terminal the +entire remote file system can be moved to rootfs.gz. That will make your terminal more +responsive. + + +2.2.3. Building MRFS. + +Some folks found it easier to start from scratch, others use known "minimal" Linux distributions +(Linux Router, tomsrtbt, etc.), yet others prefer to start from "big" Linuces like I did. Every +path has it's pro and contras. + +Pruning standard distribution (RedHat, Debian, etc.) to your needs might be very time consuming. +To ease that painful process I have used remotely booted diskless client with NFS-Root (see +Etherboot's Readme, NFS-Root and NFS-Root-Client mini-HOWTO's, Diskless-HOWTO): + +- setup minimal RedHat4.1 install (networked workstation, X, no development, mail, etc., ~117MB); +- find . -print|cpio -pmd /usr/NFS/ROOTFS - copy entire fs tree to NFS exported dir; +- mknod /usr/NFS/ROOTFS/dev/nfsroot b 0 255; +- build vmlinuz-nfs kernel according to NFS-Howto (built-in bootp,rarp,NFS,NFS root,NIC + driver,RAM disk); +- rdev vmlinuz-nfs /dev/nfsroot - to set NFS root device; +- build image for NFS-Root fs: + #mknbi -d rom -i rom -k vmlinuz-nfs -o nfsImage; +- boot client while monitoring NFS file requests (by Solaris snoop); +- copy files from /usr/NFS/ROOTFS to /usr/BOOT/ROOTFS (MRFS model) according to snoop's + filelist; +- generate image by mkrootnet script (don't forget to point to the right kernel vmlinuz-nt). + +The above trick not only allows to determine the sought files set but also debug boot process +analyzing NFS messages. I found it convenient to put "read tmp" statements into init scripts +for debugging. Tracking files up until issuing login gives you <link to rootfs.gz> MRFS (~1MB) +that can be used to boot Linux from ROM (flash, eprom, DiskOnChip, SanDisk, etc.) as well. All +the other files requested by client (during starting X, Java, Java client) were put into (link +to remotefs.zip, ~9MB). + + +To restore MRFS model on your PC from the above rootfs.gz: +- #cd /tmp +- #gunzip rootfs.gz +- #mount -o loop -t ext2 /tmp/rootfs /mnt +- #cd /mnt +- #find . -print|cpio -pmd /usr/BOOT/ROOTFS +- #umount /mnt + +Note: + +You will have to change attributes of some dirs, files (/etc/mtab, /etc/mtab~, /var/lock/subsys/*, +/var/run/*, /dev/tty*, etc.) against standard. This is because with standard attribs diskless +client refused to work. For example I had to change /dev/tty* ownerships to 99:99 from original +0:0 or 0:5, to get rid of errmsg "INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes". +Being admin illiterate I just chmod them to 777 and chown to 99:99 to make life easier. +THIS IS SERIOUS SECURITY VIOLATION!!! Using keyboardless terminal with no daemons running in +my case reduces the risk, yet I would appreciate very much those more experienced who will help +to restore the right attribs while keeping the distribution working. + +Some "gotcha's" to watch for during MRFS building: +- standard attributes/ownership of some files don't work; +- rdev must be set (non-tagged image didn't work, so couldn't use config file to pass parrs + to the kernel); +- diskless client writes 99:99 ownership on generated files; +- "password incorrect" for root, but any other OK and su OK too. + + +2.3. RemoteFS. + +Remotefs.zip file includes everything required by the system that can be located on +remote file system, i.e after booting has been complete and remote file system mounted. +In my case it is X Windows System and Java binaries, libraries etc. To use that file on +MS Windows NT: +- unzip remotefs.zip to some directory; +- share this directory read-only as "usr" (or share as some other name and pass this name to + the client through bootptab configuration file for BOOTP server; +- create an account username=root, password=linux on NT (can be set in bootptab). + +Note: +There's no symbolic links on NTFS, so UNIX links must be replaced by copies on NTFS. +To determine potential troublmakers one could use the following: +- first copy required subset (according to snoop's intercept) from /usr/NFS/ROOTFS to + /usr/BOOT/REMOTEFS; +- mount some share from NTFS to /mnt; +- /usr/BOOT/REMOTEFS#find . -print|cpio -pmd /mnt 2>links; +In the links file you will find names to work with. + + +2.4. Booting sequence. + +Boot occurs in the following sequence: +- bootprom sends bootp request, +- bootp server responds with subnet mask, client's name, client's IP, TFTP server's IP, + bootfile name and some optional parameters (like NT's username/password to use it's share, + you could pass some other share name here as say T104="somedir"); +- bootprom downloads image from TFTP server; +- kernel starts; +- kernel decompresses MRFS in RAM; +- system starts init using ramdisk root, +- mounts remote file system from NT via SMBFS; +- automatically logins; +- starts xstart script located on remotefs (/usr/sbin) where you can start any of your + programs, change parameters, etc. without rebuilding the image. + +Below are some config/init sample files from <rootfs.gz>, <remotefs.zip>: + +<bootptab, change to link> +t1:sm=255.255.255.0:sa=192.168.33.150:bf=img:T100="pavelnt4":T101="root":T102="linux" +touch1:hn=touch1:tc=t1:ha=00A0F00035CD:ip=192.168.33.127 + +</etc/fstab, change to link>: +/dev/ram / ext2 defaults 1 1 +/proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 + +</etc/rc.d/rc.bootp, change to link later>: +#!/bin/sh +# Written to simply set the IP stuff up from the +# bootpc data. +# Last updated : Mon Mar 10 15:17:01 1997 +# +# Variables + +BOOTPC=/sbin/bootpc +IFCONFIG=/sbin/ifconfig +ROUTE=/sbin/route +BINHOST=/bin/hostname +DEV=eth0 +ASKSERVER="255.255.255.255" +TW="--timeoutwait 320" +RIF="--returniffail" +RIFMESSAGE="Bootp failed -- disabling network." +RCONF=/etc/resolv.conf +EHOSTS=/etc/hosts +LHOSTS=/etc/hosts.local +TMPFILE=/tmp/bootp +# Functions +# Remove the networking by taking down the interface +netdown() { + ${ROUTE} del default + ${IFCONFIG} ${DEV} down +} +## End of the functions + +## Start of the actual work +# Bring up minimal networking use 0.0.0.0 as our address as we don't +# know it yet (Means "Me but I don't know my address or network") +${IFCONFIG} ${DEV} up 0.0.0.0 +${ROUTE} add default dev ${DEV} + +# Perform the bootp -- doesn't return unless it gets an answer +if ${BOOTPC} --dev ${DEV} --server ${ASKSERVER} ${RIF} ${TW} > ${TMPFILE} +then +# Take down networking (use the 0.0.0.0 for as short a time as possible) + netdown +# Read in the values + . ${TMPFILE} + +# To use in mountsmb script later +SMBSERVER=${T100} +# And delete the temporary file +# rm ${TMPFILE} +else +# Take down networking (use the 0.0.0.0 for as short a time as possible) + netdown +# give message and quit + echo ${RIFMESSAGE} + exit 1 +fi + +# Start the loopback interface and add a route to it +# It's already set by standard init? +${IFCONFIG} lo 127.0.0.1 +${ROUTE} add -net 127.0.0.0 + +# Setup of IP stuff needs doing first +# +if [ -z "${NETMASK}" ] ; then +# No netmask info, all this is guessed from the IP number +# If this is wrong for your network FIX the bootpd to know +# what it should send in the RFC1497 cookie! 11/02/94 JSP +# + ${IFCONFIG} ${DEV} up ${IPADDR} broadcast ${BROADCAST} + ${ROUTE} -n add -net ${NETWORK} dev ${DEV} +else +# We will have NETMASK, BROADCAST, and NETWORK defined + ${IFCONFIG} ${DEV} up ${IPADDR} broadcast ${BROADCAST} netmask ${NETMASK} + ${ROUTE} -n add -net ${NETWORK} dev ${DEV} +fi + +# Set the hostname from what we got via bootp or reverse lookup + +echo "127.0.0.1 loopback localhost">${EHOSTS} +${BINHOST} "${HOSTNAME}" +echo "${IPADDR} ${HOSTNAME}" >>${EHOSTS} +echo "${SERVER} ${SMBSERVER}" >>${EHOSTS} + + +</etc/rc.d/rc.local, change to link>: +#!/bin/sh +# This script will be executed *after* all the other init scripts. +# You can put your own initialization stuff in here if you don't +# want to do the full Sys V style init stuff. +# +# 07/02/97 Pavel Tkatchouk +# +echo "Start networking" +insmod /lib/8390.o +insmod /lib/ne.o io=0x300 irq=9 +echo "Install serial" +insmod /lib/serial.o +echo "Install touch" +insmod /lib/touch.o +echo "Install smbfs" +insmod /lib/smbfs.o +echo "Getting TCP/IP parameters from bootp server" +echo "and start networking" +/etc/rc.d/rc.bootp +if [ -f /etc/squirrel-release ]; then + R=$(cat /etc/squirrel-release) +else + R="release 0.02" +fi +echo "Mounting remote fs" +/sbin/mountsmb +echo "XYZ Inc. Diskless Linux $R" +echo "Starting X and Java client without login" +su -c /sbin/xstart root + + +</usr/sbin/xstart, change to link>: +#!/bin/bash +# +# Script to start X and Java client +# 08/07/97 Pavel Tkatchouk +# +# Read bootps response first +. /tmp/bootp +# -s 0 to disable screen-saver +/usr/X11R6/bin/X -s 0 & +export DISPLAY=:0.0 +# /usr is share mounted from Windows workstation +cd /usr/program/ +java SomeJavaApp + + +</sbin/mountsmb, change to link>: +#!/bin/bash +# mountsmb: mounts remote filesystems from NT workstation +# using Microsoft's SMB protocol +# +# Copyright (c) Pavel Tkatchouk 1997. All rights reserved. +# Permission is granted for this material to be freely +# used and distributed, provided the source is acknowledged. +# No warranty of any kind is provided. You use this material +# at your own risk. +# +# Last edit June 29 8:30 1997 +# +MOUNTDIR="usr" +SHRDIR="usr" +BOOTPRES="/tmp/bootp" +# Read botpc response +. ${BOOTPRES} +# Sharename from NT server, uncomment if you want to use +# non-hardcoded "usr" but from bootptab +#SHRDIR=${T104} +SMBSRV="//${T100}" +CLIENT="${HOSTNAME}" +USER="${T101}" +PASSWORD="${T102}" +echo -e "\nMounting $SMBSRV/$SHRDIR to /$MOUNTDIR" +smbmount $SMBSRV/$SHRDIR $MOUNTDIR -c $CLIENT -U $USER -P $PASSWORD +echo -e "\nDone" + +Gotcha's: +Looks like smbmount client from smbfs package used to mount remote Windows shares to local +Linux dirs in pre 2.2.x era isn't maintained anymore so you should use one coming with +Samba package. Also binary smbmount won't work with 2.2.x, so you have to recompile with +2.2.x headers following Samba's readme. Yet even that won't guarantee reliable work until +somebody fixes kernel's smbfs module. + +2.4.1. BOOTP, TFTP. + +There are number of BOOTP, TFTP servers for Windows on the market. You could find them +here: + +- www.walusoft.co.uk (Walusoft's tftp); +- ftp.coast.net/simtel/nt/internet/tftpds12.zip (Millwood AB's tftp); +- ftp.cabletron.com/pub/snmp/bootftp/boottft2.zip (Cabletron's bootp/tftp combo); +- www.tellurian.au.com (Tellurian's bootp, tftp, dhcp servers). +- www.metainfo.com (Metainfo's DHCP server) +- www.nts.com (Network Telesystems's DHCP server in IPserver package) + +My choice was Tellurian's products - very reliable, simple to install, attractively priced +(fully capable evaluation versions are available). + +2.5. Bootprom. + +Ken Yap's Etherboot <etherboot.sourceforge.net> will tell you everything about bootprom. +Here I just want to mention that normally you would have to put bootprom's code into network +adapter's PROM. But if your hardware like mine has BIOS programmed in flash you could +re-program it to add bootprom (some BIOS requires special programmer to do that, others don't) +as BIOS extension. + +This is what I did to add ne.rom (bootprom generated by Etherboot's makerom for NE2000 clone) +to AMI BIOS on my flash: + +- read flash content by programmer into bios.bin binary file; +- use one of available binary editors (say www.simtel.net/Win95/editors/hxp3005.zip to add + ne.rom to bios.bin (and to edit ne.rom if necessary); +- write new bios.bin back to flash. + +Notes: +- makerom generates bootprom for standard EPROM sizes (8k, 16k, 32k, etc.), so if you tight on + space use -s flag to adjust size (or cut it manually to multiple of 512 bytes blocks, just + don't forget to adjust extension's length which is coded in Byte 2 and checksum to 8 bits + of zero; +- valid absolute addresses for BIOS extensions are from 0xC8000 to 0xF4000 (check with + motherboard's manufacturer how flash is mapped onto system memory space); +- Byte 0 must be 0x55, Byte 1 must be 0xAA, Byte 2 must be extension's length in 512 bytes + blocks; +- extension BIOS has to start at a 2k boundary; + + +3. Resources. + +FAQ's: +- tomsrtbt.FAQ (www.toms.net); + +HOWTO's: +- Paul Moody's miniHOWTO (www.linuxembedded.com/pmhowto.html) +- Diskless; +- Diskless-HOWTO; +- NFS-Root; +- NFS-Root-Client; +- Bootdisk-HOWTO; +- BootPrompt-HOWTO; +- NCD-X-Terminal; +- Remote-Boot; +- Remote-X-Apps; + +Web: +- etherboot.sourceforge.net/ +- www.waste.org/~zanshin +- www.tellurian.com.au. +- www.toms.net +- www.trinux.org +- www.linux.org.uk/ELKS-Home +- www.embedded.com +- www.linuxembedded.com +- www.thinlinux.org +- www.linuxrouter.org +- linux-mandrake.com +- www.disklessworkstations.com + +Newsgroups: +- comp.arch.embedded + +Lists: +- netboot-owner@baghira.han.de +- linux-embedded@waste.org + +Magazines: +- Circuit Cellar #100 - 105 + + +4. Copyright. + +Copyright (c) Pavel Tkatchouk 1999. +Permission is granted for this material to be freely used and distributed, provided the source +is acknowledged. Copyright policy is GPL as published by the Free Software Foundation. + +No warranty of any kind is provided. You use this material at your own risk. + + + +5. Feedback and credits. + +Since I am neither have a lot of Linux experience nor native English speaker, there would be +errors in this document. I would accept any help with gratitude whether in form of proof-reading, +techical corrections or otherwise. Please send your comments, suggestions and questions to Pavel +Tkatchouk (ptkatcho@portal.ca) + +I wish to thank Pierre Mondie who convinced me to start this document. I'm also very much in +debt to all those who's work made this project possible: + +Ken Yap <ken_yap@users.sourceforge.net> (Etherboot) +David Newall <www.tellurian.com.au> (Bootpdnt/Ftpdnt) +(to be continued) + |