setnetbootinfo(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

SETNETBOOTINFO(8)    NetBSD/alpha System Manager's Manual    SETNETBOOTINFO(8)


NAME

     setnetbootinfo -- configure Alpha network bootstrap program


SYNOPSIS

     /usr/mdec/setnetbootinfo [-vf] [-o outfile] [-a ether-address | -h
                              ether-host] infile
     /usr/mdec/setnetbootinfo [-v] -u -o outfile infile


DESCRIPTION

     The setnetbootinfo utility configures the NetBSD/alpha network bootstrap
     program so that it can be used to bootstrap systems with old firmware
     revisions.

     The NetBSD/alpha network bootstrap program needs to have the ethernet
     address of the interface being used to boot the system available when
     querying other hosts on the network for bootstrapping information.  Alpha
     systems with old firmware revisions provide no way for network bootstrap
     programs to determine the ethernet address of the interface that they are
     booting from, and so the NetBSD/alpha network bootstrap program must find
     that information in another way.  (Newer firmware revisions include the
     ethernet address in the name of the device that is being booted from.)
     The setnetbootinfo utility encodes an ethernet address (and other infor-
     mation) directly into the network bootstrap program.

     The options recognized by setnetbootinfo are as follows:

     -a ether-address
           Encode the given ethernet address into the network bootstrap pro-
           gram.  (This option and the -h option are mutually exclusive.)

     -f    Force the address information being encoded in the bootstrap pro-
           gram to be used regardless of whether or not the bootstrap program
           can get address information from the booting system's firmware.

     -h ether-host
           Encode the ethernet address of the specified host into the network
           bootstrap program.  The host's name is translated to an ethernet
           address using the ether_hostton(3) function.  (This option and the
           -a option are mutually exclusive.)

     -o outfile
           Output the resulting bootstrap program into the file named by
           outfile, replacing it if it already exists.  If the -o flag is not
           specified, the output file name will be the name of the input boot-
           strap program concatenated with a period and the digits of the eth-
           ernet address being encoded.  For instance, if the input file is
           named /usr/mdec/netboot and is being configured to encode the eth-
           ernet address 08:00:2b:bd:5d:fd, then the default output file name
           would be /usr/mdec/netboot.08002bbd5dfd.  It is safe to set the
           output file name to be the same as the input file name; the input
           file is read in its entirety before the output file is modified.

     -u    Remove configuration information from the specified network boot-
           strap program.  If this option is used, an output file name must be
           specified with the -o option, and neither the -a or the -h options
           may be specified.

     -v    Verbose mode.


FILES

     /usr/mdec/netboot    network bootstrap program


SEE ALSO

     alpha/boot(8), bootpd(8)


HISTORY

     The NetBSD/alpha setnetbootinfo command first appeared in NetBSD 1.3.


AUTHORS

     The setnetbootinfo utility was written by Chris Demetriou.

NetBSD 11.99                   February 17, 2017                  NetBSD 11.99