Jumpstart on non-standard networks

Symptom

After configuring the Jumpstart/Quickstart server, a client is booted with a boot net - install command. The client will boot from the network, but shortly after configuring its interface, you will see the following error and the boot stops:

Configured interface hme0
ERROR: bpgetfile unable to access network information

Problem

Solaris has booted, asked via rarp to find out the client IP address. It uses the returned address to configure the network. The problem is that Solaris knows that 192.168.x.x networks must have a netmask of 255.255.255.0, so it sets the interface up that way.

The next step in the boot process is to find the Jumpstart server and path information. The Solaris client does this using the bpgetfile command, which is a client to bootparamd running on the boot server. All bpgetfile requests fail since the network is configured with the wrong netmask (boot server doesn't hear the request from the client bpgetfile) and the entire boot/install stops.

Workaround

There is a fairly easy work around I have come up with that only requires you to edit two files per OS image. File 1, edit: <solaris_image>/Tools/Boot/.tmp_proto/root/etc/inet/netmasks add the correct netmask entry for your network at the bottom of the file:

192.168.0.0   255.255.240.0

File 2, edit: <solaris_image>/Tools/Boot/sbin/rcS At the point where this script configures the interface using auto-revarp add the following line:

/sbin/ifconfig $i netmask  + > /tmp/dev.$$  2>&1

These two changes will allow the client to boot with the correct network information and function properly during the installation.

In some cases you may need to run rpc.bootparamd in debug mode on the server (add a -d flag).