PNPBOOT(8C)

NAME
pnpboot, pnp.s386 - pnp diskless boot service

SYNOPSIS
/tftpboot/pnp.s386

AVAILABILITY

Available only on Sun 386i systems running a SunOS 4.0.x release or earlier. Not a SunOS 4.1 release feature.

DESCRIPTION

pnp.s386 is a level 2 boot program that requests actions necessary to set up a diskless workstation on the network.

The PNP diskless boot service is used by diskless workstations at installation time to locate a server that will configure the diskless client.

The last steps of the level 1 boot (from the PROM) are to load the level 2 program through rarpd(8C) and tftpd(8C). The first step in the boot sequence is RARP to acquire an IP address. This is followed by TFTP service calls to acquire the pnp.sun* program file needed for the client's architecture. A PNP_ACQUIRE RPC is then broadcast to locate a server willing to configure the diskless client.

A PNP_SETUP is issued to the server which returns one of three statuses: success, failure, or in_progress. As long as the server responds with a status of in_progress the client will periodically issue a PNP_POLL until the status changes to either success or failure.

The last step is to reboot the client. This goes through a RARP, TFTP, BOOT sequence, with the boot using the normal boot.sun* file and bootparamd(8) service.

The system will have been set up using the IP address returned in the first step and a system name will have been assigned.

FILES
/tftpboot/pnp.sun*

SEE ALSO
bootparam(3R), bootparams(5) boot(8S), bootparamd(8), ipallocd(8C), netconfig(8C), pnpd(8C), rarpd(8C), tftpd(8C),