When the UltraPenguin installation starts, normally a ramdisk is loaded into memory. This ramdisk contains data and programs required to perform the installation, and is approximately 4 MB in size. Since the ramdisk takes memory away from the UltraPenguin installation program, your SPARC system must have at least 12 MB of memory in order to sucessfully use a ramdisk-based installation.
For SPARC systems with less than 12 MB of RAM, another approach is possible. It is known as an NFS-mounted root. As the name implies, instead of using a ramdisk to hold parts of the UltraPenguin installation program, an NFS server is used to export the necessary files to the SPARC system. While this approach uses less memory, it is somewhat more complex to set up.
Please Note:
UltraPenguin may also be installed by booting from the UltraPenguin CD-ROM. This method uses neither a ramdisk or an NFS-mounted root, as the necessary files are already present on the CD-ROM. We will discuss booting from CD-ROM later.
Preparing to use an NFS-Mounted Root:
If you will be using an NFS-mounted root for the installation program,
you'll need a network connection for your SPARC system, an NFS server
capable of exporting the UltraPenguin CD-ROM (or equivalent files),
and the ability to respond to rarp requests, so that your SPARC
system can obtain its IP address. The necessary commands for rarp
would be:
rarp -s ip.address.of.sparc hw:address:of:sparc arp -s ip.address.of.sparc hw:address:of:sparc
As you might surmise, replace ip.address.of.sparc with the IP
address of your SPARC system, and replace hw:address:of:sparc with
the MAC address of your SPARC system's network adapter. The IP address is
assigned by your network administrator, and the MAC address is displayed on
your SPARC system's console at power-up.
To use an NFS-mounted root during the installation, add the following argument to your boot command:
linux nfsroot=nfs.server.ip.address:/path/to/RH/image
The word linux should always be included in a boot command that
includes one or more arguments, and must precede the first argument.
Replace nfs.server.ip.address with the NFS server's IP address,
and /path/to/UP/image with the path to the exported directory
containing the appropriate UltraPenguin files.