[CUWiN-Dev] Unable to _flash_ a new Soekris 4526 node using PXE boot

[David Young]

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 01:49:17AM -0800, Bao Q. Nguyen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have very few luck with these documentations, I believe I have tried
> all the possible combination but not helping yet...any help is
> appreciated. Thanks.
> 
> >From the User Guide, Installing the Software section, there is this
> advice for PXE booting (http://www.cuwin.net/user_pxe) :
> 
> "A brand new net4526 or net4826 node has to be flashed with an initial
> version of the software. This is done by PXE booting the node, logging
> into it, and executing a dd to it's flash drive. PXE is a protocol for
> booting remotely over ethernet. In order to do this you will need to
> set up a PXE server.
> 
> If the node is already non-bootable then it'll default to PXE booting.
> If it has a bootable but non-upgradable image on it then you can
> render it unbootable by logging in and wiping out the boot block:
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rwd0d count=32
> 
> Just connect the non-bootable node's ethernet to the same ethernet
> segment as the PXE server and turn it on. Within 2 minutes or so you
> should be able to log in to the node over the ethernet wire via SSH.
> You can then issue the following command:
> dd if=/staboot.net4526.img of=/dev/rwd0d bs=8k
> You can get the appropriate IP address to connect to by checking the
> PXE server's DHCP log or by pinging the broadcast address.
> 
> Instructions for PXE booting and setting up a PXE Server can be found
> in the "How-to" section of this manual."
> 
> But one will notice that after booting from PXE using PXE how-to
> instruction, one _do not_ have access to the file:
> 
> dd if=/staboot.net4526.img of=/dev/rwd0d bs=8k
> 
> /staboot.net4526.img
> 
> The instruction is wrong so I must get that image onto the node which
> is a major obstacle because it's 64MB. If leave in the compressed
> format which is 10MB, which can be store in RAM, so if there to write
> a .tgz to "of" using dd?

There are a couple of things that you can do after you PXE boot the node.
You can use ssh to pipe the disk image from a remote system
through dd,

ssh -e none login at host 'cat staboot.net4526.img' | dd of=/dev/rwd0d bs=8k

Alternatively, you can run 'fixlabel net4526' to initialize the disk, and
then run the upgrade script.  Careful, fixlabel will destroy everything
on the disk.

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung at ojctech.com      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933 ext 24