Prerequisites: To autoinstall a sun, it needs to be set up physically, and to be attached to a live network connection. A pre-allocated DNS name is quite helpful, but can be worked around if you're desperate. You also need NIS, rarpd, in.tftpd and rpc.bootparamd services available on the subnet in question. The machine must also be capable of running SunOS 5.x (no sun3's!). Also, some of the machines with the "sun4" kernel architecture are no longer supported in 2.5, and some of the oldest sun4's will run 5.4, but won't have good floating point support.

Getting a machine started with autoinstall (/dcs/maint/bootinfo on anything autoinstalled recently, has plenty of examples):

  • Get the diskless boot set up, using one of the two options below:
    • Run setup-autoinst. It's easier, and under normal conditions it's just as effective, if a boot server on the appropriate subnet already serves up information coming from procyon, via NFS. You can do this with these steps:
      • Log on to one of the DDCS machines
      • su root
      • /dcslib/allsys/etc/setup-autoinst
      • If you are re-installing, then type: reboot 'net - install' as root, at a shell prompt. Consider removing /etc/*fstab first, if you want repartitioning.
      • If you are installing this machine for the first time, go to the machine's console. Make sure the machine is on, and type "L1-a" or "stop-a" as needed to get into the boot prom, signified by either a ">" or "ok" prompt.
        • At a ">" prompt, type "b net - install".
        • At an "ok" prompt, type "boot net - install".
        • On some of the sun4's (as opposed to sun4c's, sun4m's...), it may be necessary to say "b net", wait for the menu to come up, exit to a single-user shell (or telnet into the machine as root), and say (this can be cut-and-paste'd via X):
          • ksh
          • set -o vi
          • mkdir /tmp/install_config
          • mount 128.200.34.23:/auto_install/Solaris-2.7/auto_install_config /tmp/install_config
          • export PATH=$PATH:/cdrom/export/exec/sparc.Solaris_2.7/sbin/install.d
          • rm -f /tmp/.sh /tmp/.suninstall
          • touch /tmp/.install_boot
          • /sbin/suninstall

    Notes:

    • To install from cdrom, but still use autoinstall's configuration profiles and "after" script (useful if the diskless boot just isn't going to work out - but also consider configuring the sparcbook as an NIS server):
      • boot cdrom -s
      • mkdir /tmp/install_config
      • mount 128.200.34.23:/auto_install/Solaris-2.7/auto_install_config /tmp/install_config
      • PATH=/cdrom/export/exec/kvm/sparc.Solaris_2.7/sbin:$PATH
      • PATH=/cdrom/export/exec/sparc.Solaris_2.5/sbin/install.d:$PATH
      • export PATH
      • rm -f /tmp/.sh
      • rm -f /tmp/.suninstall
      • rm -f /tmp/.jumpstart
      • touch /tmp/.install_boot
      • /sbin/suninstall
      • ...this is a bit slower than doing things over the net. NFS is apparently often faster than HSFS on CD.
      • Also, you can expect a couple more questions in the cdrom version, relative to the network-boot version; it's not particularly feasible to patch the cdrom to avoid the questions.
    http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/dcs/automation/sunos5-install.html