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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/nfsroot.txt')
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1 files changed, 160 insertions, 115 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/nfsroot.txt b/Documentation/nfsroot.txt index d56dc71d943..3cc953cb288 100644 --- a/Documentation/nfsroot.txt +++ b/Documentation/nfsroot.txt @@ -4,15 +4,16 @@ Mounting the root filesystem via NFS (nfsroot) Written 1996 by Gero Kuhlmann <gero@gkminix.han.de> Updated 1997 by Martin Mares <mj@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz> Updated 2006 by Nico Schottelius <nico-kernel-nfsroot@schottelius.org> +Updated 2006 by Horms <horms@verge.net.au> -If you want to use a diskless system, as an X-terminal or printer -server for example, you have to put your root filesystem onto a -non-disk device. This can either be a ramdisk (see initrd.txt in -this directory for further information) or a filesystem mounted -via NFS. The following text describes on how to use NFS for the -root filesystem. For the rest of this text 'client' means the +In order to use a diskless system, such as an X-terminal or printer server +for example, it is necessary for the root filesystem to be present on a +non-disk device. This may be an initramfs (see Documentation/filesystems/ +ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt), a ramdisk (see Documenation/initrd.txt) or a +filesystem mounted via NFS. The following text describes on how to use NFS +for the root filesystem. For the rest of this text 'client' means the diskless system, and 'server' means the NFS server. @@ -21,11 +22,13 @@ diskless system, and 'server' means the NFS server. 1.) Enabling nfsroot capabilities ----------------------------- -In order to use nfsroot you have to select support for NFS during -kernel configuration. Note that NFS cannot be loaded as a module -in this case. The configuration script will then ask you whether -you want to use nfsroot, and if yes what kind of auto configuration -system you want to use. Selecting both BOOTP and RARP is safe. +In order to use nfsroot, NFS client support needs to be selected as +built-in during configuration. Once this has been selected, the nfsroot +option will become available, which should also be selected. + +In the networking options, kernel level autoconfiguration can be selected, +along with the types of autoconfiguration to support. Selecting all of +DHCP, BOOTP and RARP is safe. @@ -33,11 +36,10 @@ system you want to use. Selecting both BOOTP and RARP is safe. 2.) Kernel command line ------------------- -When the kernel has been loaded by a boot loader (either by loadlin, -LILO or a network boot program) it has to be told what root fs device -to use, and where to find the server and the name of the directory -on the server to mount as root. This can be established by a couple -of kernel command line parameters: +When the kernel has been loaded by a boot loader (see below) it needs to be +told what root fs device to use. And in the case of nfsroot, where to find +both the server and the name of the directory on the server to mount as root. +This can be established using the following kernel command line parameters: root=/dev/nfs @@ -49,23 +51,21 @@ root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[,<nfs-options>] - If the `nfsroot' parameter is NOT given on the command line, the default - "/tftpboot/%s" will be used. + If the `nfsroot' parameter is NOT given on the command line, + the default "/tftpboot/%s" will be used. - <server-ip> Specifies the IP address of the NFS server. If this field - is not given, the default address as determined by the - `ip' variable (see below) is used. One use of this - parameter is for example to allow using different servers - for RARP and NFS. Usually you can leave this blank. + <server-ip> Specifies the IP address of the NFS server. + The default address is determined by the `ip' parameter + (see below). This parameter allows the use of different + servers for IP autoconfiguration and NFS. - <root-dir> Name of the directory on the server to mount as root. If - there is a "%s" token in the string, the token will be - replaced by the ASCII-representation of the client's IP - address. + <root-dir> Name of the directory on the server to mount as root. + If there is a "%s" token in the string, it will be + replaced by the ASCII-representation of the client's + IP address. <nfs-options> Standard NFS options. All options are separated by commas. - If the options field is not given, the following defaults - will be used: + The following defaults are used: port = as given by server portmap daemon rsize = 1024 wsize = 1024 @@ -81,129 +81,174 @@ nfsroot=[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[,<nfs-options>] ip=<client-ip>:<server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<device>:<autoconf> This parameter tells the kernel how to configure IP addresses of devices - and also how to set up the IP routing table. It was originally called `nfsaddrs', - but now the boot-time IP configuration works independently of NFS, so it - was renamed to `ip' and the old name remained as an alias for compatibility - reasons. + and also how to set up the IP routing table. It was originally called + `nfsaddrs', but now the boot-time IP configuration works independently of + NFS, so it was renamed to `ip' and the old name remained as an alias for + compatibility reasons. If this parameter is missing from the kernel command line, all fields are assumed to be empty, and the defaults mentioned below apply. In general - this means that the kernel tries to configure everything using both - RARP and BOOTP (depending on what has been enabled during kernel confi- - guration, and if both what protocol answer got in first). + this means that the kernel tries to configure everything using + autoconfiguration. + + The <autoconf> parameter can appear alone as the value to the `ip' + parameter (without all the ':' characters before) in which case auto- + configuration is used. + + <client-ip> IP address of the client. - <client-ip> IP address of the client. If empty, the address will either - be determined by RARP or BOOTP. What protocol is used de- - pends on what has been enabled during kernel configuration - and on the <autoconf> parameter. If this parameter is not - empty, neither RARP nor BOOTP will be used. + Default: Determined using autoconfiguration. <server-ip> IP address of the NFS server. If RARP is used to determine the client address and this parameter is NOT empty only - replies from the specified server are accepted. To use - different RARP and NFS server, specify your RARP server - here (or leave it blank), and specify your NFS server in - the `nfsroot' parameter (see above). If this entry is blank - the address of the server is used which answered the RARP - or BOOTP request. - - <gw-ip> IP address of a gateway if the server is on a different - subnet. If this entry is empty no gateway is used and the - server is assumed to be on the local network, unless a - value has been received by BOOTP. - - <netmask> Netmask for local network interface. If this is empty, + replies from the specified server are accepted. + + Only required for for NFS root. That is autoconfiguration + will not be triggered if it is missing and NFS root is not + in operation. + + Default: Determined using autoconfiguration. + The address of the autoconfiguration server is used. + + <gw-ip> IP address of a gateway if the server is on a different subnet. + + Default: Determined using autoconfiguration. + + <netmask> Netmask for local network interface. If unspecified the netmask is derived from the client IP address assuming - classful addressing, unless overridden in BOOTP reply. + classful addressing. - <hostname> Name of the client. If empty, the client IP address is - used in ASCII notation, or the value received by BOOTP. + Default: Determined using autoconfiguration. - <device> Name of network device to use. If this is empty, all - devices are used for RARP and BOOTP requests, and the - first one we receive a reply on is configured. If you have - only one device, you can safely leave this blank. + <hostname> Name of the client. May be supplied by autoconfiguration, + but its absence will not trigger autoconfiguration. - <autoconf> Method to use for autoconfiguration. If this is either - 'rarp' or 'bootp', the specified protocol is used. - If the value is 'both' or empty, both protocols are used - so far as they have been enabled during kernel configura- - tion. 'off' means no autoconfiguration. + Default: Client IP address is used in ASCII notation. - The <autoconf> parameter can appear alone as the value to the `ip' - parameter (without all the ':' characters before) in which case auto- - configuration is used. + <device> Name of network device to use. + + Default: If the host only has one device, it is used. + Otherwise the device is determined using + autoconfiguration. This is done by sending + autoconfiguration requests out of all devices, + and using the device that received the first reply. + <autoconf> Method to use for autoconfiguration. In the case of options + which specify multiple autoconfiguration protocols, + requests are sent using all protocols, and the first one + to reply is used. + Only autoconfiguration protocols that have been compiled + into the kernel will be used, regardless of the value of + this option. + off or none: don't use autoconfiguration (default) + on or any: use any protocol available in the kernel + dhcp: use DHCP + bootp: use BOOTP + rarp: use RARP + both: use both BOOTP and RARP but not DHCP + (old option kept for backwards compatibility) -3.) Kernel loader - ------------- + Default: any -To get the kernel into memory different approaches can be used. They -depend on what facilities are available: -3.1) Writing the kernel onto a floppy using dd: - As always you can just write the kernel onto a floppy using dd, - but then it's not possible to use kernel command lines at all. - To substitute the 'root=' parameter, create a dummy device on any - linux system with major number 0 and minor number 255 using mknod: - mknod /dev/boot255 c 0 255 +3.) Boot Loader + ---------- - Then copy the kernel zImage file onto a floppy using dd: +To get the kernel into memory different approaches can be used. +They depend on various facilities being available: - dd if=/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage of=/dev/fd0 - And finally use rdev to set the root device: +3.1) Booting from a floppy using syslinux - rdev /dev/fd0 /dev/boot255 + When building kernels, an easy way to create a boot floppy that uses + syslinux is to use the zdisk or bzdisk make targets which use + and bzimage images respectively. Both targets accept the + FDARGS parameter which can be used to set the kernel command line. - You can then remove the dummy device /dev/boot255 again. There - is no real device available for it. - The other two kernel command line parameters cannot be substi- - tuted with rdev. Therefore, using this method the kernel will - by default use RARP and/or BOOTP, and if it gets an answer via - RARP will mount the directory /tftpboot/<client-ip>/ as its - root. If it got a BOOTP answer the directory name in that answer - is used. + e.g. + make bzdisk FDARGS="root=/dev/nfs" + + Note that the user running this command will need to have + access to the floppy drive device, /dev/fd0 + + For more information on syslinux, including how to create bootdisks + for prebuilt kernels, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/ + + N.B: Previously it was possible to write a kernel directly to + a floppy using dd, configure the boot device using rdev, and + boot using the resulting floppy. Linux no longer supports this + method of booting. + +3.2) Booting from a cdrom using isolinux + + When building kernels, an easy way to create a bootable cdrom that + uses isolinux is to use the isoimage target which uses a bzimage + image. Like zdisk and bzdisk, this target accepts the FDARGS + parameter which can be used to set the kernel command line. + + e.g. + make isoimage FDARGS="root=/dev/nfs" + + The resulting iso image will be arch/<ARCH>/boot/image.iso + This can be written to a cdrom using a variety of tools including + cdrecord. + + e.g. + cdrecord dev=ATAPI:1,0,0 arch/i386/boot/image.iso + + For more information on isolinux, including how to create bootdisks + for prebuilt kernels, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/ 3.2) Using LILO - When using LILO you can specify all necessary command line - parameters with the 'append=' command in the LILO configuration - file. However, to use the 'root=' command you also need to - set up a dummy device as described in 3.1 above. For how to use - LILO and its 'append=' command please refer to the LILO - documentation. + When using LILO all the necessary command line parameters may be + specified using the 'append=' directive in the LILO configuration + file. + + However, to use the 'root=' directive you also need to create + a dummy root device, which may be removed after LILO is run. + + mknod /dev/boot255 c 0 255 + + For information on configuring LILO, please refer to its documentation. 3.3) Using GRUB - When you use GRUB, you simply append the parameters after the kernel - specification: "kernel <kernel> <parameters>" (without the quotes). + When using GRUB, kernel parameter are simply appended after the kernel + specification: kernel <kernel> <parameters> 3.4) Using loadlin - When you want to boot Linux from a DOS command prompt without - having a local hard disk to mount as root, you can use loadlin. - I was told that it works, but haven't used it myself yet. In - general you should be able to create a kernel command line simi- - lar to how LILO is doing it. Please refer to the loadlin docu- - mentation for further information. + loadlin may be used to boot Linux from a DOS command prompt without + requiring a local hard disk to mount as root. This has not been + thoroughly tested by the authors of this document, but in general + it should be possible configure the kernel command line similarly + to the configuration of LILO. + + Please refer to the loadlin documentation for further information. 3.5) Using a boot ROM - This is probably the most elegant way of booting a diskless - client. With a boot ROM the kernel gets loaded using the TFTP - protocol. As far as I know, no commercial boot ROMs yet - support booting Linux over the network, but there are two - free implementations of a boot ROM available on sunsite.unc.edu - and its mirrors. They are called 'netboot-nfs' and 'etherboot'. - Both contain everything you need to boot a diskless Linux client. + This is probably the most elegant way of booting a diskless client. + With a boot ROM the kernel is loaded using the TFTP protocol. The + authors of this document are not aware of any no commercial boot + ROMs that support booting Linux over the network. However, there + are two free implementations of a boot ROM, netboot-nfs and + etherboot, both of which are available on sunsite.unc.edu, and both + of which contain everything you need to boot a diskless Linux client. 3.6) Using pxelinux - Using pxelinux you specify the kernel you built with + Pxelinux may be used to boot linux using the PXE boot loader + which is present on many modern network cards. + + When using pxelinux, the kernel image is specified using "kernel <relative-path-below /tftpboot>". The nfsroot parameters are passed to the kernel by adding them to the "append" line. - You may perhaps also want to fine tune the console output, - see Documentation/serial-console.txt for serial console help. + It is common to use serial console in conjunction with pxeliunx, + see Documentation/serial-console.txt for more information. + + For more information on isolinux, including how to create bootdisks + for prebuilt kernels, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/ |