Ok. First we need the correct pinout for the serial port. I obtained them from Sun’s Netra T1 Server User Guide:
DB25M to RJ45F
Pin 1 (RTS) Pin 5 (CTS)
Pin 2 (DTR) Pin 6 (DSR)
Pin 3 (TXD) Pin 3 (RXD)
Pin 4 (Signal Ground) Pin 7 (Signal Ground)
Pin 5 (Signal Ground) Pin 7 (Signal Ground)
Pin 6 (RXD) Pin 2 (TXD)
Pin 7 (DSR) Pin 20 (DTR)
Pin 8 (CTS) Pin 4 (RTS)
DB9F to RJ45F
Pin 1 (RTS) Pin 8 (CTS)
Pin 2 (DTR) Pin 6 (DSR)
Pin 3 (TXD) Pin 2 (RXD)
Pin 4 (Signal Ground) Pin 5 (Signal Ground)
Pin 5 (Signal Ground) Pin 5 (Signal Ground)
Pin 6 (RXD) Pin 3 (TXD)
Pin 7 (DSR) Pin 4 (DTR)
Pin 8 (CTS) Pin 7 (RTS)
While you set up your serial cable you can download your Solaris media from Sun.
The prerequisites (yes, the kernel based nfs server won’t work. And I learned it the hard way):
boot server:
# apt-get install atftpd bootparamd rarpd
NFS server:
# apt-get install nfs-user-server
NFS server: Next we copy the needed directories from the install media to our NFS server:
# cd /cdrom
# find . -depth -print | cpio -dump /srv/boot/sparc
boot server: Set the ip address of the target system in your /etc/ethers file for use by the rarpd daemon:
00:01:02:03:04:05 201.202.203.204
boot server: From the Tools directory we need to copy the boot image for our architecture to the tftpboot directory. The target system will ask for a file named as its IP in hexadecimal notation, There are several utilities for that, but this ip translation utility in kloth.net works like a charm.:
# cp /srv/boot/sparc/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot/usr/platform/sun4u/lib/fs/nfs/inetboot /tftpboot/inetboot-sun4u
# ln -s /tftpboot/inetboot-sun4u /tftpboot/C9CACBCC
# ln -s /tftpboot/inetboot-sun4u /tftpboot/C9CACBCC.SUN4U
boot server: Set the boot parameters in /etc/bootparams:
netra root=<nfsserver_ip>:/srv/boot/sparc/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot
install=<nfsserver_ip>:/srv/boot/sparc
rootopts=<nfsserver_ip>:rsize=32768
boottype=<nfsserver_ip>:in
boot server: Restart the affected daemons:
# /etc/init.d/rarpd restart
# /etc/init.d/bootparamd restart
target system: Start the network install
ok boot net -v - install
Last, but not least, this document has been invaluable for troubleshooting.