README.JAVASTATION # Chris Newport, last revised 1 Mar 2003 BEGIN by reading the fine manual at http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/ldp/howto/JavaStation-HOWTO/ Please read ALL of this document BEFORE trying to set up a server for the javastation. 1) General Javastation support is still beta-quality, please feel free to contribute any improvements. The javastation root image is a preinstalled root image containing a selection from the A, N, AP, X and XAP disksets. DO NOT try to re-install the A diskset, many things are patched and you will install unpatched versions. DO NOT use the DHCP client in the N diskset. The kernel has built-in DHCP and BOOTP support. Your machine will not shut down cleanly if you do this because your network will get killed before the root filesystem can be unmounted. 2) Swap Swap is not supported, so you will need enough physical memory for all processes. A text-only system should run OK with 8Mb or preferably 16Mb. If you need a GUI you should use a lightweight such as fvwm and install more memory. We may add network swap support later, but this is almost certain to be horribly slow. 3) Security NFS is fundamentally insecure. If your network is not isolated from the internet by a good firewall you should fix up your security before proceeding. The preinstalled image is a snapshot of Splack. You must apply the latest security patches to stay current. 4) Configure BOOTP or DHCP The Javastation kernel REQUIRES a BOOTP or DHCP server to determine its configuration. It is a BAD IDEA to have more than one DHCP server on the same network, so please take care lest you incur the wrath of your network administrator. You can use either BOOTP or DHCP, the choice is yours, but BOOTP is less likely to cause problems if there are existing DHCP services on your network. If you are running Slackware or Splack on your server the BOOTP and DHCP packages are in the n1 set. Most Linux distributions provide bootpd and dhcpd somewhere in the standard distribution. Other Unix variants should also include them, but the configuration file syntax may vary. Here is the entry in my /etc/bootptab , change this to use your addresses :- # --- begin include ---------------- # name Entry name - (see hn below) # ha= hardware address, get this from the initial OBP banner when # your client machine boots NOTE that we leave out the colons # here. # hn Use the name of this entry as the hostname # ip= IP address # sm= Subnet mask # gw= Gateway # dn= Domain name # ns= Name (DNS) server # sa= Server address for boot file # bf= boot file name # rp= path to root filesystem charon:ha=08002086fcb4:hn:ip=193.195.23.86:sm=255.255.255.240:\ :gw=193.195.23.81:dn=netunix.com:ns=193.195.23.70:\ :sa=193.195.23.85:bf=C1C31756:rp="193.195.23.85:/tftpboot/charon": # --- end include --------------------- And here is my entry in /etc/dhcpd.conf , NOTE that you do not need this if you use BOOTP. # --- begin include ------------------- # dhcpd.conf # # Configuration file for ISC dhcpd (see 'man dhcpd.conf') # max-lease-time 3600; #ddns-update-style ad-hoc; option routers 193.195.23.81; option time-servers 193.195.23.66; option domain-name-servers 193.195.23.70; option domain-name "netunix.com"; option broadcast-address 193.195.23.95; option smtp-server 193.195.23.66; option pop-server 193.195.23.66; subnet 193.195.23.80 netmask 255.255.255.240 { range 193.195.23.90 193.195.23.92; # fixed IP for printer host NPIC3579A { fixed-address 193.195.23.93; } } group { next-server callisto; host charon { fixed-address 193.195.23.86; hardware ethernet 8:0:20:86:fc:b4; option host-name "charon"; } } # --- end include --------------- 5) Disk space. The Javastation root filesystem needs about 500MB of free space, and this is sure to grow as you use it. It is a bad idea to have this in your root filesystem, so you need to find a good hunk of free space in a more sensible location. You might want to modify your fstab after installation to have separate /home and /var filesystems. For the initial installation just create a directory in a suitable place and make a symlink to /tftpboot/(name) The usual convention is to use /export/root/(name) but the choice is yours. mkdir /export/root/charon ln -s /export/root/charon /tftpboot/charon ln -s /export/root/charon /tftpboot/193.195.23.86 tftpconfig will now unpack the root image into the correct place. 6) Configure NFS. You now need to set up NFS to export /tftpboot and /export/root. The method depends on which flavour of Unix your server is using, if you are using Slackware you need to do this :- a) edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet2 to enable NFS and the portmapper b) start the portmapper /sbin/rpc.portmap c) edit /etc/exports to set up NFS , here is my file :- # ---- begin include ------------- # See exports(5) for a description. # This file contains a list of all directories exported to other computers. # It is used by rpc.nfsd and rpc.mountd. /cdrom *(ro) /export/root 193.195.23.80/28(rw,no_root_squash) /tftpboot 193.195.23.80/28(rw,no_root_squash) # ---- end include --------------- d) setup /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny as per the hosts_access man page man hosts_access e) start the NFS server /etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd start f) export the filesystems exportfs -a 7) Run tftpconfig cd /cdrom/tftpboot ./tftpconfig 8) Switch on your Javastation and ENJOY.