This page describes setting up BOOTP on your host
computer.
Setting Up BOOTP
The BOOTP daemon is
usually provided with your host's operating system, though it may not
be started as part of your system installation script. If you don't
have a copy of the BOOTP daemon, you can get the source code or
executable files for some systems from the /HDSware/hds-fx/contrib
directory of the HDSware tape or you can probably find a copy on the
Internet.
The Bootp daemon is usually started from the /etc/inetd.conf
file, which manages the network services. If this file doesn't have a
"bootp" entry, or the entry is commented out, you should add a line to
start BOOTP. The syntax for this entry may vary, but it should look
something like this: bootps dgram udp wait root
/etc/bootpd bootpd -t0 /etc/bootptab
This example starts the BOOTP server (bootps), gives
the path to the BOOTP daemon itself, then the path to the bootptab, in
this case "/etc/bootptab". This command line contains a timeout value of
0 (-t0 - never timeout) so you can always see whether the process is
running. Enter the locations appropriate to your system configuration.
You should also check your /etc/services file for entries for
BOOTP's operation. This file sets the appropriate sockets for
communication and should have an entry something like this for BOOTP:
bootps 67/udp bootp
bootpc
68/udp
These entries indicate that the BOOTP server (bootps) uses
socket 67 and the BOOTP client (bootpc) uses socket 68. Check your
operating system materials for syntax, though these UDP socket numbers
should be uniform across all host types.
You should verify that the BOOTP daemon is running on your
host. This can be a little tricky if the BOOTP daemon was initiated in
the inetd process, since this doesn't actually start the BOOTP daemon
until a BOOTP request is received (the default timeout for the daemon
is 15 minutes). If you try to start a ViewStation and it sends a BOOTP
request, then the daemon (if it is there) will start and linger long
enough for you to check for its process with the ps command.
You can start BOOTP manually, or restart the inetd daemon as
follows. First locate the inetd process using the ps command, then send
that process ID a Hangup signal to restart the inetd daemon. kill -1 [inetd process ID]
If you modify your bootptab,
the BOOTP daemon will notice the new file date and reread it when the
daemon receives a subsequent BOOTP request.
BOOTP
Debugging
The HDSware directory for BOOTP (in
/HDSware/hds-fx/contrib/bootp/src/bootp.xxx) contains some
sample files that can help you work with BOOTP. A file called "dobootp"
shows you how to start BOOTP on your host computer in stand-alone mode,
and sets the debug level to 5. This gives you a powerful diagnostic
tool to see how BOOTP is working.
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