267 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
267 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
Mounting the root filesystem via NFS (nfsroot)
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===============================================
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Written 1996 by Gero Kuhlmann <gero@gkminix.han.de>
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Updated 1997 by Martin Mares <mj@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>
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Updated 2006 by Nico Schottelius <nico-kernel-nfsroot@schottelius.org>
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Updated 2006 by Horms <horms@verge.net.au>
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In order to use a diskless system, such as an X-terminal or printer server
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for example, it is necessary for the root filesystem to be present on a
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non-disk device. This may be an initramfs (see Documentation/filesystems/
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ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt), a ramdisk (see Documentation/initrd.txt) or a
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filesystem mounted via NFS. The following text describes on how to use NFS
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for the root filesystem. For the rest of this text 'client' means the
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diskless system, and 'server' means the NFS server.
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1.) Enabling nfsroot capabilities
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-----------------------------
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In order to use nfsroot, NFS client support needs to be selected as
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built-in during configuration. Once this has been selected, the nfsroot
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option will become available, which should also be selected.
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In the networking options, kernel level autoconfiguration can be selected,
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along with the types of autoconfiguration to support. Selecting all of
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DHCP, BOOTP and RARP is safe.
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2.) Kernel command line
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-------------------
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When the kernel has been loaded by a boot loader (see below) it needs to be
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told what root fs device to use. And in the case of nfsroot, where to find
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both the server and the name of the directory on the server to mount as root.
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This can be established using the following kernel command line parameters:
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root=/dev/nfs
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This is necessary to enable the pseudo-NFS-device. Note that it's not a
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real device but just a synonym to tell the kernel to use NFS instead of
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a real device.
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nfsroot=[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[,<nfs-options>]
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If the `nfsroot' parameter is NOT given on the command line,
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the default "/tftpboot/%s" will be used.
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<server-ip> Specifies the IP address of the NFS server.
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The default address is determined by the `ip' parameter
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(see below). This parameter allows the use of different
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servers for IP autoconfiguration and NFS.
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<root-dir> Name of the directory on the server to mount as root.
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If there is a "%s" token in the string, it will be
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replaced by the ASCII-representation of the client's
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IP address.
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<nfs-options> Standard NFS options. All options are separated by commas.
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The following defaults are used:
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port = as given by server portmap daemon
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rsize = 1024
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wsize = 1024
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timeo = 7
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retrans = 3
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acregmin = 3
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acregmax = 60
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acdirmin = 30
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acdirmax = 60
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flags = hard, nointr, noposix, cto, ac
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ip=<client-ip>:<server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<device>:<autoconf>
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This parameter tells the kernel how to configure IP addresses of devices
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and also how to set up the IP routing table. It was originally called
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`nfsaddrs', but now the boot-time IP configuration works independently of
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NFS, so it was renamed to `ip' and the old name remained as an alias for
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compatibility reasons.
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If this parameter is missing from the kernel command line, all fields are
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assumed to be empty, and the defaults mentioned below apply. In general
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this means that the kernel tries to configure everything using
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autoconfiguration.
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The <autoconf> parameter can appear alone as the value to the `ip'
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parameter (without all the ':' characters before) in which case auto-
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configuration is used.
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<client-ip> IP address of the client.
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Default: Determined using autoconfiguration.
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<server-ip> IP address of the NFS server. If RARP is used to determine
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the client address and this parameter is NOT empty only
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replies from the specified server are accepted.
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Only required for for NFS root. That is autoconfiguration
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will not be triggered if it is missing and NFS root is not
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in operation.
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Default: Determined using autoconfiguration.
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The address of the autoconfiguration server is used.
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<gw-ip> IP address of a gateway if the server is on a different subnet.
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Default: Determined using autoconfiguration.
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<netmask> Netmask for local network interface. If unspecified
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the netmask is derived from the client IP address assuming
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classful addressing.
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Default: Determined using autoconfiguration.
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<hostname> Name of the client. May be supplied by autoconfiguration,
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but its absence will not trigger autoconfiguration.
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Default: Client IP address is used in ASCII notation.
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<device> Name of network device to use.
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Default: If the host only has one device, it is used.
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Otherwise the device is determined using
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autoconfiguration. This is done by sending
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autoconfiguration requests out of all devices,
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and using the device that received the first reply.
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<autoconf> Method to use for autoconfiguration. In the case of options
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which specify multiple autoconfiguration protocols,
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requests are sent using all protocols, and the first one
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to reply is used.
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Only autoconfiguration protocols that have been compiled
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into the kernel will be used, regardless of the value of
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this option.
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off or none: don't use autoconfiguration (default)
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on or any: use any protocol available in the kernel
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dhcp: use DHCP
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bootp: use BOOTP
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rarp: use RARP
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both: use both BOOTP and RARP but not DHCP
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(old option kept for backwards compatibility)
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Default: any
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3.) Boot Loader
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----------
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To get the kernel into memory different approaches can be used.
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They depend on various facilities being available:
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3.1) Booting from a floppy using syslinux
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When building kernels, an easy way to create a boot floppy that uses
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syslinux is to use the zdisk or bzdisk make targets which use
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and bzimage images respectively. Both targets accept the
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FDARGS parameter which can be used to set the kernel command line.
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e.g.
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make bzdisk FDARGS="root=/dev/nfs"
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Note that the user running this command will need to have
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access to the floppy drive device, /dev/fd0
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For more information on syslinux, including how to create bootdisks
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for prebuilt kernels, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/
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N.B: Previously it was possible to write a kernel directly to
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a floppy using dd, configure the boot device using rdev, and
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boot using the resulting floppy. Linux no longer supports this
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method of booting.
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3.2) Booting from a cdrom using isolinux
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When building kernels, an easy way to create a bootable cdrom that
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uses isolinux is to use the isoimage target which uses a bzimage
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image. Like zdisk and bzdisk, this target accepts the FDARGS
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parameter which can be used to set the kernel command line.
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e.g.
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make isoimage FDARGS="root=/dev/nfs"
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The resulting iso image will be arch/<ARCH>/boot/image.iso
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This can be written to a cdrom using a variety of tools including
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cdrecord.
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e.g.
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cdrecord dev=ATAPI:1,0,0 arch/i386/boot/image.iso
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For more information on isolinux, including how to create bootdisks
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for prebuilt kernels, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/
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3.2) Using LILO
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When using LILO all the necessary command line parameters may be
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specified using the 'append=' directive in the LILO configuration
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file.
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However, to use the 'root=' directive you also need to create
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a dummy root device, which may be removed after LILO is run.
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mknod /dev/boot255 c 0 255
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For information on configuring LILO, please refer to its documentation.
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3.3) Using GRUB
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When using GRUB, kernel parameter are simply appended after the kernel
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specification: kernel <kernel> <parameters>
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3.4) Using loadlin
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loadlin may be used to boot Linux from a DOS command prompt without
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requiring a local hard disk to mount as root. This has not been
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thoroughly tested by the authors of this document, but in general
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it should be possible configure the kernel command line similarly
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to the configuration of LILO.
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Please refer to the loadlin documentation for further information.
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3.5) Using a boot ROM
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This is probably the most elegant way of booting a diskless client.
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With a boot ROM the kernel is loaded using the TFTP protocol. The
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authors of this document are not aware of any no commercial boot
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ROMs that support booting Linux over the network. However, there
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are two free implementations of a boot ROM, netboot-nfs and
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etherboot, both of which are available on sunsite.unc.edu, and both
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of which contain everything you need to boot a diskless Linux client.
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3.6) Using pxelinux
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Pxelinux may be used to boot linux using the PXE boot loader
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which is present on many modern network cards.
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When using pxelinux, the kernel image is specified using
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"kernel <relative-path-below /tftpboot>". The nfsroot parameters
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are passed to the kernel by adding them to the "append" line.
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It is common to use serial console in conjunction with pxeliunx,
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see Documentation/serial-console.txt for more information.
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For more information on isolinux, including how to create bootdisks
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for prebuilt kernels, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/
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4.) Credits
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-------
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The nfsroot code in the kernel and the RARP support have been written
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by Gero Kuhlmann <gero@gkminix.han.de>.
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The rest of the IP layer autoconfiguration code has been written
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by Martin Mares <mj@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>.
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In order to write the initial version of nfsroot I would like to thank
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Jens-Uwe Mager <jum@anubis.han.de> for his help.
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