====== Strongbolt installation on a Sun Cobalt RaQ 4r ====== First of all, the Strongbolt ISO is _not_ public domain. That means you cannot simply dowmnload it from the intarwebz. It is available for purchase from http://www.osoffice.co.uk/. Secondly, you need a piece of somwhat old'ish hardware to get the somewhat old'ish Knoppix/DSL Live-cd that the strongbolt installer resides on to boot. We used a Dell Latitude C840 laptop. This gave us an additional headache: the Strongbolt CD expects the system to have an interface that can be used for DHCP/BOOTP/RARP at eth0. The C840 has a wireless adapter at eth0 and its cabled interface at eth1, so we had to shutdown eth0, configure eth1 as 192.168.0.100/24, and manually start dhpcd on eth1. sudo killall dhcpd3 sudo ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 down sudo ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 sudo dhcpd3 eth1 Next up, if your RaQ4 has an older ROM than the Strongbolt CD understands (i.e. anything older than 2.6.x) like we did (2.3.35), you HAVE to have the RaQ's serial port 1 connected to a terminal-program or VT, configured for 115200/8/n/1. The installer will complain "LCD not present", and thus the code for selecting yes/no on the display fails. However, it ends up allowing you to log into the system and do this manually. ===== Get Strongbolt ===== From OSOffice... http://www.osoffice.co.uk/ ===== Boot installer live CD ===== The strongbolt installer CD that you get from OSOffice is a live-cd that you are supposed to boot on a computer different from the RaQ. This computer and the RaQ needs to be connected using either a crossover network cable, or regular network cables and a switch/hub. The important note is that there cannot be any other DHCP servers on the network that the installer and the RaQ is connected. ===== Power on the RaQ4 ===== When you do this, hold in the S button on the RaQ, while powering on. I assume that you are logging over RS232, using minicom, hyperterm, cu, or something like that. After loading the ROM resident Linux kernel, you will be informed that "System is in LCD menu mode". Now, do as the install walkthrough tells you: # Hold down 'S' whilst powering up the server appliance # When the LCD reads "Select Option" press 'S' until it reads "Configure boot" # Now press the 'E' button # The LCD should now read "Select Default" # Press the 'S' button until the second line reads "From network" # Press the 'E' button # The LCD should now read "Select Option" # Press 'S' until it reads "Boot from net" # Press the 'E' button ===== Initial netboot and fail ===== The SBolt installer will now try to detect firmware version of the RaQ. Normally, you would get a prompt on the display, asking you to upgrade the rom (yes/no), where you select "yes", the rom is installed, and the appliance reboots. __But__, if your ROM version is (like ours) ancient, the installer will not be able to find the LCD, and this fails miserably. But it does, however, drop you to a login prompt! On the serial console: login as root/admin (u/p). If you feel unsure, make a backup of the existing rom by running flashtool -r > /tmp/orig.rom and you may then find the file on the computer you are running the installer live-cd on, located as "/nfsroot/tmp/orig.rom". Copy this file to a flash-drive for safe-keeping (remember, Live-CD :P) Next, manually perform the ROM upgrade, by running the following command (on the serial console), wait for it to finish, then wait another 3-5 seconds, and reboot: flashtool550 -w /install/rom/cobalt-2.10.3-ext-1M.rom After waiting for this to complete, and then waiting an additional piece of time, reboot by e.g. typing in reboot ===== Strongbolt actual install ===== The device now initiates a reboot. As the ROM has been overwritten, we need to set default boot again. Follow these steps: # Hold down 'S' whilst powering up the server appliance # When the LCD reads "Select Option" press 'S' until it reads "Configure boot" # Now press the 'E' button # The LCD should now read "Select Default" # Press the 'S' button until the second line reads "From network" # Press the 'E' button # The LCD should now read "Select Option" # Press 'S' until it reads "Boot from net" # Press the 'E' button # Wait # The LCD should eventually read "Install SBolt?" # Select "Y" by pressing the left arrow once, and pressing "E" # The LCD should now read "Install BlueQuar" # Select "Y" by pressing the left arrow once, and pressing "E" The installer now automagically partitions the disc, and then "bootstraps" the system, by installing base packages. After the bootstrap is complete, the system should reboot, before continuing the installation of BlueQuartz. Dont be surprised if the installer tells you that the root filesystem has gone a large number of days without beeing checked. After doing this install a few times, we have come to see this as normal... The process may even be repeated over a few partitions... ===== Postinstall process ===== The install is not actually completed until you have a "stable" login prompt on the serial console, and the LCD displays "localhost.locald" and the IP adress 192.168.0.254. We are now ready for the post-install process, which is performed via the BlueQuartz Web-interface. On the installation-live-cd-computer, type in the IP-address of the RaQ in the address bar of Firefox (192.168.0.254), and accept the Certificate warnings. Next, click "Start". Next, you are prompted to accept a licence. Click Accept to continue the install. The next screen is "System settings". __Do not__ configure IP-settings in this dialog. Skip down to Administration settings, and continue from there. Set admin/root password and time/date, and continue down. After clicking the next(ish) button, you get to "Product responsibillity": informs that there is no registration and warranty. Next up, login promt: login with the password you made a few steps back. Add administrator users on the first page shown. Enter desired usernames and password on your administration users. After completing this, go to "System settings - TCP/IP". Enter host name and domain name, and dns server of the net the appliance is going to be configured for. __Do not__ change primary or secondary interface, yet. __Press save__. Return to the same page and then set server gateway and primary interface ip address and netmask. When the new hostname and ip-address is shown on the LCD-display, change the ip-adress on the install-live-cd-pc, e.g.: sudo ifconfig eth0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.xxx and click "connect to new adress" in Firefox, and login again. If you wish to powerdown and move the server to another location, select "System settings - Power", where you will find the "Shut down button". Pleas note, that the RaQ 4 does not powerdown automatically. Wait double the time suggested (30s x 2 = 1 minute), then power it off using the power button on the rear of the appliance.