hello folks,

I am trying to install solaris 10 through network using jumpstart but the thing is i am facing problem with the following message problem Timeout waiting for arp/rarp i made sure everything correct as /etc/hosts and /etc/ethers cables are connected, plz anyone help me out

A pretty common and very frustrating problem for people trying to jumpstart unfortunately.

There's a few paths to take to debug, the first test would be to check that you _really_ have the right MAC address in /etc/ethers - sparc systems have a 'use_local' prom setting (or something similar, I forget the exact wording of it) that can override the NIC's MAC with it's hostid. It's used to stop a NIC change from messing with a MAC.

Another thing to check is that you arp daemon is actually running, along with a tfpd. I generally just run the setup_install_server script again if I'm having trouble - it beats thinking too hard

Also check out your /etc/bootparams - that's what actually gets used so it's the 'one true source' of config.

Finally, if none of this is getting you anywhere (or if it'll take you more than about an hour to do), use snoop (or tcpdump if you don't have snoop) on your jumpstart server to watch for the arp/rarp requests and see what your server is actually saying. Check the MAC matches what you thought, see if your jumpstart is answering at all. This will help you nail down what phase of the jumpstart is going wrong. 9 times out of 10, it's the initial rarp getting ignored by the jumpstart server that causes issues.

Failing that, grab a copy of Jet (aka Quark) from sun (I'm pretty sure it's free). It provides heaps of functionality including a manager program to sort out your js server properly.

One more think to consider is that your boot server has to be on the same subnet.

Thanks a lot Dragon, i will let you know about any changes.

Having 2 entries for the same MAC address in the ethers file gives the same error

I made sure to check the /etc/ethers for not having duplicate MAC address, checked /etc/dfs/dfstab, run the share command on the installed image, checked /etc/bootparams for any possible errors and also made sure if rarp is running, checked the cables and NIC card as well. Everything looks fine i don't know what else i am missing but when i run snoop command with d option on
interface card this message came out
Who is xxx.xxx.x.x (ip address) server name? plz some one what should i do guys....

That snoop should be showing you requests by MAC address too. ie you should see your server you are trying to boot's MAC appear in the snoop output on your jumpstart server.

If you aren't see anything like that, then the problem is one of:
Bad network in between
Broken network on the jumpstart server
Your target server isn't sending ARPs properly

check network port has a link, check switch, check you don't have a crossover cable where you shouldn't or vice-versa.