I ran into this problem a while back whilst trying to jumpstart one of my VOSJEC lab systems which caused a little bit of grief for a while:
Sun Fire V210, No Keyboard
Copyright 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.22.33, 2048 MB memory installed, Serial #73138818.
Ethernet address 0:14:4f:5c:2:82, Host ID: 845c0282.
ChassisSerialNumber UNDEFINED
Rebooting with command: boot net -sv
Boot device: /pci@1f,700000/network@2 File and args: -sv
100 Mbps FDX Link up
Requesting Internet Address for 0:14:4f:5c:2:82
Requesting Internet Address for 0:14:4f:5c:2:82
100 Mbps FDX Link up
boot: cannot open kernel/sparcv9/unix
Enter filename [kernel/sparcv9/unix]:
boot: cannot open kernel/sparcv9/unix
Enter filename [kernel/sparcv9/unix]:
boot: cannot open kernel/sparcv9/unix
[andharr@e2big:~]$ snoop -i snoop_v210.out
1 0.00000 OLD-BROADCAST -> (broadcast) RARP C Who is 0:14:4f:5c:2:82 ?
2 0.01679 e2big -> vos-v210-n0-gmp03 RARP R 0:14:4f:5c:2:82 is 129.156.214.198, vos-v210-n0-gmp03
3 0.00025 vos-v210-n0-gmp03 -> BROADCAST TFTP Read "819CD6C6" (octet)
4 0.00169 vos-v210-n0-gmp03 -> (broadcast) ARP C Who is 129.156.214.22, vos-x4100-gmp03 ?
5 0.00479 vos-v210-n0-gmp03 -> (broadcast) ARP C Who is 129.156.215.14, vos-jet-gmp03 ?
6 0.00297 e2big -> vos-v210-n0-gmp03 TFTP Data block 1 (512 bytes)
7 0.00182 vos-v210-n0-gmp03 -> e2big TFTP Error: unknown transfer ID
bummer, so what if we do it again, accept this time specify the boot server:
Sun Fire V210, No Keyboard
Copyright 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.22.33, 2048 MB memory installed, Serial #73138818.
Ethernet address 0:14:4f:5c:2:82, Host ID: 845c0282.
ChassisSerialNumber UNDEFINED
Rebooting with command: boot net:129.156.210.175 -sv
Boot device: /pci@1f,700000/network@2:129.156.210.175 File and args: -sv
100 Mbps FDX Link up
Requesting Internet Address for 0:14:4f:5c:2:82
Requesting Internet Address for 0:14:4f:5c:2:82
100 Mbps FDX Link up
module /platform/sun4u/kernel/sparcv9/unix: text at [0x1000000, 0x10c8b2d] data at 0x1800000
module /platform/sun4u/kernel/sparcv9/genunix: text at [0x10c8b30, 0x12b9b17] data at 0x1867440
module /platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V210/kernel/misc/sparcv9/platmod: text at [0x12b9b18, 0x12ba84f] data at 0x18bbc60
module /platform/sun4u/kernel/cpu/sparcv9/SUNW,UltraSPARC-IIIi: text at [0x12ba880, 0x12cd2d7] data at 0x18bc340
SunOS Release 5.11 Version snv_90 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Ethernet address = 0:14:4f:5c:2:82
<snip>
So some other tftp server is responding and even though I’ve disabled the tftp & bootparams on the other host and it does look like the correct server, I’m still picking up that "unknow transfer ID" error as part of the tftpboot. Mmm, something is still responding…. 🙁 so I’ll have to workaround the issue by specifying the jumpstart server using "boot net:129.156.210.175".