Troubleshooting in LAN Manager RPL environments

• Use SMARTROM.EXE to ensure that your Smartrom is programmed with either MULTI.ROM or NRPL.ROM. If not then reprogram it using SMARTROM.EXE.

• Ensure that the server and remote boot services are running on the server.

• If your setup requires that you boot both DOS and OS/2, ensure that you are running RPLSETUP so that both DOS and OS/2 RPL are set up.

• You can use the M command line option to relocate some programs in memory, for example, PROTMAN.DOS and PROTMAN.EXE. It is worth trying the configuration both with and without the M parameter (by replacing the M with a ~).

• The third parameter of the workstation record in the RPL.MAP file may be D, N or P. This specifies whether the server requires a password from the workstation when it tries to access files on the server. It may be necessary to force the workstation to use a password by putting P here instead of D. In this case change the second parameter from ???????? to the machine name and ensure that the machine has access rights to the net name (RPLFILES). The booting workstation can then access all the files it needs.

• If the initial download of the boot block is failing, change field 5 of the RPL.MAP file from F or N to A. This slows down the boot process and guarantees that the server stays in touch with the workstation's progress as it downloads the boot block.
• The important files and directories (relative to the C:\LANMAN\RPL directory) are:
  BBLOCK\NETBEUI\MADGE:
  contains the boot block descriptor files dosbb.cnf and
  OS213BB.CNF.

  RPLMGR.INI:
  needed to create profiles.

  RPL.MAP:
  specifies the boot block, profile name and machine name to use for a given node address.

  RPLFILES\PROFILES\(profile_name):
  contains the basic disk image for (profile_name). The file fits\(fit_name).fit is used to add files to this basic image. The CONFIG.SYS for this profile is stored in here as is the PROTOCOL.INI file which is in the lanman subdirectory.

  rplfiles\machines\(machine_name): contains some directories for the machine (machine_name). rplfiles\binfiles\(os_name): contains the files for the operating system (os_name).

• Check the directories and files mentioned in the third bullet point. For example: check that the necessary files mentioned in the (fit_name).fit file do exist on the server; check that the files referenced by the config.sys file in the profiles\(profile_name) directory are included in the (fit_name).fit file; check that the config.sys file references the Madge driver; in general check the consistency of the configuration, particulary rpl.map, config.sys and protocol.ini.

• Ensure that the files in the (fit_name).fit file are all referenced via a shared net name, for example RPLFILES. Then, provided the workstation has access rights to RPLFILES, it can access all the files it needs to remote boot.

• If you make any changes to the RPL files run rplinst to ensure that the changes are registered.

• For OS/2 RPL copy the missing .DLL files mentioned in the LAN Manager Administrator's Guide to the DLL subdirectory of the operating system.

• For LAN Manager 2.0 you must type:
  net load rpl
  before starting the remote boot service. This is not required in LAN Manager 2.1 and 2.2.