These are the relevant morsels from the sles9.cnf file used to bootstrap SLES s/390 on Hercules with z/Dev.
SLES 9
- SLES 9 installation tarball (46MB): sles9.tar

  HTTPPORT  8081 noauth userid password # HTTP server port
  HTTPROOT  /usr/share/hercules/  # HTTP root directory
  PANRATE   FAST                        # Panel refresh rate
  CNSLPORT  3270                # TCP port number to which consoles connect

#   .-----------------------Device number
#   |     .-----------------Device type
#   |     |       .---------File name and parameters
#   |     |       |
#   V     V       V
# ----    ----    --------------------
  0009    3215-C  / noprompt
  000C    3505   /opt/s390/sles9/vmrdr.ikr /opt/s390/sles9/parmfile /opt/s390/sles9/initrd /opt/s390/sles9/tapeipl.ikr autopad eof
  000E    1403    print00e.txt crlf
  001F    3270
  000A    1052
  0440.2  LCS     -n   /dev/net/tun   10.0.2.16

1: Follow the 'Get started with z/Dev' article

2: Once logged in as 'zdev' (zdev/zdev), you should launch the Debian installer with Hercules following one of these methods:

2a: Select Debian from zselector menu

2b: Launch Hercules manually, via

hercules -f /opt/s390/debian/debian.cnf

1: Follow the 'Get started with z/Dev' article

2: Once logged in as 'zdev' (zdev/zdev), you should launch the SLES9 installer with Hercules following one of these methods:

2a: Select SLES9 from zselector menu. If you go this route, a telnet connection and x3270 session will launch and connect to '$HOSTNAME:3270'. If your hostname has not been established or tied to the active IP, the connection will fail.

2b: Launch Hercules manually, via

hercules -f /opt/s390/sles9/sles9.cnf

3: Hercules is not set to autoload, so you must load the bootstrap data from the reader;

IPL 000C

4: Select network (see networking Hercules)

Linux on IBM s/390 and z/Series architecture has been one of more interesting (uncharted) courses during two of my recent favorite projects.

The chasm between PC Linux implementations and deploying the same on IBM Mainframe hardware is a difficult thing to grasp, let alone communicate to management and support teams.

I have an itch to scratch, and it's name is z/Dev.

Download 0.0.8 ISO here.