live-boot packages with udhcpc support for testing

[Stephan Adig]

Hi Arnaudov,

could you give me some infos about your setup?

Are you using pxelinux functionality with IPAPPEND 2 (providing BOOTIF
to the kernel commandline)
Or do you just use standard pxelinux provided by fai-chboot from FAI?

Regards,

\sh

On Wed, 2011-01-26 at 12:50 +0100, ARNAUDOV Krasimir wrote:
> Hello,
> I have tested the Packages and they work for me - FAI 3.4.7/ kernel vmlinuz-2.6.35-grml64
> Great job, you have saved my day:)
> 
> I have had problems with Intel network card ibg driver and they are now solved:)
> 
> 
> Bellow is description of my Problem:
> Intel servers ibg driver.
> I was installing Ubuntu 9.04 with FAI 3.2.17~lenny1/kernel vmlinuz-2.6.28-18-amd64 - everything was Ok.
> Now I am installing Ubuntu 10.04 with ext4/grub2 so I have upgraded to FAI 3.3.5/kernel vmlinuz-2.6.31-grml64
> 
> With most of the computers there is no problems, but it does not work with two servers which use this ibg driver.
> 
> "igb: eth0 NIC Link is Up 1000Mbps Full Duplex...
> ....
> Looking for a connected Ethernet Interface ... eth0? eth1? eth2? eth3?
> found eth0.
> done.
> ....
> IP-Config: eth0 hardware address....mtu 1500 DHCP RARP"
> 
> And that's it  nothing happens....
> I have tried with FAI 3.4.4/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64(Debian 6) and FAI 3.4.5/vmlinuz-2.6.35-grml64 - the same story.
> 
> - the Older kernel has no problems - it should not be because the driver version is old and does not support the network card
> - booting from network is not a Problem and the OS works fine - so it is not a network problem
> - the install kernel finds the network card and loads the driver
> 
> At the same time I have received the mail from the mailing list... and voilà 
> Ipconfig was causing the problem and udhcpc has solved it.
> 
> Best regards
> Krasimir Arnaudov 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: linux-fai-bounces at uni-koeln.de [mailto:linux-fai-bounces at uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Stephan Adig
> Sent: Dienstag, 25. Jänner 2011 15:40
> To: linux-fai-devel at uni-koeln.de
> Cc: linux-fai
> Subject: live-boot packages with udhcpc support for testing
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> as I was announcing in the past, I have some packages ready with udhcpc
> support. You can find them on the FAI Wiki under
> 
> http://wiki.fai-project.org/wiki/User:StephanHermann
> 
> (The packages are inside the tgz file)
> 
> 
> These packages are removing ipconfig support for dhcp completly, and are
> using udhcpc instead.
> 
> In our setup we are using the pxelinux functionality of IPAPPEND 2 which
> provides BOOTIF to the kernel commandline. This works out of the box.
> 
> As I don't have another pool of test machines and test infrastructure, I
> would like to invite you to test those packages in your specific setups.
> 
> What you have to do?
> 
> 1. create a new nfsroot with make-fai-nfsroot --vvv
>    please be sure, that you are not overwriting your working nfsroot.
> 
> 2. The live-boot-initramfs-tools package does have a dependency on 
>    the udhcpc package, so you don't need to worry about the 
>    installation of udhcpc
> 
> 3. chroot into your newly created nfsroot and adjust 
>    your /etc/initramfs-tools/modules to your needs
> 
> 4. update-initramfs -k all -u inside your nfsroot
> 
> 5. copy the resulting initrd from your nfsroot to your tftp root 
>    directory.
>    Again, please do not overwrite your current working kernels and 
>    initrds
> 
> 6. If you find anything not working especially when you are using not 
>    the IPAPPEND parameter, please send some informations to me.
>    a) append DEBUG=1 and break=premount to your kernel append 
>       commandline
>    b) when you see the initramfs busybox prompt please do 
>       a . /scripts/live and call do_netsetup from the prompt
>    c) all errors should be visible then, copy and paste or take a 
>       picture with your favorite digital cam and send them to me.
> 
> One advise, this package doesn't work on ubuntu lucid/maverick , so
> don't install it in your ubuntu nfsroot, please :)
> 
> Why should I do this?
> 
> During my testdrives of FAI with dhcp kernel boots, we had a lot of fun
> with ipconfig not working correctly. Mostly on newer NICs and newer
> hardware.
> We don't know why this was happening or what is causing this, because
> the bios pxe implementations were working out of the box with our dhcp
> setup. 
> Having now udhcpc on board, everything works without problems, so we
> think that udhcp is a better way to provide a much more stable ip=dhcp
> support for the kernel and for the FAI users.
> 
> I'm happy to receive a lot of mails and trying to support you on irc or
> via mail.
> 
> Please don't kill me, when you find bugs, or something is not working. I
> want to have a proper package handy, and push that upstream.
> 
> Thanks for your attention and thanks in advance for your help,
> 
> \sh

-- 
Stephan '\sh' Adig
SysAdmin / Ubuntu Developer
xmpp: sh at sourcecode.de