Network issue during FAI installation

[Toomas Tamm]

On Fri, 2016-05-13 at 22:35 +0200, Christian Meyer wrote:
> Hello there,
>  
> I'm facing a "myterious" networking problem that only occurs during
> FAI installation:
> Most Computers do recognize LAN connection without any promlems, but
> some (with identical hardware) don't.

Have you checked whether the problem is "permanent" or "intermittent"? I
have had a long history of FAI failing to recognize the network card (of
various makes and models) even though PXE boot and installed system
afterward both work just fine.

In most cases it eventually succeeds, although I may have needed to
repeat the pxe boot up to five times to get there. I think in one or two
very stubborn cases I needed to install a second network card to get the
machine installed. Some cards seem to work better and some are worse.

In our building, the network switches are at one end of the building,
and my room is in the middle, so there is maybe 30-40 meters of cable
between my office and the switch, and another, slightly shorter, stretch
to the server room where the FAI server is. Other than the FAI issue, I
cannot complain about the quality of the cabling.

I guess this must be some sort of time-out or collision resolution
issue, but I have never been able to find out the details. Just trying
to live with it.

Regards,
Toomas Tamm