[syslinux] Problems booting PXE-Client

[Martin Bammer]

On Monday 03 February 2003 22:41, Josef Siemes wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Martin Bammer <martin at cyberlady.arcs.ac.at> schrieb am 03.02.03 16:18:23:
> > I have installed DHCP, PXE and the TFTP-Server tftp-hpa. I'm running
> > Debian Woody on my server and I want to boot a PXE-Client with this
> > server. I have installed all as it is described in the docs found on the
> > net.
> >
> > Under root:
> > /tftpboot/
> > /tftpboot/X86PC/linux
> > /tftpboot/X86PC/linux/messages
> > /tftpboot/X86PC/linux/linux.0
> > /tftpboot/X86PC/linux/vmlinuz
> > /tftpboot/X86PC/linux/pxelinux.cfg
> > /tftpboot/X86PC/linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0A801
>
> Do you also have pxelinux.0 there?
>
> > C0A801 contains:
> > LABEL linux
> >   KERNEL vmlinuz
> >   APPEND root=/dev/nfs
> > nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/home/clients,wsize=8192,rsize=8192 IPAPPEND 1
>
> Seems ok, but your client doesn't get there ...
>
> > dhcpd.conf contains:
> > ...
> > #LocalNet
> > subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
> >   range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.200;
> >   option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
> >   option routers 192.168.1.1;
> >   option domain-name "arcsrob.at";
> >   option dhcp-class-identifier "PXEClient";
> >   option vendor-encapsulated-options ff;
> >   option domain-name-servers 193.170.135.160, 193.170.135.161;
> > }
> > ...
> >
> >
> > pxe.conf contains:
> > [..]
>
> You should first try to get it to work without a PXE server. The PXE roms
> are quite different, and most of them accept dhcp/tftp, some of them refuse
> to work with dhcp/pxe/tftp. Oh, and what rom and what network card do you
> use? Some of them can't even boot anything, and some want some magic
> configurations - see the home page for examples.
>
> > The boot process is as follows:
> > Client: DHCP Discover
> > Server: DHCP Offer
> > Client: DHCP Request
> > Server: DHCP ACK
> > Client: ARP
> > Server: ARP
> > Client: UDP bootpc->4011 (PXE - The packet seems to be ok.)
> > Server: UDP 4011->bootpc (PXE - The packet seems to be ok.)
>
> Usually some more packets should follow - the pxe server is basically a
> stripped down dhcp server, so there seems something missing here.
>
> Regards,
>
> Josef

Hi,

I know that there ist something missing. The TFTP-Server should now receive a 
request. But it doesn't. At home I have installed a PXE-Server and I have a 
client which boots perfectly from the server. But with my hardware at work it 
fails. I'm not sure about the problem source.
The client hardware at work: Slot-PC with additional 3COM network card.
The server hardware at work: 2x3COM + 1xRTL8029 + 1xSiS900
The server software at work: Debian Woody, kernel 2.4.20 with iptables. So 
there is a firewall running on the server. Maybe that's the problem source. 
But when I look through the log files there are only "accepts". I know that 
PXE uses multicast packets and that the linux-kernel has some troubles with 
these kind of packets. Especially I'm talking about the bridge. In older 
kernels multicast packets were forwarded, but in the new this doesn't work. 
Maybe the firewall code also has the same troubles with multicast packets. Or 
do I have to add special cofiguration options to my firewall-script to enable 
these kind of packets?

Regards, Martin