[syslinux] PXE question

[Erwan Velu]

Jonathan wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I run a cluster for computer game servers which are started on demand  
> by users who book them. I have 15 nodes, some of them netbooted, some  
> of them not. Recently i replaced a couple of old netbooted machines  
> with new ones (with harddrives) for better performance. Inside the  
> new boxes i used NICs from the old machines that i had taken out of  
> the cluster and netboot.
>
> A day or so after i had done it i checked back on the cluster to see  
> if it was running okay, and noticed several of the netbooted nodes  
> where down, so i went to the server room to investigate:
>
> Each machine gets to the part where the kernel loads the PS/2 driver,  
> and then the screen turns black, instantly.
>
> What can cause this? I thought about network conflicts because i'd  
> used NICs from the replaced machines, but disconnecting them and  
> restarting the switch didn't help.
>   
Did you try to boot the newest machines without pxe but with the same 
kernel ?
Maybe this kernel doesn't works with your newest boxes.

If the answer is "yes, I know this new machines to runs perfectly 
without the pxe boot", you may check :
- if a bios update is available
- if the kernel image + initrd si no too big.. on some older system I 
had this trouble.
Loading a very big initrd (several MB) seems to make the system 
unstable. This sounds to be related with the bios/pxe stack.
I can't explain more why but I did notice this behaviour.

Hope it helps ;)