[syslinux] chainbooting pxe servers stalls

Sean Mitchuson smitchuson at murraystate.edu
Tue Sep 11 10:57:18 PDT 2012


Another update to my situation.  I'm currently using pxechain.com from
version 4.04 and tried one of my other pxe servers and got these two lines
pxechain: PXENV_RESTART_TFTP [0001]
pxechain: PXENV_UDP_OPEN [0001]

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 7:07 AM, Sean Mitchuson
<smitchuson at murraystate.edu>wrote:

> I've been trying out newer (4.04 and 4.05) releases and older (3.85, 2.11)
> and nothing seems to be fixing my issue.
>
> I had an interesting issue with 4.05 in that it didn't boot, but it did
> seem to cause the cursor to bounce all around the screen of the machine
> trying to access the other pxe server.
>
> I'm still a little fuzzy on the networking side of things but:
> My main pxe server is setup to be the default network boot device by my
> networking staff, that way any device that tries to boot off the network
> will see it.
> I then have 3 other pxe servers that I could point to (along with other
> choices for booting directly into OS installs)
> 1.) a Satellite PXE server
> 2.) a Spacewalk PXE server
> 3.) an IBM firmware upgrade PXE server.
>
> Since I'm already network booting all these servers off of my main PXE I
> shouldn't have to have any special rules setup just to point the machines
> to these other PXE servers right?
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 2:22 PM, Shantanu Gadgil <shantanugadgil at yahoo.com
> > wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> --- On Mon, 9/10/12, Sean Mitchuson <smitchuson at murraystate.edu> wrote:
>>
>> > From: Sean Mitchuson <smitchuson at murraystate.edu>
>> > Subject: Re: [syslinux] chainbooting pxe servers stalls
>> > To: "For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa" <syslinux at zytor.com>
>> > Date: Monday, September 10, 2012, 10:04 PM
>> > That's exactly what I think my
>> > problem is and I'm currently working on
>> > fixing it.
>> >
>> > I will reply again with my findings.  Thank you.
>> >
>> > On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 11:21 AM, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > On Sep 10, 2012 11:09 AM, "Sean Mitchuson" <
>> smitchuson at murraystate.edu>
>> > > wrote:
>> > > >
>> > > > I've started using pxe servers for OS deployment
>> > at my organization and
>> > > I'm
>> > > > trying to get chainbooting working but I seem to
>> > run into an issue that
>> > > > causes a hard lock up of a system.
>> > > >
>> > > > MENU BEGIN ^1. Boot Satellite PXE
>> > > >         LABEL
>> > Satellite PXE
>> > > >         KERNEL
>> > pxechain.com
>> > > >         APPEND
>> > (Server IP Address)::pxelinux.0
>> > > > Is part of my config file for my main pxe server
>> > to boot over to the
>> > > > satellite based pxe server but when I choose this
>> > option I see
>> > > > TFTP boot: (server ip address) pxelinux.0 and it
>> > locks up the machine and
>> > > I
>> > > > have to hard reset it.
>> > > >
>> > > > So I'm not sure where you start troubleshooting.
>> > >
>> > > For each server, what version of PXELINUX and where did
>> > you obtain the
>> > > binaries?  Did you build them yourself?
>> > >
>> > > Could
>> > >
>> > >
>> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Common_Problems#PXE_Calls_in_4.00-4.03apply
>> > > (for the source PXELINUX)?
>> > >
>> > > If not, could you describe the machines you've tested
>> > with?  Make, model,
>> > > BIOS revision/version?  If not using an onboard
>> > NIC with the BIOS's PXE
>> > > OROM, please describe the NIC and the PXE stack you're
>> > using.
>>
>> Hello Sean,
>>
>> I think I have a similar setup except I just use satellite DHCP (PXE)
>> servers which only need the subnet specific info (IP, router) and the IP of
>> the TFTP server.
>> This reduces the overhead of having too many files per satellite server.
>> I use dnsmasq as the satellite DHCP/PXE server, which just redirects any
>> PXE booting machine to the main (only) TFTP server.
>>
>> Further installation continues from the TFTP server only.
>>
>> I had to do this as DHCP forwarding has been disabled on the intermediate
>> router (I presume yours could be a similar case?!?)
>>
>> Anyway, be wary of the 4.10preXXX builds as they tend to show symptoms
>> like you have described.
>> The 4.06pre11 work fine on my setup (which I am currently using).
>>
>> Regards,
>> Shantanu
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Sean Mitchuson
> Linux Systems Administrator
> Murray State University
> Murray, Ky 42071
> Phone: 270.809.5756
>
>  "MSU Information Systems staff will NEVER ask for your password or other
> confidential information via email."
>
>


-- 
Sean Mitchuson
Linux Systems Administrator
Murray State University
Murray, Ky 42071
Phone: 270.809.5756

 "MSU Information Systems staff will NEVER ask for your password or other
confidential information via email."



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