[syslinux] Problem with 90MB Initrd

[Mathias Radtke]

On 21.09.2015 12:06, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 2:38 AM, Mathias Radtke <m.radtke at uib.de> wrote:
>>
>> On 18.09.2015 16:35, Gene Cumm wrote:
>>> 1) This is actually a critical cusp size.  Watch what tftpd you use or
>>> you'll never get it all.  The tftpd needs to support rollover.
>>> Consider HTTP as it should be more capable and much faster.
>> The used TFTPD works fine with BIOS machines.
>> I have two Initrd images. One is 64bit and almost 90MB and the 32bit is
>> 85MB.
>> I know that some tftpd have limitations and I use one of these. I am aware
>> of the problem.
> What's the exact file size in bytes?  I presume you've done BIOS boots
> with your 64-bit kernel/initrd and those succeed?
Yes booting with a BIOS machine works fine for both architectures.
Here's the size:
87146093 miniroot-20150917.bz2
91362629 miniroot-x64-20150917.bz2

> Have you considered HTTP transfer?
Currently not as we are bound to the currently used tftp.
> What do you observe?  Does it transfer the file then the Linux kernel
> crashes?  Does it spontaneously reboot before completing the
> operation?
The client is a VSphere VM Client.
It displayes the IP Address and then:
Loading Kernel..... ok
Loading initrd.bz2...

This stalls for minutes and the client reboots afterwards.
> Have you tried doing a packet capture to see how far this client progresses?
>
> What tftpd?  Have you reviewed the logs for partial transfers?
atftpd
here's the syslog output.

Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/syslinux64.efi 
to 192.168.10.174:1921
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/ldlinux.e64 to 
192.168.10.174:1922
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/564dc8d7-26e8-7620-4dc0-5819d41c2e3a to 
192.168.10.174:1923
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-0c-29-1c-2e-3a to 192.168.10.174:1924
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0A80AAE to 192.168.10.174:1925
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0A80AA to 192.168.10.174:1926
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0A80A to 192.168.10.174:1927
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0A80 to 192.168.10.174:1928
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0A8 to 192.168.10.174:1929
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0A 
to 192.168.10.174:1930
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/pxelinux.cfg/C0 
to 192.168.10.174:1931
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/pxelinux.cfg/C 
to 192.168.10.174:1932
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/default to 192.168.10.174:1933
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/vesamenu.c32 to 
192.168.10.174:1934
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/libcom32.c32 to 
192.168.10.174:1935
Sep 21 12:28:47 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/libutil.c32 to 
192.168.10.174:1936
Sep 21 12:28:48 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving 
linux/pxelinux.cfg/default to 192.168.10.174:1937
Sep 21 12:28:49 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/install-x64 to 
192.168.10.174:1938
Sep 21 12:28:58 exp-srv-001 atftpd[5286]: Serving linux/miniroot-x64.bz2 
to 192.168.10.174:1939

The .c32 files transfered are EFI64 files. I just copied them into the 
root directory for testing purposes. As soon as the images load I will 
organize the structure properly

-- 
Mathias Radtke, uib

mail m.radtke at uib.de