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Fold-server: how do i netboot?

D

DatHak512

Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2004
Messages
743
Okay, folks. I've finally got my server up and running. I've got a 500MHz and 300MHz machine **cough** that i can add to the fray as well, but i need to figure out how to get those suckers to netboot. (and then if possible to run timeless on the 300MHz machine, i think the 500MHz can handle the timed work units.) I set up the 500 PII to netboot, but nothing happens when i plugged into the free port on the server. Can anyone explain to me how to set up the diskless portion of my / their garden?

Thanks.
 
Well the port that should connect your farm to the server needs to either a) go to a switch and have your clients connect to that or b) be a crossover cable. This is because of the way networks work.

It sounds like you're trying to go from server to client straight through.

 
Crashsector said:
Well the port that should connect your farm to the server needs to either a) go to a switch and have your clients connect to that or b) be a crossover cable. This is because of the way networks work.

It sounds like you're trying to go from server to client straight through.

Click to expand...
LOL, *sigh* yes you're right on the money with that one. Whoops. :eek:
 
My little farm

I have the clients boot up with the corresponding floppy image since none of them supports network boot.

Then I have the server hooked up to a hub and all the clients on that hub to.
And the other server nic hooked into my normal LAN.

-E

 
If you're not sure what floppies to use, look here. You only need to match the first 2 bytes. So, for example, if you had a "Intel EtherExpressPro1000 82544GC Copper" card, it doesn't matter if you get the "e1000-82544gc-copper" image or the "e1000-82544ei-fiber" image. The only time it'd matter is if you were going to burn a rom.
 
unhappy_mage said:
If you're not sure what floppies to use, look here. You only need to match the first 2 bytes. So, for example, if you had a "Intel EtherExpressPro1000 82544GC Copper" card, it doesn't matter if you get the "e1000-82544gc-copper" image or the "e1000-82544ei-fiber" image. The only time it'd matter is if you were going to burn a rom.
Click to expand...
Cool, i'll try to check that out tonight, if i get the chance. Thanks for the info, all.
 
I had it wrong: i was using a switch: i had just forgoten about that when i made my post a few hours later. But i'm still having problems:

Okay, so on my PII (the diskless boxen), netbooting shows up as an option in the BIOS (enabled) and i have a network card that i bought less than a year ago in there. (no onboard LAN). Now i can't get the machine to boot when it's plugged into the free interface on the server (using an otherwise empty switch to connect the two). The server can only get the internet from one interface, and that's normally connected to my switch, which is sharing LAN to the other few computers in my room. Even if i plug the diskless boxen into this port (the only other port on the server that i haven't tried) through the switch, nothing happens again.

Is there some sort of service that isn't enabled by default on the server and i have to start it up? I'm not really sure what i'm doing wrong here.
 
Did you generate the image to be loaded on the clients from the server? These are two commands you'll need to run:

perl /root/getfold.pl

and

/tftp/update myroot

 
Crashsector said:
Did you generate the image to be loaded on the clients from the server? These are two commands you'll need to run:

perl /root/getfold.pl

and

/tftp/update myroot
Click to expand...
Ah, okay, i did the first one. But i have not done the second one. I'm sure this is documented somewhere easily reachable, but would you mind telling me what all this command does? Just curious.
 
Does the network card have a boot ROM? If it does, is it enabled?

I had a similar problem at first... I had set the BIOS to boot from LAN, but had forgotten to enable the boot ROM. :eek:

What is the model number of the card? That would make it easier to rule out a software problem.



 
the first command creates the image, the second one puts it into the tftp directory so it can be loaded (but mage will correct me if i'm wrong).

 
The first command gets FAH from stanford. The second one is what actually builds the client image. The client uses both, but if the second one hasn't happened, it'll never go anywhere. If the first doesn't happen, you just end up with a booted computer and no FAH. Not that that's any better.

What does it say? I assume you have a monitor hooked up...?
 
Hrm. Alright, well it seems that i've another problem. eth0 has lost its IP, and is now 192.168.0.1. (probably when i had that hooked up to my other computer through the router, or maybe when i messed up and had it connecting the two computers with straight patch cable.) eth1 is still 192.168.1.15. I'm guessing that eth1 will be the netbooting interface and that eth0 is just an 'internet only' port (no DHCP server on that, nor netbooting). At least i hope so, otherwise the rest of my campus will be booting DSL if they've got that option turned on :cool:. So i know about ifconfig to look at the network connections, but i don't know how to do a "renew" to get a new DHCP lease from the campus router for eth0. Can anyone tell me what the command is to do that?


As for the diskless boxen in question, i don't know how to check if the netboot ROM is enabled, much less enable it, all i know is that i have a D-Link DFE-530TX+ PCI network card and that BIOS is telling me i'm good to go as far at network booting goes. Since i haven't done that second command yet i'm sure that will fix things. I just don't want to start a new instance of FAH on that machine if i don't have network up yet. Unless this is okay.

I know it worked fine before, but after i was all through swapping cat5, eth0 had lost it's IP and firefox no longer worked. Can anyone help me out here? I know i'm a Linux n00b, so that's why i'm having all this trouble, but it's fun and i'm learning quite a bit about linux along the way.
 
DatHak512 said:
Hrm. Alright, well it seems that i've another problem. eth0 has lost its IP, and is now 192.168.0.1. (probably when i had that hooked up to my other computer through the router, or maybe when i messed up and had it connecting the two computers with straight patch cable.) eth1 is still 192.168.1.15. I'm guessing that eth1 will be the netbooting interface and that eth0 is just an 'internet only' port (no DHCP server on that, nor netbooting). At least i hope so, otherwise the rest of my campus will be booting DSL if they've got that option turned on :cool:. So i know about ifconfig to look at the network connections, but i don't know how to do a "renew" to get a new DHCP lease from the campus router for eth0. Can anyone tell me what the command is to do that?
Click to expand...
It shouldn't be getting a lease at all - it's configured to be static. Try "ifdown eth0; ifup eth0". That'll tell it to reassign itself to the default settings.

You've got the 2 interfaces backwards - eth0 is the 10 network, where the folding boxen live, and eth1 is the 192, where the big bad internet is.
 
unhappy_mage said:
It shouldn't be getting a lease at all - it's configured to be static. Try "ifdown eth0; ifup eth0". That'll tell it to reassign itself to the default settings.

You've got the 2 interfaces backwards - eth0 is the 10 network, where the folding boxen live, and eth1 is the 192, where the big bad internet is.
Click to expand...
Alright, so i should patch eth1 (currently 192.168.1.15) to the campus, and run those commands on eth1, then, right? Or can i run the commands on both?

edit: thanks for the clarification!
editx2: I'm currently online (DatHak512) if that would be any better, and you've got a moment :).
 
It won't hurt anything to down them both and then bring them back up. But basically, eth1 to the campus and eth0 to folding boxen.

I'm on the irc channel of doom, you can pm me there and it'll be good...
 
Just so anyone having the same problem needs to know:
I got everything working now, as far as booting up and getting the I'net to work. I had to add these lines to /opt/localboot.sh
Code: 
ifconfig eth1 down
ifconfig eth1 hw ether (campus-recognized MAC address)
ifconfig eth1 up
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j SNAT --destination 0.0.0.0/0 --to-source (eth1 ip address)
pump -i eth1
And this solved my problem of not being able to get to the Internet (which is kinda important when you are downloading WUs!)
I'm still working on the netboot thing, so i'll edit this post once i get that to work.
Thanks to u_m for all the help on #hardfolding.


edit: Okay, so it didn't work =/. I downloaded the zdsk image for the card that i've got in the diskless boxen (Linksys LNE100TX) and here's what it gives me:
***
Boot from (N)etwork or (Q)uit?
probing pci nic...
probing isa nic...
[3C509]
<SLEEP>
***
Does anyone know what the problem here is? Thanks.
 
Threads don't get the "new" arrow next to them if you just edit, so I missed it.

You need the "tulip" image. If you're getting the images from fold-server, it's here; if it's from rom-o-matic, select "tulip:lc82c115" in the first dropdown box.

HTH ;)
 
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