Robert Bottomley wrote: > I did find a work around that works for me: I noticed if I hooked the > LTSP client up to a cheap D-Link 5-port switch and then into our > network, no more problem. I bought a bunch of D-Link switches and put > one on each client that was having the problem. It seems to be a timing > issue in the kernel and adding the switch adds enough delay to make > things work (purely a guess).
Interesting. I was experiencing intermittent network problems where I work (no LTSP involved), and just through experimentation discovered that the exact same thing worked for me: attaching my Linux system to the network through a D-Link switch immediately caused some major network problems to disappear. Furthermore I noticed that, while in this temporary arrangement, the D-Link's "collision" light would sometimes go berserk. And yet it was still managing to hold the connections stable (just with huge amounts of retransmitting, I guess). After a little more investigation, it turned out to be an auto-negotiation problem. Linux was telling the network card to auto-negotiate its duplex setting. There was some kind of incompatibility between the Cisco switch I was originally connected to further up the line, and the Linux system's 3com NIC. That cheap D-Link switch managed to act as an adapter of sorts, no doubt correcting huge amounts of really weird errors and colliding traffic. Once I'd forced the Linux system to use full duplex, I could go back to connecting the system directly to the network without using the D-Link switch as an intermediary. So perhaps this is what's happening: 1. Your card starts its internal PXE magic, perhaps logically with the safest settings possible (10 Mbps, half duplex). 2. You load the 2.6 kernel, which then diligently tells your network card to auto-negotiate the duplex setting in an effort to try for full duplex mode. 3. This starts never-ending confusion between your network card and whatever's next up the line. 3. DHCP loads and subsequently fails because either your transmissions are getting hammered, or the responses are, or both. Just a thought. Ralph ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net
