Re: diskless system's limited dhcp support
Ross Boylan wrote: > On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 3:37 PM Dan Ritter wrote: > > > The usual way is: > > > > 1. DNS record tied to a static IP address > > 2. IP address handed out by DHCP server based on MAC address of > >the interface > > > > This is especially normal when the root is served by NFS, so PXE > > needs to figure out the right root to hand out -- PXE is > > governed by MAC address, and then you really want the kernel's > > conception of its IP address to remain the same. > > > I don't follow that last part. I thought PXE was irrelevant once the > system was up. And the IP address of the root fs is distinct from the IP > address of the client. You made me double-check my belief here. I thought that the kernel inherited the IP address from the PXE booter, but I was wrong; there's no mechanism for that. It's an artifact of my own setup, where individual MAC addresses are used to return specific IP addreses. I would still argue that this is a good practice, because it makes debugging easier, but it's not necessary. > > > bit of a hack. Also, I'd like the DNS entry for the system to appear > > only > > > while it is up, and without the client sending a host name that's harder. > > > > That requires a server that listens to a dynamic DNS protocol, > > and a dynamic DNS client on the client system. > > > My server is set for dynamic updates. Since ipconfig sets up the > interface, the usual dhcp client that manages such stuff doesn't come up. > > > Why would you care about the DNS name not being available when > > the machine isn't up? > > > Mostly because the machine might be up, but running a different OS > instance. This applies to non-diskless, non-PXE clients as well. So the > MAC address does not determine a unique system. PXE booting (and grub for > regular systems) provides a menu of possible systems from which to boot, so > I may not know which of them is running until someone makes a selection > from the menu. > > I've been shooting for using the same IP regardless of the OS, but maybe > that's inadvisable. OTOH, for PXE the machine gets an IP before the > selection is made. It depends on the semantics that you're assigning to names and IPs and MACs. IMHO, the physical hardware is important because if there's a problem, I need to know what piece of equipment I will have to walk over to and debug. -dsr-
Re: diskless system's limited dhcp support
On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 3:37 PM Dan Ritter wrote: > Ross Boylan wrote: > > I have a buster system with no disk, started by PXE boot and using NFS > root. > > It appears (details below) that dhcp setup is via ipconfig in one of the > > initrd scripts (configure_networking() in the "functions" script), with > > ipconfig coming from klibc. So fiddling with the settings in > dhclient.conf > > on the client has no effect, and ipconfig both sends and handles a > narrower > > range of information than dhclient. In particular, it doesn't send the > > host name (it actually can according to the docs, but the initrd scripts > > don't invoke it that way) and it seems to ignore (or at least not pass > on) > > some of the info, like the domain, that gets sent back. > > > > I would like, in particular, to have the client send the host name and > > respond to the usual parameters the server sends it, as well as to > > ntp-servers which I'd like to send. > > > > Any thoughts on whether my analysis is correct? On solutions? > > The usual way is: > > 1. DNS record tied to a static IP address > 2. IP address handed out by DHCP server based on MAC address of >the interface > This is especially normal when the root is served by NFS, so PXE > needs to figure out the right root to hand out -- PXE is > governed by MAC address, and then you really want the kernel's > conception of its IP address to remain the same. > I don't follow that last part. I thought PXE was irrelevant once the system was up. And the IP address of the root fs is distinct from the IP address of the client. > > bit of a hack. Also, I'd like the DNS entry for the system to appear > only > > while it is up, and without the client sending a host name that's harder. > > That requires a server that listens to a dynamic DNS protocol, > and a dynamic DNS client on the client system. > My server is set for dynamic updates. Since ipconfig sets up the interface, the usual dhcp client that manages such stuff doesn't come up. > > Why would you care about the DNS name not being available when > the machine isn't up? > Mostly because the machine might be up, but running a different OS instance. This applies to non-diskless, non-PXE clients as well. So the MAC address does not determine a unique system. PXE booting (and grub for regular systems) provides a menu of possible systems from which to boot, so I may not know which of them is running until someone makes a selection from the menu. I've been shooting for using the same IP regardless of the OS, but maybe that's inadvisable. OTOH, for PXE the machine gets an IP before the selection is made. Ross
Re: diskless system's limited dhcp support
Ross Boylan wrote: > I have a buster system with no disk, started by PXE boot and using NFS root. > It appears (details below) that dhcp setup is via ipconfig in one of the > initrd scripts (configure_networking() in the "functions" script), with > ipconfig coming from klibc. So fiddling with the settings in dhclient.conf > on the client has no effect, and ipconfig both sends and handles a narrower > range of information than dhclient. In particular, it doesn't send the > host name (it actually can according to the docs, but the initrd scripts > don't invoke it that way) and it seems to ignore (or at least not pass on) > some of the info, like the domain, that gets sent back. > > I would like, in particular, to have the client send the host name and > respond to the usual parameters the server sends it, as well as to > ntp-servers which I'd like to send. > > Any thoughts on whether my analysis is correct? On solutions? The usual way is: 1. DNS record tied to a static IP address 2. IP address handed out by DHCP server based on MAC address of the interface This is especially normal when the root is served by NFS, so PXE needs to figure out the right root to hand out -- PXE is governed by MAC address, and then you really want the kernel's conception of its IP address to remain the same. > bit of a hack. Also, I'd like the DNS entry for the system to appear only > while it is up, and without the client sending a host name that's harder. That requires a server that listens to a dynamic DNS protocol, and a dynamic DNS client on the client system. Why would you care about the DNS name not being available when the machine isn't up? -dsr-
diskless system's limited dhcp support
I have a buster system with no disk, started by PXE boot and using NFS root. It appears (details below) that dhcp setup is via ipconfig in one of the initrd scripts (configure_networking() in the "functions" script), with ipconfig coming from klibc. So fiddling with the settings in dhclient.conf on the client has no effect, and ipconfig both sends and handles a narrower range of information than dhclient. In particular, it doesn't send the host name (it actually can according to the docs, but the initrd scripts don't invoke it that way) and it seems to ignore (or at least not pass on) some of the info, like the domain, that gets sent back. I would like, in particular, to have the client send the host name and respond to the usual parameters the server sends it, as well as to ntp-servers which I'd like to send. Any thoughts on whether my analysis is correct? On solutions? I suppose since it's at a fixed IP and controlled by the server I could just set the parameters I want in the client image, but that seems like a bit of a hack. Also, I'd like the DNS entry for the system to appear only while it is up, and without the client sending a host name that's harder. BTW, I tried forcing dhclient to run by telling /etc/network/interfaces to run it for that interface unconditionally. The result was 2 distinct IP addresses for the same card (may have done that before I switched to a fixed IP). I realize there may be good reasons to disable dhclient with nfs root; I have no idea what would happen if the client IP were changed while the system was running. The client is assigned a fixed IP (outside of the pool) in the dhcpd.conf configuration. DETAILS Using wireshark on the server shows 2 sets of calls to DHCP from the client. I'll give times as minutes and seconds past the hour: 28:22 initial DHCP discover. The Vendor class identifier is "PXEClient:Arch"; I assume this is the BIOS of the client machine initiating netboot. This gets the IP and then pulls in the files that are part of the netboot via tftp. 28:41 second DHCP discover. Vendor class "Linux ipconfig". This asks for and gets the same IP as previously. The ipconfig docs say "Linux ipconfig" is its standard identifier, and the scripts do not override it. So I presume this is after control has been handed over to the initrd and it is running its scripts. The script's invocation of ipconfig is buried in a lot of conditional logic, but it seems that it is called. 28:45 first entry in kernel log for that boot. I expect the client and server clocks are pretty close, but I don't know that's true, especially this early in the boot. The client CMOS battery is pretty low, and is not great at preserving the time; however, this boot was immediately after I did a system restart (shutdown -r now) on the client. I believe 28:45 is immediately after the pivot from the initrd to the real system.
Semi-OT: Netboooting diskless Debian
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/linux.debian.user/lSluQKx8g3U/discussion In case it helps: short version: Probably works for Ubuntu not debian Apologies for formatting etc : from phone
Re: Semi-OT: Netboooting diskless Debian
Kent West wrote: > boot/ipxe/440/uefi/BOOT/BCD... No such file or > directory Interesting - I use simple tftp server and no issues since set up, but this KACE is unknown to me, however using the string above I found many similar issues Here for example you have couple of ideas what could cause 2d0c613b https://support.blancco.com/display/KB/iPXE+boot+environment+troubleshooting+guide Are you sure you have setup uefi properly?
Semi-OT: Netboooting diskless Debian
Difficulty Level: I'm ignorant.
Goal: To build a diskless "kiosk" using an NFS-shared chroot on a remote
server, booting from a non-standard tftp(?) server?
I'm on a college campus. We have a DHCP server that is standard (I guess -
I'm not the networking guy, but I have a good relationship with him). As I
understand it, this DHCP server serves one particular VirtualLAN (VLAN) on
our campus with network boot capabilities. This bootable VLAN is used
pretty exclusively for imaging purposes, using our Quest/KACE K2000 System
Deployment Appliance.
A computer lab computer goes belly up (or we get a new computer in from
Dell); we boot the PC to the network, to the K2000 ("K2") appliance, and it
then allows us to push a Math lab image to it, or a standard faculty image
to it, or a Business Office image to it, each image customized for that
location/use, so that 30-90 minutes later, this computer now is ready to be
put [back] into service.
It works well with Windows computers, and used to work with Macs, until the
last couple of years when Apple started making imaging impractical.
I've found instructions on how to get "any .ISO" to boot from the K2 (
https://support.quest.com/kace-systems-deployment-appliance/kb/154645/booting-any-bootable-iso-with-k2000),
but it's not working for me. I'm hoping someone here can help me out.
The basic gist is that using a KACE tool, a Windows PXE image is created,
as a .pkg file. Then that .pkg file is opened with 7-Zip (not unzipped;
just opened), and the "kbe_amd64.iso" file replaced with the Debian .iso,
renaming the Debian .iso to "kbe_amd54.iso", and then the file is
closed/saved, ready to be booted.
When I do this with, say, a memtest.iso, or dsl.iso, I've had success. But
when I try net-booting the client computer to a Debian .iso, I get to the
K2's boot menu, which offers me a list of bootable images, including the
Debian image. But when I select that Debian image, I get:
wimboot... ok
http://[the k2's IP]/boot/ipxe/440/uefi/BOOT/BCD... No such file or
directory (http://ipxe.org/2d0c613b)
Could not boot: No such file or directory (http://ipxe.org/2d0c613b)
Could not boot: No such file or directory (http://ipxe.org/2d0c613b)
No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot the machine
I'm at a loss, and hope someone who understands the Debian boot process and
DHCP/PXE/tftp booting in general might be able to offer me some clues.
Thanks!
--
Kent West<")))><
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com
Re: Diskless Debian stretch ISCSI boot (uefi) and shutdown hanging problem
Hi, you are correct, in /etc/network/interfaces i have interface eno1 configured with DHCP and after removing configuration system shutdown correctly. Thank you! BR 2017-07-19 20:50 GMT+02:00 Christian Seiler : > Hi, > > (I'm one of the maintainers of the open-iscsi package in Debian.) > > On 07/19/2017 07:40 AM, Franz Angeli wrote: >> i have one diskless server able to boot with ISCSI, uefi is configures >> to reach iscsi target and volume correctly; >> >> i installed Debian 9 with debian installer ad all works fine, at the >> end of installation process i remount root filesystem with (chroot >> /target) and edit initaramfs.conf with: >> >> IP=10.10.200.150::10.10.200.1:255.255.255.0:ti**1.mk***.it:eno1 >> >> and after i update initramfs with: >> >> update-initramfs -u >> >> system boot correctly and works fine. >> >> Problem is during shutdown, system hanging with: >> >> a stop job is running for ifup for eno1 >> >> a stop job is running for Raise network interfaces >> >> and i have to reset the server... >> >> I know i can do the same with: >> >> "ISCSI_AUTO=true" on /etc/iscsi/iscsi.initramfs >> >> but i need a static IP configured as i do. > > Do you perhaps also have something in /etc/network/interfaces or > /etc/network/interfaces.d, perhaps even DHCP configured? Because > if that takes over IP configuration and systemd kills the DHCP > client (which in turn removes the IP of the interface at > shutdown), then you'll see a hang because the network is gone > even though you still need it. > > (ifupdown _should_ detect rootfs on iSCSI and not try to down > the interface by script, but the SIGTERM from systemd might > cause the dhcp client to drop the IP anyway.) > > (Also note that you'd need to reboot twice after changing this > to test if that works.) > > Regards, > Christian
Re: Diskless Debian stretch ISCSI boot (uefi) and shutdown hanging problem
Hi, (I'm one of the maintainers of the open-iscsi package in Debian.) On 07/19/2017 07:40 AM, Franz Angeli wrote: > i have one diskless server able to boot with ISCSI, uefi is configures > to reach iscsi target and volume correctly; > > i installed Debian 9 with debian installer ad all works fine, at the > end of installation process i remount root filesystem with (chroot > /target) and edit initaramfs.conf with: > > IP=10.10.200.150::10.10.200.1:255.255.255.0:ti**1.mk***.it:eno1 > > and after i update initramfs with: > > update-initramfs -u > > system boot correctly and works fine. > > Problem is during shutdown, system hanging with: > > a stop job is running for ifup for eno1 > > a stop job is running for Raise network interfaces > > and i have to reset the server... > > I know i can do the same with: > > "ISCSI_AUTO=true" on /etc/iscsi/iscsi.initramfs > > but i need a static IP configured as i do. Do you perhaps also have something in /etc/network/interfaces or /etc/network/interfaces.d, perhaps even DHCP configured? Because if that takes over IP configuration and systemd kills the DHCP client (which in turn removes the IP of the interface at shutdown), then you'll see a hang because the network is gone even though you still need it. (ifupdown _should_ detect rootfs on iSCSI and not try to down the interface by script, but the SIGTERM from systemd might cause the dhcp client to drop the IP anyway.) (Also note that you'd need to reboot twice after changing this to test if that works.) Regards, Christian
Re: Diskless Debian stretch ISCSI boot (uefi) and shutdown hanging problem
On Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 07:40:01AM +0200, Franz Angeli wrote: > Hi, > > i have one diskless server able to boot with ISCSI, uefi is configures > to reach iscsi target and volume correctly; > > i installed Debian 9 with debian installer ad all works fine, at the > end of installation process i remount root filesystem with (chroot > /target) and edit initaramfs.conf with: > > IP=10.10.200.150::10.10.200.1:255.255.255.0:ti**1.mk***.it:eno1 > > and after i update initramfs with: > > update-initramfs -u > > system boot correctly and works fine. > > Problem is during shutdown, system hanging with: > > a stop job is running for ifup for eno1 > > a stop job is running for Raise network interfaces > > and i have to reset the server... > > I know i can do the same with: > > "ISCSI_AUTO=true" on /etc/iscsi/iscsi.initramfs > > but i need a static IP configured as i do. I think that this is because systemd wants to shut down your network before it unmounts the rootfs, but it also knows the rootfs depends on the network. I don't have an answer, just a possible clue. -dsr-
Diskless Debian stretch ISCSI boot (uefi) and shutdown hanging problem
Hi, i have one diskless server able to boot with ISCSI, uefi is configures to reach iscsi target and volume correctly; i installed Debian 9 with debian installer ad all works fine, at the end of installation process i remount root filesystem with (chroot /target) and edit initaramfs.conf with: IP=10.10.200.150::10.10.200.1:255.255.255.0:ti**1.mk***.it:eno1 and after i update initramfs with: update-initramfs -u system boot correctly and works fine. Problem is during shutdown, system hanging with: a stop job is running for ifup for eno1 a stop job is running for Raise network interfaces and i have to reset the server... I know i can do the same with: "ISCSI_AUTO=true" on /etc/iscsi/iscsi.initramfs but i need a static IP configured as i do. Some suggestion? Thanks in advance
Re: Debian using USB stick on diskless machine
On Tue, 29 Dec 2015 20:28:00 -0800 Rick Thomas wrote: > On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:51 AM, Ross Boylan > wrote: > > > The system is a bit sluggish; maybe ext4 on lvm wasn't the best > > choice for it. Ross > > Make sure the USB stick you’re using is rated for USB3, even if the > computer’s port is just USB2. > > The older USB2 sticks tend to be much slower at doing sustained > writes (both random and large sequential) The newer USB3 drives will > (usually) handle frequent writes better/quicker. It’s not the bus > speed that slows it down — it’s the internal architecture of the > FLASH memory. USB2, at 480Mbits/sec is 60Mbytes/sec, which is pretty > respectable for a disk drive, if the drive handle that load on a > sustained basis. The problem is that the USB2 FLASH doesn’t have > enough buffering to keep that rate up for very long. The > manufacturers have, for the most part, addressed that problem in USB3 > devices. > If you can invest a bit and can afford a much larger device, a USB hard drive will work quite well. I have the smallest one I've ever seen, a Samsung which is no longer made and has a mini-USB socket on the drive PCB itself. But it's old, and now dropping bits here and there, so I'm looking for a cheap USB-SSD at the moment, currently around 50GBP for 128GB/USB3 here. -- Joe
Re: Debian using USB stick on diskless machine
On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:51 AM, Ross Boylan wrote: > The system is a bit sluggish; maybe ext4 on lvm wasn't the best choice for it. > Ross Make sure the USB stick you’re using is rated for USB3, even if the computer’s port is just USB2. The older USB2 sticks tend to be much slower at doing sustained writes (both random and large sequential) The newer USB3 drives will (usually) handle frequent writes better/quicker. It’s not the bus speed that slows it down — it’s the internal architecture of the FLASH memory. USB2, at 480Mbits/sec is 60Mbytes/sec, which is pretty respectable for a disk drive, if the drive handle that load on a sustained basis. The problem is that the USB2 FLASH doesn’t have enough buffering to keep that rate up for very long. The manufacturers have, for the most part, addressed that problem in USB3 devices. Enjoy! Rick
Re: Debian using USB stick on diskless machine
On 12/29/2015 12:51 AM, Ross Boylan wrote: I think if I had run debian installer from one flash drive and installed onto another flash drive things would have gone more smoothly. Likely, so. I managed to get things mostly working. It was extremely ugly. I'll try to post full details later, but basically inserted USB stick in my main machine overwrote start with zero's to wipe out traces of the boot for the iso, which seemed to make grub-install unwilling to do anything. chroot into the disk, edit grub's device map, and install. Then I stuck the stick in the diskless machine and booted; there were a bunch of errors in the early boot process about missing files, but the system started. I reran update-initramfs and update-grub and rebooted. Things seem mostly OK, although there are weird vestigas of the live cd, like update-initramfs is linked to live-update-initramfs. Hopefully you learned something along the way. The system is a bit sluggish; maybe ext4 on lvm wasn't the best choice for it. I don't use LVM on any of my SOHO machines, USB flash drive or otherwise. I've found that interactive desktop use can be choppy when running from a USB flash drive, especially if the computer is fast and the flash drive is slow (e.g. USB 2.0). The most responsive solution for diskless workstations would probably be Linux Terminal Server and lots of RAM in the clients: http://ltsp.org/ David
Re: Debian using USB stick on diskless machine
David, thanks for the suggestions. I think if I had run debian installer from one flash drive and installed onto another flash drive things would have gone more smoothly. I managed to get things mostly working. It was extremely ugly. I'll try to post full details later, but basically inserted USB stick in my main machine overwrote start with zero's to wipe out traces of the boot for the iso, which seemed to make grub-install unwilling to do anything. chroot into the disk, edit grub's device map, and install. Then I stuck the stick in the diskless machine and booted; there were a bunch of errors in the early boot process about missing files, but the system started. I reran update-initramfs and update-grub and rebooted. Things seem mostly OK, although there are weird vestigas of the live cd, like update-initramfs is linked to live-update-initramfs. The system is a bit sluggish; maybe ext4 on lvm wasn't the best choice for it. Ross On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 11:46 PM, David Christensen wrote: > On 12/28/2015 04:08 PM, Ross Boylan wrote: >> >> I have a diskless machine and figured it would be quicker to get it >> running off a USB thumb drive than PXE boot. I'd appreciate any >> suggestions or advice. > > > That's one of my favorite tricks. I typically boot and install from an > optical disk to avoid confusion. I prefer SanDisk Ultra Fit 16 GB USB 3.0 > flash drives because they are compact, fast, and inexpensive. I use the d-i > to partition them manually -- 0.5 GB ext4 boot, 0.5 GB random key LUKS swap, > and 13.4 GB password LUKS ext4 or btrfs root. > > > On some machines: > > 1. You may need to go into CMOS setup after the Debian installer runs and > configure the BIOS to boot from the USB flash drive (details vary by vendor > and revision). > > 2. Not all the USB ports are created equal. If the one you installed to > won't work for boot, try another. > > >> I stuck Debian live on the thumb drive but discovered changes I made >> in that environment were not persistent. > > > There are specific methods for persistence on Debian Live: > > > https://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/live-manual/html/live-manual.en.html#556 > > > David >
Re: Debian using USB stick on diskless machine
On 12/28/2015 04:08 PM, Ross Boylan wrote: I have a diskless machine and figured it would be quicker to get it running off a USB thumb drive than PXE boot. I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice. That's one of my favorite tricks. I typically boot and install from an optical disk to avoid confusion. I prefer SanDisk Ultra Fit 16 GB USB 3.0 flash drives because they are compact, fast, and inexpensive. I use the d-i to partition them manually -- 0.5 GB ext4 boot, 0.5 GB random key LUKS swap, and 13.4 GB password LUKS ext4 or btrfs root. On some machines: 1. You may need to go into CMOS setup after the Debian installer runs and configure the BIOS to boot from the USB flash drive (details vary by vendor and revision). 2. Not all the USB ports are created equal. If the one you installed to won't work for boot, try another. I stuck Debian live on the thumb drive but discovered changes I made in that environment were not persistent. There are specific methods for persistence on Debian Live: https://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/live-manual/html/live-manual.en.html#556 David
Debian using USB stick on diskless machine
I have a diskless machine and figured it would be quicker to get it running off a USB thumb drive than PXE boot. I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice. I stuck Debian live on the thumb drive but discovered changes I made in that environment were not persistent. Ran the installer on the live CD and installed to the rest of the thumb drive. However, grub said it could not install to the drive (which, of course, was in use by the installer system). I tried chroot'ing into the new system from the live system. But, even after mounting /dev and others for the chroot, grub-install says root@debian:/# grub-install /dev/sda Installing for i386-pc platform. grub-install: warning: Attempting to install GRUB to a disk with multiple partition labels. This is not supported yet.. grub-install: error: embedding is not possible, but this is required for RAID and LVM install. There might be two issues: one, accessing sda, and the second that I am using one big filesystem on top of LVM; there is no separate partition outside of lvm for grub. This was mostly an oversight, though I had hoped that current grub could cope. Because this was a live image the partition table is msdos. Which is maybe not so great for grub, which needs more room. The live image is about 1G and the thumb drive is 32G. Thanks for any help. Ross Boylan
Re: IP address of diskless workstation expiriing
Darac Marjal wrote: > The problem that I have is that the ip address that the workstation > gets at boot has a finite "valid_lft" (as seen in `ip a`). When this > lifetime runs out, the IP is removed from the interface. Now, I > think DHCP does try to pick up at that point, but the root file > system is already inaccessible, so the system hangs. I don't know what the right answer is but I can share what I have. On my diskless workstation (which I configured myself, rarely use, and might be sub-optimally configured) the valid_lft is "forever". My /etc/network/interfaces file is empty. I am not running dhclient. The IP address that is negotiated at PXE boot time is the permanent IP address for the system. It is not allowed to change after that point. As you note if the IP address changes it loses NFS connectivity during that time and things crash. I am using the ISC DHCP server and it pings addresses before it assigns them. If the address lease has expired it still won't assign it again because it will remain in the active list because it pings and is obviously still active to the dhcpd regardless of the expired lease for it. This is likely a small abuse of the rules but it works and is handled okay by the ISC dhcpd. > The kernel command line is: > root=/dev/nfs initrd=initrd.img nfsroot=192.168.101.8:/nfsroot ip=dhcp rw > panic=30 > > I *think*, though that the "ip=dhcp" is redundant because the Debian kernel > (linux-image-3.14-1-686-pae) doesn't support IP autoconfiguration. I have this on my Squeeze network boot nfs diskless system. initrd=nfsdiskless/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686 rootfstype=nfs root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.230.109:/srv/nfs/squeeze,v3,rsize=16384,wsize=16384 ro BOOT_IMAGE=nfsdiskless/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 > Eth0 is defined in /etc/network/interfaces.d/eth0 as: > > auto eth0 > iface eth0 inet dhcp Try removing your /etc/network/interfaces.d/eth0 file and see how that works for you. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
IP address of diskless workstation expiriing
Hello all, I'm in the process of setting up a diskless workstation. Both the workstation and the server are running Jessie and are up-to-date. The problem that I have is that the ip address that the workstation gets at boot has a finite "valid_lft" (as seen in `ip a`). When this lifetime runs out, the IP is removed from the interface. Now, I think DHCP does try to pick up at that point, but the root file system is already inaccessible, so the system hangs. Does anyone have any thoughts as to where I have gone wrong? More details My DHCP server is set to give the workstation an IP from a pool with a max-lease-time of 86400 seconds. The PXE picks that up and connects to tftpd-hpa which serves up PXELINUX and the kernel/initrd for the workstation. The kernel command line is: root=/dev/nfs initrd=initrd.img nfsroot=192.168.101.8:/nfsroot ip=dhcp rw panic=30 I *think*, though that the "ip=dhcp" is redundant because the Debian kernel (linux-image-3.14-1-686-pae) doesn't support IP autoconfiguration. As the root filesystem is NFSv4, I'm using dracut to generate the initramfs (Bug #409271 stops me using initramfs-tools). The workstation boots fine, but `ip a` shows me: 2: eth0: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000 link/ether 00:01:c0:09:9a:de brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff inet 192.168.101.161/24 brd 192.168.101.255 scope global dynamic eth0 valid_lft 3181sec preferred_lft 3181sec inet6 2001:470:1f09:cb:201:c0ff:fe09:9ade/64 scope global mngtmpaddr dynamic valid_lft 86354sec preferred_lft 14354sec inet6 fe80::201:c0ff:fe09:9ade/64 scope link valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever (Note the 192.168.101.161 address has a valid_lft of just under an hour) Eth0 is defined in /etc/network/interfaces.d/eth0 as: auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp So, what I basically what to know is, have I misconfigured something, or is this a but somewhere? signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Help netbooting a diskless, [headless] system [solved/tips]
Hi, On Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 12:33:15PM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > I got things working and made some discoveries along the way. Maybe I > should put this material on a wiki; any suggestions where? Create account at wiki.debian.org and think about putting it there under appropriate location. You are doing good job ... I haven't read it but it is non-trivial to work under consumer grade network router. When you put it, please describe network configuration with schematic picture etc. Thanks, Osamu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20121230004651.GA6260@goofy.localdomain
Re: Help netbooting a diskless, [headless] system [solved/tips]
I got things working and made some discoveries along the way. Maybe I
should put this material on a wiki; any suggestions where?
I "cheated" in a couple of ways. I built the original system image and
initrd on another system with the same architecture as the target. And
I gave up on headless, connecting a keyboard and monitor/TV, though I
probably could have got by without that if I did everything right.
My original view that I could just point the diskless system at an ISO
image (exported over NFS) was mistaken because both the initrd and the
system need to be tweaked to work over NFS.
Also, the target system hardware/BIOS does not appear to support remote
management (as in power on/off, tweak BIOS, access early boot
process--one can use ssh once the system is up). I haven't even gotten
wake on LAN to work, though I have a feeling there's a way.
Relative to regular install, I needed to
1. Set BOOT=NFS and MODULES=netboot in the initramfs.conf that creates
the initrd.
2. Disable automatically bringing up the network interface, since it's
already up (and I think bringing it up screws up the NFS root).
3. Set kernel parameters for NFS root in my syslinux.cfg file
4. Modify fstab for NFS root and selected filesystems on tmpfs
5. Modify the resolver files so that the system knows where the
nameservers and gateways are.
Since the network does not come up in the regular boot sequence (because
it is already up) events that are usually triggered on network up do not
happen. In particular, the resolver does not get set and NFS mounts
never happen. For the latter I put
mount -a -t nfs
in /etc/rc.local--thanks to Bob Proulx.
Here's the startup sequence:
1. Power system on. PXE booting gets basic info from DHCP, and then
uses TFTP to access files.
2. The first file it gets is pxelinux.0 (because that is the file DHCP
says to use). pxelinux.0 come from the syslinux package.
3. Around here the syslinux code takes over. It asks for a
configuration file (via TFTP). It tries a series of names; I named the
config file with the UUID of the booting system to avoid the delay of
multiple searches.
The configuration file is governed by syslinux rules and syntax.
4. Finally the config file specifies a VM and initrd (still files to be
served by TFTP), and the linux kernel takes over.
For basic setup I used advice from
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s05.html.en
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/how-i-did-it-diskless-netboot-with-debian-etch-468870/
(but the fstab recommendation is out of date)
http://johannes-bauer.com/linux/rescue/?menuid=3
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/nfsroot.txt
http://onesis.sourceforge.net/NFSroot-HOWTO.php
http://www.howtogeek.com/61263/how-to-network-boot-pxe-the-ubuntu-livecd/
LTSP also has clues, but it was not what I wanted, since I wanted to run
a complete system, not just an X server.
There are multiple places and ways to specify an NFS root; it may be
possible to do it just in DHCP.
I built the original filesystem, including the pxelinux.0, kernel, and
initrd files to be served by tftp, using a Debian installer in a VM.
I attempted to install the system directly onto the target system
remotely, but could not get that to work. It may be possible if you
preseed enough answers to get an ssh server up; I didn't do any
preseeding.
The target system was amd64 while my server is i386. I tried to
generate an appropriate filesystem using my server and debootstrap
--arch=amd64 --foreign. But the result didn't even have a kernel, and
certainly wasn't ready to be netbooted.
Particulars
ON THE SYSTEM USED TO GENERATE THE INITRD
MODULES=netboot
BUSYBOX=y
KEYMAP=n
COMPRESS=gzip
DEVICE=
NFSROOT=auto
ON THE SERVER
# docs say next 2 are the defaults anyway
allow booting;
allow bootp;
host mythtv {
hardware ethernet ; #myth box
fixed-address 192.168.40.62;
# added from tftpclient, though some looks as if it should be general
option routers 192.168.40.2;
next-server 192.168.40.2;
option routers 192.168.40.2;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
# next line is clearly a no-op since this path is oboslete and empty
option root-path "192.168.40.2:/mnt/amd64";
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
default htpc
LABEL htpc
MENU DEFAULT
KERNEL vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amd64
APPEND root=/dev/nfs netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.40.2:/mnt/htpc
initrd=initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64 --
timeout 50
totaltimeout 300
I had some trouble using the stock config files, originally obtained for
netbooting the Debian installer, and getting the relative directories
right. I used the stripped down file above instead.
+ setup for NFS exports + installation of the necessary files for tftp
ON THE DISKLESS TARGET SYSTEM
proc/proc procdefaults0 0
/dev/nfs / nfs defaults 0 0
none /tmptmpfs d
Re: Help netbooting a diskless, headless system
On Du, 11 nov 12, 18:49:43, Ross Boylan wrote: > > I've found instructions about netbooting the Debian installer, but the > instructions seem to be for a system that is diskless but not headless. > I haven't found anything indicating the installer can be run via ssh. It can. However, you need a preseed file which gets you to the point where the ssh module is active so you can continue the installation. I haven't checked, but you should find informations about it in the Installation Guide. Kind regards, Andrei -- Offtopic discussions among Debian users and developers: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/d-community-offtopic signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Help netbooting a diskless, headless system
On Tuesday, November 13, 2012 12:19:34 PM Ross Boylan wrote: > On Mon, 2012-11-12 at 21:57 -0500, Neal Murphy wrote: > > Does your box have a serial port? > > No. USB and LAN ports. I investigated SOL, serial over LAN, and IPMI, > but can't get access to it; apparently it ordinarily must be enabled on > the target machine as a first step (if it's there at all, which I > suspect it is since an Intel mobo DH77DF). > > > Can it be configured to display the BIOS > > screen on the serial port? Can Debian be installed using a serial port? > > That is, connect a null-modem serial cable between the box to be > > installed and some other computer and use minicom (Linux) or Hyperterm > > (Win). > > > > Or put the hard drive into another regular computer, > > The system is diskless. Also, I have no other amd64 computers. > > > install there, then move > > the drive back to the target box. And (1) enable a getty on /dev/ttyS0 > > and (2) add 'console=ttys0,115200' to grub. The only oddity you should > > encounter here is that the target box's NIC won't be eth0; this results > > from how udev works, but it can be changed if desired. > > > > Grub0 can be configured to poll both the VESA console and a serial port, > > then use whichever gets the first keystroke (or time out and use the > > selected default). I don't know how (or if) Grub2 handles this > > situation. So if the box has no drive and no VESA console and you cannot > > redirect the BIOS to a serial port, you'll be blind until grub starts. > > > > Another possibility. Check if the system has a compact flash socket. > > Since it has USB I believe I could boot from that. But there again, it > would expect me to control it from the local computer . > > > If so, > > > > you could effectively install a /boot to it with a custom initramfs that > > contains enough command line tools (and libs) to run a fairly minimal > > 'live' system in RAM; this might take a 100-300 MiB. As it boots, it can > > mount the rest of what it needs over the net. My firewall has a smallish > > initramfs (30MiB compressed CPIO, about 100MiB in RAM). It's a fairly > > fully usable environment with a real init and a few real tools with > > busybox handling others; I made it to ease debugging the install > > process. It works well on standard computers and works well on headless > > systems like the Lanner 7530 and 7539 network appliances using a serial > > console. > > > > You *can* do what you want, but it requires you to roll up your sleeves > > and get up to your elbows in slimy bits. But then, Debian might have > > something for this already. The hard part will be to redirect the > > install session to a serial port. > > I've gotten a little further, though still no joy. > I took the terminal-based testing netboot material for amd64 (only used > the linux and pxelinux.0 files) and created a config file with the magic > name including the UUID of the new client. It has > label install > menu label ^Install > menu default > kernel linux > append vga=788 root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.40.2:/mnt/amd64 > timeout 50 > totaltimeout 300 > This effectively bypasses most of the other files (and their screwy > paths) > > /mnt/amd64 has the results of running > debootstrap --arch=amd64 --foreign --include openssh-server > --variant=minbase testing amd64 http://debian.betterworld.us:\ > 3142/mainline > from my testing chroot. It's exported via NFS. > > The idea was to create enough of a system that it would start and run > the ssh server so I could ssh in. On reflection, since none of the > packages are fully installed, that probably won't work even if I get > further. > > The the client shows the early linux kernel load but fails with > No Filesystem could mount root, tried: > Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on > unknown-block(0,255) > > Possibilities: > 1. The installer kernel does not support NFS. > 2. I needed to load an NFS-related package as part of deboostrap. (Also, > the man page says --include= is the syntax; I'm not sure if omitting the > "=" is a problem). > 3. Skipping the initrd suppliedd with the installer messed things up. > (I was worried using it would take me into the installer). > 4. The result of deboostrap --foreign is radically incomplete. /boot is > empty; several other key system files have stubs, including fstab. I've > been unable to discover exactly what one is supposed to do with the > material created by
Re: Help netbooting a diskless, headless system
On Mon, 2012-11-12 at 21:57 -0500, Neal Murphy wrote: > Does your box have a serial port? No. USB and LAN ports. I investigated SOL, serial over LAN, and IPMI, but can't get access to it; apparently it ordinarily must be enabled on the target machine as a first step (if it's there at all, which I suspect it is since an Intel mobo DH77DF). > Can it be configured to display the BIOS > screen on the serial port? Can Debian be installed using a serial port? That > is, connect a null-modem serial cable between the box to be installed and some > other computer and use minicom (Linux) or Hyperterm (Win). > > Or put the hard drive into another regular computer, The system is diskless. Also, I have no other amd64 computers. > install there, then move > the drive back to the target box. And (1) enable a getty on /dev/ttyS0 and (2) > add 'console=ttys0,115200' to grub. The only oddity you should encounter here > is that the target box's NIC won't be eth0; this results from how udev works, > but it can be changed if desired. > > Grub0 can be configured to poll both the VESA console and a serial port, then > use whichever gets the first keystroke (or time out and use the selected > default). I don't know how (or if) Grub2 handles this situation. So if the box > has no drive and no VESA console and you cannot redirect the BIOS to a serial > port, you'll be blind until grub starts. > > Another possibility. Check if the system has a compact flash socket. Since it has USB I believe I could boot from that. But there again, it would expect me to control it from the local computer . > If so, > you could effectively install a /boot to it with a custom initramfs that > contains enough command line tools (and libs) to run a fairly minimal 'live' > system in RAM; this might take a 100-300 MiB. As it boots, it can mount the > rest of what it needs over the net. My firewall has a smallish initramfs > (30MiB compressed CPIO, about 100MiB in RAM). It's a fairly fully usable > environment with a real init and a few real tools with busybox handling > others; I made it to ease debugging the install process. It works well on > standard computers and works well on headless systems like the Lanner 7530 and > 7539 network appliances using a serial console. > > You *can* do what you want, but it requires you to roll up your sleeves and > get up to your elbows in slimy bits. But then, Debian might have something for > this already. The hard part will be to redirect the install session to a > serial port. I've gotten a little further, though still no joy. I took the terminal-based testing netboot material for amd64 (only used the linux and pxelinux.0 files) and created a config file with the magic name including the UUID of the new client. It has label install menu label ^Install menu default kernel linux append vga=788 root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.40.2:/mnt/amd64 timeout 50 totaltimeout 300 This effectively bypasses most of the other files (and their screwy paths) /mnt/amd64 has the results of running debootstrap --arch=amd64 --foreign --include openssh-server --variant=minbase testing amd64 http://debian.betterworld.us:\ 3142/mainline from my testing chroot. It's exported via NFS. The idea was to create enough of a system that it would start and run the ssh server so I could ssh in. On reflection, since none of the packages are fully installed, that probably won't work even if I get further. The the client shows the early linux kernel load but fails with No Filesystem could mount root, tried: Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,255) Possibilities: 1. The installer kernel does not support NFS. 2. I needed to load an NFS-related package as part of deboostrap. (Also, the man page says --include= is the syntax; I'm not sure if omitting the "=" is a problem). 3. Skipping the initrd suppliedd with the installer messed things up. (I was worried using it would take me into the installer). 4. The result of deboostrap --foreign is radically incomplete. /boot is empty; several other key system files have stubs, including fstab. I've been unable to discover exactly what one is supposed to do with the material created by deboostrap --foreign. It seems the idea is to run debootstrap --second-stage on the target system, but how to get to that point is unclear. Ross -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1352827174.23973.23.ca...@corn.betterworld.us
Re: Help netbooting a diskless, headless system
Does your box have a serial port? Can it be configured to display the BIOS screen on the serial port? Can Debian be installed using a serial port? That is, connect a null-modem serial cable between the box to be installed and some other computer and use minicom (Linux) or Hyperterm (Win). Or put the hard drive into another regular computer, install there, then move the drive back to the target box. And (1) enable a getty on /dev/ttyS0 and (2) add 'console=ttys0,115200' to grub. The only oddity you should encounter here is that the target box's NIC won't be eth0; this results from how udev works, but it can be changed if desired. Grub0 can be configured to poll both the VESA console and a serial port, then use whichever gets the first keystroke (or time out and use the selected default). I don't know how (or if) Grub2 handles this situation. So if the box has no drive and no VESA console and you cannot redirect the BIOS to a serial port, you'll be blind until grub starts. Another possibility. Check if the system has a compact flash socket. If so, you could effectively install a /boot to it with a custom initramfs that contains enough command line tools (and libs) to run a fairly minimal 'live' system in RAM; this might take a 100-300 MiB. As it boots, it can mount the rest of what it needs over the net. My firewall has a smallish initramfs (30MiB compressed CPIO, about 100MiB in RAM). It's a fairly fully usable environment with a real init and a few real tools with busybox handling others; I made it to ease debugging the install process. It works well on standard computers and works well on headless systems like the Lanner 7530 and 7539 network appliances using a serial console. You *can* do what you want, but it requires you to roll up your sleeves and get up to your elbows in slimy bits. But then, Debian might have something for this already. The hard part will be to redirect the install session to a serial port. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/201211122157.39742.neal.p.mur...@alum.wpi.edu
Help netbooting a diskless, headless system
I have a computer that is not attached to a monitor or keyboard and has no disk/CD. I thought getting it to boot over the network would be easier than it has proven, and would appreciate any pointers. Searching turned up a lot of material, but none of it exactly on topic. My naive view was that I could point the system at an ISO image and have something working. Or switch to nfs early on and get everything from there. I've found instructions about netbooting the Debian installer, but the instructions seem to be for a system that is diskless but not headless. I haven't found anything indicating the installer can be run via ssh. There are also some issues with the paths in the config files which cause it to start asking for files in the wrong locations part way through the PXE process (e.g., http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=530616). This was with the testing installer. I do have the basic dhcp/tftp infrastructure working; wireshark shows the dhcp dialogue, and then tftp serving up 1 or more files before failing to find ones with bad paths. As noted, even if I get past that I think the installer wants to interact with me on the client machine, and so that won't work. Other instructions on the net call for building an image of the system locally. One issue is that the server is 32 bit lenny, while the client is 64 bit and really should run 64 bit to use all its memory. I do have a testing chroot on the server, and perhaps could use it to get started. Eventually I probably will want to customize the system running on the client; since an ISO image read-only maybe using them isn't a good idea. Anyway, I'm a bit disoriented and would appreciate some orientation. I will attach the machine to a monitor eventually, and probably will get a wireless keyboard. But since clusters have lots of nodes with just a CPU, and I know Debian runs on them, I figure there's some way to get it working. Thanks. Ross Boylan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1352688583.28449.21.ca...@corn.betterworld.us
Re: Diskless notebooks with Debian Lenny or Squeeze?
> are there any advices for diskless notebooks that is compatible with > Debian Lenny or Squeeze? What means "diskless"? Do you mean "without a harddrive" or "without removable media (like CD/DVD/floppy)"? Something else? Stefan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jwvfx1pt91e.fsf-monnier+gmane.linux.debian.u...@gnu.org
Re: Diskless notebooks with Debian Lenny or Squeeze?
Paul Chany writes: > are there any advices for diskless notebooks that is compatible with > Debian Lenny or Squeeze? I just find out that that there is a mailing list for Debian Laptops so mybe it's better to ask help there.. -- Regards, Paul Chany You can freely correct me in my English. http://csanyi-pal.info -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/8739xrohu8@gmail.com
Diskless notebooks with Debian Lenny or Squeeze?
Hi, are there any advices for diskless notebooks that is compatible with Debian Lenny or Squeeze? Because of my injury these days I must to remain in my bad most of the time until come healthy again so I think such a solution would be to me perfect. :) Any advices will be appreciated! -- Regards, Paul Chany You can freely correct me in my English. http://csanyi-pal.info -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/877hn3oiwy@gmail.com
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 11:53:55AM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > On Fri, 2008-12-26 at 23:07 +0100, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > > > I've seen several suggestions for ways to make diskettes that will > > > either boot from CD or network. > > > > http://rom-o-matic.net/ is a useful service here. > I used that, though I suspect it's not quite working. I get to the > point where it tries to grab a file by tftp and then it fails with a > time out. > > The server seems to show the request coming in > Dec 23 20:45:00 corn in.tftpd[24442]: RRQ from 192.168.10.21 > filename /ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0, > but no response. I *thought* I saw a message indicating the server was > unable to contact the client when it tried to transmit the file, but I > can't find it in the logs now. > > Other machines on the network can contact the tftp server and download > the file. > > > PXE booting requires an image to transmit. Making the image looks > > like > > > another involved project. > > > > You don't need to create the image yourself, there are ready mades, > > e.g. from LTSP > > I used LTSP, though that raised its own issues, of which the 3 most > important were unclear (at least to me) documentation, Can't really comment this. > the fact that it > didn't work with "testing" as a distribution (which is really a > deboostrap issue), I haven't followed the development of LTSP, or the debian-integration for quite some time, but the older versions (e.g. 3.0) which does not try to bootstrap the distro of the server, but is a stand-alone implementation of a mini OS that only boots to X. > and the fact that this is probably more heavyweight > than I need. LTSP is definately not heavyweight in regards to the resources (CPU, RAM, etc) required by the terminal. But the technology is a bit complex (requires a dhcp server, a tftp server, a nfs server and display manager listening for TCP). Booting from a local CD is simpler in that regard. But how would a system booted by ready-made CD image know from where to get a login-prompt? > It seems LTSP is oriented toward getting each X term to run in it's own > separate environment, whereas all I need is for it to connect to my > display manager (kdm) on the server. The primary use of LTSP is to get low-end terminals connect to a display manager. However, there has been substantial efforts to make it easy to run apps locally (on the clients) since now a days even lowend terminals can do quite some computing by themselves (and web-apps like flash can be quite demanding CPU-wise), and this relieves the server from load. Running apps locally generates new problems, such as authentication, but since your client only has 64 MB RAM you don't want local apps, and LTSP does not require that. > By the way, thanks for the tip > about how to set that up. I filed some bugs against ltsp, if anyone > wants more details. The maintainers have been very responsive, which I > appreciate. > > I think my main problem is that none of my boot methods are working, > which is really kind of weird. Put a kernel and initrd from LTSP on local HD, and boot with GRUB or LILO? -- Hans Ekbrand (http://sociologi.cjb.net) GPG Fingerprint: 1408 C8D5 1E7D 4C9C C27E 014F 7C2C 872A 7050 614E signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 11:07:00PM +0100, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 09:47:02PM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > > Someone suggested I try smart boot manager on a floppy, to cause a boot > > off CD-ROM. But I can't get that to work. > > > > I've seen several suggestions for ways to make diskettes that will > > either boot from CD or network. > > http://rom-o-matic.net/ is a useful service here. I prefer to just build my own, from the sources of etherboot. This is for booting from a local media and starting a PXE boot. > > > PXE booting requires an image to transmit. Making the image looks like > > another involved project. > > You don't need to create the image yourself, there are ready mades, > e.g. from LTSP Rather, PXE allows you to send just about anything over tftp. pxelinux (of syslinux) provides you a standard boot loader that uses that meduim to send e.g. the kernel and initrd. -- Tzafrir Cohen | tzaf...@jabber.org | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il || a Mutt's tzaf...@cohens.org.il || best ICQ# 16849754 || friend -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Fri, 2008-12-26 at 23:07 +0100, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > > I've seen several suggestions for ways to make diskettes that will > > either boot from CD or network. > > http://rom-o-matic.net/ is a useful service here. I used that, though I suspect it's not quite working. I get to the point where it tries to grab a file by tftp and then it fails with a time out. The server seems to show the request coming in Dec 23 20:45:00 corn in.tftpd[24442]: RRQ from 192.168.10.21 filename /ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0, but no response. I *thought* I saw a message indicating the server was unable to contact the client when it tried to transmit the file, but I can't find it in the logs now. Other machines on the network can contact the tftp server and download the file. > > > PXE booting requires an image to transmit. Making the image looks > like > > another involved project. > > You don't need to create the image yourself, there are ready mades, > e.g. from LTSP I used LTSP, though that raised its own issues, of which the 3 most important were unclear (at least to me) documentation, the fact that it didn't work with "testing" as a distribution (which is really a deboostrap issue), and the fact that this is probably more heavyweight than I need. It seems LTSP is oriented toward getting each X term to run in it's own separate environment, whereas all I need is for it to connect to my display manager (kdm) on the server. By the way, thanks for the tip about how to set that up. I filed some bugs against ltsp, if anyone wants more details. The maintainers have been very responsive, which I appreciate. I think my main problem is that none of my boot methods are working, which is really kind of weird. Ross -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 09:47:02PM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > On Mon, 2008-12-22 at 22:11 -0500, Celejar wrote: > > On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:03:10 -0500 > > "Douglas A. Tutty" wrote: > > > > > On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 11:10:27AM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > > > > I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use > > > > to connect to my main machine and run X. > > > > > > > > I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something > > > > easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe > > > > setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The > > > > machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. > > > > > > > > If I can use stuff I've already downloaded, it will go faster. > > > > > > If your old box doesn't do (or can't do) network booting, then you'll > > > need to give it some kind of hard bootable image. The problem with > > > knoppix is that it uses so much ram. You could try grml (it may use > > > less ram, I don't know). > > > > Or Debian-live, which is incredibly customizable, although that will > > obviously involve work. > All my options seem to involve work! So far, I've spent a lot of time > with nothing to show. Nothing will happen by itself, but the amount of work required might be less than you think. There are two different problems involved: 1. Boot media, eg: - local HD - etherboot (or pxe) from a floppy (or CD) 2. What to boot - general distro, manually edited to only do X -query - specialised distro for this case, e.g LTSP (see www.ltsp.org) > I misremembered the problem with the old machine; its power supply is > broken (which is why I removed the disks). > > I switched to trying to get a 100Mhz Pentium with 64MB of RAM working. > Unfortunately, it can't boot from CD-ROM (maybe something broke--the CD > ROM is still readable, though). Nor does it directly support network > booting. Its disks are basically full; it's running Windows NT 4, but > my other family members are finding it intolerably slow. I was hoping > it would be adequate as an X terminal. Using a local HD to boot from up to X is one way to solve your problem. You could do a minimal debian install and then install X and manually edit /etc/inittab to start X with the -query option, like: X -query ip.to.login.server > Someone suggested I try smart boot manager on a floppy, to cause a boot > off CD-ROM. But I can't get that to work. > > I've seen several suggestions for ways to make diskettes that will > either boot from CD or network. http://rom-o-matic.net/ is a useful service here. > PXE booting requires an image to transmit. Making the image looks like > another involved project. You don't need to create the image yourself, there are ready mades, e.g. from LTSP > There are a bunch of tools packaged for Debian that look relevant (e.g. > search for "boot" in packagesearch (the app, not the web site). > > A number of options (such as using those tools or NFS mounting) are > complicated by the fact that my system is too heavyweight for the old > machine, so I need to pare things down so it's only an X server. The server can export a different tree than its own root file system. > Meanwhile I've tweaked Xaccess and kdmrc in /etc/kde3/kdm so that they > might play along if I get the rest working. That's a good start, Good luck with the rest! -- Hans Ekbrand (http://sociologi.cjb.net) Q. What is that strange attachment in this mail? A. My digital signature, see www.gnupg.org for info on how you could use it to ensure that this mail is from me and has not been altered on the way to you. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:47:02AM EST, Ross Boylan wrote: [..] > All my options seem to involve work! Sounds more like _fun_ to me ... ! :-) > So far, I've spent a lot of time with nothing to show. Not really ... at least you've gotten me (yet again) interested in this issue. And yes, it _is_ a bit more involved than figuring out where you change your resolution in the gnome desktop. [..] > I was hoping it would be adequate as an X terminal .. > > Someone suggested .. CD-ROM .. > > I've seen several suggestions .. > > PXE booting .. Written 8 years ago .. nothing much has likely changed in this area: http://www.naos.co.nz/papers/diskless/index.html Don't give up! I for one, would be curious of your progress. HTH CJ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Mon, 22 Dec 2008, Ross Boylan wrote: I switched to trying to get a 100Mhz Pentium with 64MB of RAM working. Unfortunately, it can't boot from CD-ROM (maybe something broke--the CD ROM is still readable, though). Nor does it directly support network booting. Its disks are basically full; it's running Windows NT 4, but my other family members are finding it intolerably slow. I was hoping it would be adequate as an X terminal. There is an easy way to turn an MS-Windows system into an XTerminal although I'm not sure it will work with something as old as NT4. - Install Cygwin. - Install the X server - Don't bother installing any other Cygwin tools as you won't be using them. - Use "X -query" as you normally would to connect to a remote display manager that is accepting remote queries. - Login If you set the X server to be full screen then you can alt-tab between the MS-Windows environment and the *nix environment. It can take some time to explain to users that the apps they are running are not runnning on the local box. Otherwise for a box that can't boot from cdrom or NIC it would seem you'd be stuck with floppy booting. Rob -- I tried to change the world but they had a no-return policy -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Mon, 2008-12-22 at 22:11 -0500, Celejar wrote: > On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:03:10 -0500 > "Douglas A. Tutty" wrote: > > > On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 11:10:27AM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > > > I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use > > > to connect to my main machine and run X. > > > > > > I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something > > > easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe > > > setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The > > > machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. > > > > > > If I can use stuff I've already downloaded, it will go faster. > > > > If your old box doesn't do (or can't do) network booting, then you'll > > need to give it some kind of hard bootable image. The problem with > > knoppix is that it uses so much ram. You could try grml (it may use > > less ram, I don't know). > > Or Debian-live, which is incredibly customizable, although that will > obviously involve work. All my options seem to involve work! So far, I've spent a lot of time with nothing to show. I misremembered the problem with the old machine; its power supply is broken (which is why I removed the disks). I switched to trying to get a 100Mhz Pentium with 64MB of RAM working. Unfortunately, it can't boot from CD-ROM (maybe something broke--the CD ROM is still readable, though). Nor does it directly support network booting. Its disks are basically full; it's running Windows NT 4, but my other family members are finding it intolerably slow. I was hoping it would be adequate as an X terminal. Someone suggested I try smart boot manager on a floppy, to cause a boot off CD-ROM. But I can't get that to work. I've seen several suggestions for ways to make diskettes that will either boot from CD or network. PXE booting requires an image to transmit. Making the image looks like another involved project. There are a bunch of tools packaged for Debian that look relevant (e.g. search for "boot" in packagesearch (the app, not the web site). A number of options (such as using those tools or NFS mounting) are complicated by the fact that my system is too heavyweight for the old machine, so I need to pare things down so it's only an X server. Meanwhile I've tweaked Xaccess and kdmrc in /etc/kde3/kdm so that they might play along if I get the rest working. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. Ross -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:03:10 -0500 "Douglas A. Tutty" wrote: > On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 11:10:27AM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > > I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use > > to connect to my main machine and run X. > > > > I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something > > easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe > > setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The > > machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. > > > > If I can use stuff I've already downloaded, it will go faster. > > If your old box doesn't do (or can't do) network booting, then you'll > need to give it some kind of hard bootable image. The problem with > knoppix is that it uses so much ram. You could try grml (it may use > less ram, I don't know). Or Debian-live, which is incredibly customizable, although that will obviously involve work. Celejar -- mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 11:10:27AM -0800, Ross Boylan wrote: > I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use > to connect to my main machine and run X. > > I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something > easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe > setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The > machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. > > If I can use stuff I've already downloaded, it will go faster. If your old box doesn't do (or can't do) network booting, then you'll need to give it some kind of hard bootable image. The problem with knoppix is that it uses so much ram. You could try grml (it may use less ram, I don't know). Alternatively, if you can't find a free hard drive would be to use a CF-IDE adapter and use a CF card as a hard disk. The CF standard means that a CF card looks just like an IDE drive to the IDE controller. They make adapters that either fit in a bay, perhaps taking a CF through a slot, or that plugs directly onto the IDE port on the MB. Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
Hey Ross, Haven't tried this however I believe the Network Boot Howto is what you're looking for http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Network-boot-HOWTO.html Good luck :) Bye for now On Tuesday 23 Dec 2008, Ross Boylan wrote: > I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use > to connect to my main machine and run X. > > I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something > easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe > setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The > machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. > > If I can use stuff I've already downloaded, it will go faster. > > Thanks. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
On 12/22/08 13:10, Ross Boylan wrote: I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use to connect to my main machine and run X. I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. If I can use stuff I've already downloaded, it will go faster. If the machine's NIC supports "LAN boot", then you can use ltsp. $ apt-cache search ltsp -- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA I like my women like I like my coffee - purchased at above-market rates from eco-friendly organic farming cooperatives in Latin America. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Using old diskless machine as X terminal
2008/12/22 Ross Boylan : > I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use > to connect to my main machine and run X. > > I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something > easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe > setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The > machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. I have no experience of doing this myself, but my understanding is that if your X terminal machine's BIOS allows you to boot from ethernet, then I think you should be able to set up another machine to send a boot command and boot & root "partitions" (for want of a better word) over the ethernet to your X terminal machine when you want to boot it. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Using old diskless machine as X terminal
I have an old machine without a working hard disk that I'd like to use to connect to my main machine and run X. I believe that I could boot off of knoppix, but is there something easier I could do with the stuff already on my main machine--maybe setting up an image and transmitting over the network at boot time? The machine has a CD drive, but I'm not sure it's working. If I can use stuff I've already downloaded, it will go faster. Thanks. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Diskless boot works nearly
I managed to make almost booting system with help of document https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DisklessUbuntuHowto. The boot process ends suddenly to error. See http://pastebin.com/m4929bba1. What can I do? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Setting diskless node tutorial
Please tell me what is the good, up-to-date and Debian applicable tutorial for setting diskless node that * has no hard drive * boots with etherboot * is not slim or thin client * saves all data to server Tero Mäntyvaara -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Diskless Mythbuntu to Debian
Is it possible to install diskless Mythbuntu to Debian? Tero Mäntyvaara -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless workstations
> I would like to try this technology. I have DSL delivered through a DHCP > router, a computer capable enough to be a server, and other hardware that I > would like to become clients. I expect to use Lenny as the OS. [SNIP] > The other method is, of course, LTSP. I have found outlines of how to set > this up, but not as specific as I would like. Can someone point me to such > informa this page assumes a fresh debian-edu installation. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/LtspDisklessWorkstation Ronny Aasen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless workstations
On 25/07/07, Robert Kopp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I don't actually have Linux installed on my system at the moment, and am wavering between installing Debian 4.0 and Edubuntu, which has LTSP capabilities built in: Edubuntu is still not fully rolled out with LTSP kinks removed. Go with Ubuntu/Debian and use ltspadmin package from repos. Additional packages that you will need to install are dhcpd, nfs, tftp-hpa, .. Edubuntu installs all of the software with only a few questions relating to LTSP: Primary network interface: eth0 or eth1? Usually eth1 will be on the motherboard and eth0 in the expansion slots. My comment above on Edubuntu. What ever network range and which ever ethernet you need to specify can be done. By default 192.168.0.xxx range is taken but not a must. -- Regards, Sudev Barar -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless workstations
Sudev Barar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 24/07/07, Robert Kopp wrote: > I would like to try this technology. I have DSL delivered through a DHCP > router, a computer capable enough to be a server, and other hardware that I > would like to become clients. I expect to use Lenny as the OS. [SNIP] > The other method is, of course, LTSP. I have found outlines of how to set > this up, but not as specific as I would like. Can someone point me to such > informa Documentation at www.ltsp.org and wiki is quite comprehensive. What specific thing you were looking at? Of course there is vigorous ltsp mailing list. I don't actually have Linux installed on my system at the moment, and am wavering between installing Debian 4.0 and Edubuntu, which has LTSP capabilities built in: Edubuntu installs all of the software with only a few questions relating to LTSP: Primary network interface: eth0 or eth1? Usually eth1 will be on the motherboard and eth0 in the expansion slots. What is the IP address? Use something in 192.168.0.x and you get good defaults with no editing required. Typically, choose 192.168.0.254 or 192.168.0.1, to leave lots of space for printers, clients and so on What is the netmask? Use 255.255.255.0 What is the gateway? Leave blank or use IP address of gateway to the WWW Name server address? I usually install my own name server, but a novice should use the one for WWW connections or leave this blank Nevertheless, judging from a Wiki entry, LTSP isn't that difficult to install on Debian, either, so I'm wondering if the ease of installing it on Edubuntu should be a decisive consideration in making the choice. Robert "Tim" Kopp http://analytic.tripod.com/
Re: Diskless workstations
On 24/07/07, Robert Kopp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I would like to try this technology. I have DSL delivered through a DHCP router, a computer capable enough to be a server, and other hardware that I would like to become clients. I expect to use Lenny as the OS. [SNIP] The other method is, of course, LTSP. I have found outlines of how to set this up, but not as specific as I would like. Can someone point me to such informa Documentation at www.ltsp.org and wiki is quite comprehensive. What specific thing you were looking at? Of course there is vigorous ltsp mailing list. -- Regards, Sudev Barar -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Diskless workstations
I would like to try this technology. I have DSL delivered through a DHCP router, a computer capable enough to be a server, and other hardware that I would like to become clients. I expect to use Lenny as the OS. PXES is a live client CD, for those hoping to accomplish the job with relatively little effort. I have thought of trying that. The only difficulty seems to be that XDMCP must be enabled on the server: it is disabled by default on most distros due to security issues. Enabling it is distro-specific, so I would like to know how it is done in Debian. The other method is, of course, LTSP. I have found outlines of how to set this up, but not as specific as I would like. Can someone point me to such information? Robert "Tim" Kopp http://analytic.tripod.com/
Diskless workstations
I would like to try this technology. I have DSL delivered through a DHCP router, a computer capable enough to be a server, and other hardware that I would like to become clients. I expect to use Lenny as the OS. PXES is a live client CD, for those hoping to accomplish the job with relatively little effort. I have thought of trying that. The only difficulty seems to be that XDMCP must be enabled on the server: it is disabled by default on most distros due to security issues. Enabling it is distro-specific, so I would like to know how it is done in Debian. The other method is, of course, LTSP. I have found outlines of how to set this up, but not as specific as I would like. Can someone point me to such information? Robert "Tim" Kopp http://analytic.tripod.com/
Re: How to install Debian on a diskless NFS client?
Sorry for my late reply. I have been busy with other things so continued my diskless install a couple of weeks after your answer. "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I think what you want to do now is something like this: > mount -t proc none /tftpboot/client-dir > chroot /tftpboot/client-dir bin/bash > > Then do basic tasks like; > passwd - set a root password (and perhaps adduser a new user) > /etc/hostname - set up the hosts name > > [...] OK, this is the second way to do the install that I have asked in my first posting. I did do this now and succeeded. So thanks for your answer. However, I think the installer should be modified to not only support booting via DHCP/TFTP, but also installing on NFS mounted directories instead of local disks only. I see several reason why I think this would be better than doing the install on the server using debootsrap: * Installation from the usual install would be easier * The installation as you suggested requires that the server must also be running Linux and be of the same architecture. Otherwise, you couldn't mount /proc and chroot into the directory created by debootsrap. Also, I think the required modifications in the installer would probably not that large. urs -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to install Debian on a diskless NFS client?
On Sun, Jan 07, 2007 at 05:01:16PM +0100, Urs Thuermann wrote: > I want to install Debian testing on a diskless machine (i.e. no > floppy, no CDROM, no hard disk) using DHCP/TFTP and NFS. Besides > being diskless, the machine is a standard Pentium PC with a NIC which > has an etherboot EPROM to boot via DHCP/TFTP. > Have you considered LTSP? I know it is not exactly the same thing, but I have deployed it at my church and it works great. Regards, -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://people.connexer.com/~roberto http://www.connexer.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: How to install Debian on a diskless NFS client?
Urs Thuermann wrote: > A second way would be not to run the installation on the client, but > prepare the directory to be exported to the client directly on the > server. I think this is what debootsrap is for, but I haven't found > any good documentation how to use it. The Debian Installation Guide > doesn't describe it. According to the man page I have run > >ARCH=i386 debootstrap etch /tftpboot/client-dir > > which populates the target directory with a minimal system but don't > know how to proceed from here. I could probably tweak the result by > some editing in /etc, installing/building a kernel and initrd, but I > hope there is an easier way. > > Can anyone give me a hint on this? I recently did something similar (biggest difference being that I used pxe) for my "home entertainment system" (media-box). I think what you want to do now is something like this: mount -t proc none /tftpboot/client-dir chroot /tftpboot/client-dir bin/bash Then do basic tasks like; passwd - set a root password (and perhaps adduser a new user) /etc/hostname - set up the hosts name Install initramfs-tools (apt-get install initramfs-tools), install a kernel (which one depends on what you need) using apt-get, edit /etc/mkinitramfs/initramfs.conf - set BOOT=nfs. Then you use mkinitramfs to generate a initrd-image Add a new entry to the chroots /etc/fstab, something like this: /dev/nfs/ nfsdefaults 1 1 (this makes it "understand" that / is mounted using nfs), and perhaps install other nfs-related packages for more options regarding nfs. (apt-get install nfs-common portmap nfs-client) You should make sure /etc/network/interfaces does *NOT* have an entry for your interface - at least using the dhcp/pxe-boot process, it was configured before this file was read, so one would lose network-connectivity while setting up the "new" interface settings. I hope this was understandable and helpful. I didn't write anything of it down, so this is mostly taken from memory and inspecting the already set-up system. :-) Good luck. :) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
How to install Debian on a diskless NFS client?
I want to install Debian testing on a diskless machine (i.e. no floppy, no CDROM, no hard disk) using DHCP/TFTP and NFS. Besides being diskless, the machine is a standard Pentium PC with a NIC which has an etherboot EPROM to boot via DHCP/TFTP. As described in the Debian Installation Guide, section 4.6 "Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting", I have downloaded and installed netboot.tar.gz (from etch) on the server machine, configured DHCP and TFTP (and GRUB, since instead of PXE, I boot nbgrub via TFTP, then load the debian kernel and initd.gz from GRUB). I can boot the debian kernel, initrd and debian installer on the diskless client, choose language, country, keyboard layout, timezone, configure the clock and network, configure the debian mirror to use. But then the installer wants to detect and partition disk drives to do the installation on. It doesn't allow to select an NFS-mounted directory to install. When skipping the partitioning the installer can't proceed, since it has no disk to use as a target. I then tried to switch to a shell and to manually do a mkdir /target; mount server:/tftpboot/client-dir /target since I know /target is used in other installations. However, the mount command in the initrd's busybox seems to be unable to do NFS mounts. This is where I am stuck. How can I do the installation to the server disk when the client isn't able to mount it? A second way would be not to run the installation on the client, but prepare the directory to be exported to the client directly on the server. I think this is what debootsrap is for, but I haven't found any good documentation how to use it. The Debian Installation Guide doesn't describe it. According to the man page I have run ARCH=i386 debootstrap etch /tftpboot/client-dir which populates the target directory with a minimal system but don't know how to proceed from here. I could probably tweak the result by some editing in /etc, installing/building a kernel and initrd, but I hope there is an easier way. Can anyone give me a hint on this? urs -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian
On Thursday 21 September 2006 19:26, Frank Hart wrote: > On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 10:13:08AM +0100, David Goodenough wrote: > > Alternatively you can use some of the small comms boards that are around > > these days. There are the WRAP boards from pcengines.ch and the > > Routerboard boards from Microtik. The WRAP boards need CF, but the new > > RBs (the 500 and 110 series) come with 64MB NAND memory. > > After experimenting with PXE and NFS I followed your advice and bought a > Routerboard 532 with 128Mb RAND memory. Now lets see how easy it is to > install Debian on it :) > > -- > Frank Hart The default kernel does not have the driver for the NAND or YAFFS included. I have some patches which add them, but they are designed for OpenWRT which also adds a whole bunch of other patches as the IDT chips is not yet included in the standard kernel either. But of course the 532 does have a CF socket so you can always load onto that. David -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian
On 8/5/06, Frank Hart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: A couple of months ago, I switched from a normal PC router to a Linksys WRT54G with OpenWRT. It's a good image but the problem is space. There is barely room for an OpenVPN server and shorewall. Also, I'm somewhat worried about timely updates. One of the big pro's is that the device is quiet and doesn't suffer from harddisk failures. The wrtsl54gs is nice, I think. You can use a USB disk on it. http://wiki.freaks-unidos.net/weblogs/arhuaco/wrtsl54gs%201 We will buy a few WRT54GLs, which have 8MB of Flash. I hope to run openwrt in them. If you don't fear burning your WAP, it seems you can add a SD card to it: http://support.warwick.net/~ryan/wrt54g-v4/v4_sd_done.html Has anyone tried? ---- On the other hand, I've run Diskless Debian in a cluster. I configured syslog not to save the logs in disk and used a RAM image for /var, /etc and /tmp. I just wanted the root filesystem to be read-only. I had scripts to revert this changes before using APT, and to apply them after. Regards. -- http://arhuaco.org http://emQbit.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian
On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 10:13:08AM +0100, David Goodenough wrote: > Alternatively you can use some of the small comms boards that are around > these days. There are the WRAP boards from pcengines.ch and the Routerboard > boards from Microtik. The WRAP boards need CF, but the new RBs (the 500 and > 110 series) come with 64MB NAND memory. After experimenting with PXE and NFS I followed your advice and bought a Routerboard 532 with 128Mb RAND memory. Now lets see how easy it is to install Debian on it :) -- Frank Hart -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian
Casey Tucker wrote:
Rick Reynolds wrote:
I'm doing nearly the same thing: WRT54GS router, but I'm running
the DD-WRT distro on it. It has the ability to do what you're
talking about, namely mount an NFS partition at boot time and then
read firewalling rules from a file on the NFS partition.
I found a HOWTO on a blog out there showing me how to set this up,
but then I figured out a slightly better way to do it.
But it's certainly possible with DD-WRT without having to reinvent
that wheel...
Thanks,
Rick Reynolds
Could you please provide me with some information as to how that was
accomplished -- the NFS mount on DD-WRT specifically. I'm having some
trouble finding any info on that.
Thanks!
-Casey
I agree that this seems to be a black art at this point. There isn't
enough documentation on DD-WRT.
Here are the steps I did:
1. Under the Administration tab, enable SMBFS. Point it to a share on a
samba server on your network (for me it is [IPADDR]/fileserver). Create
and enable a new user on the samba server and enter its username and
password (this probably isn't strictly necessary, but I think it's a
good idea). You don't need to worry about Startscript (it didn't seem
to work correctly for me on DD-WRT v23).
With this in place, the router will samba mount that share and it will
appear under /tmp/smbshare in the router's filesystem.
2. Place a set of firewalling rules (iptables commands in a bash script
-- I used fwbuilder to make mine) in the shared directory on the samba
server. Make sure the script is executable.
3. Login as root to the router (you do have ssh enabled, right?) and
issue the following command to set a variable in the router's nvram:
# nvram set rc_firewall="/tmp/smbshare/[firewall rules script name]"
You can check this value later via
# nvram get rc_firewall
From what I can tell, rc_firewall is one of two special nvram variables
that you can set (the other allows pointing to a script to be run at
startup time). DD-WRT will execute whatever is in this variable during
bootup when it is time to apply the firewalling rules.
4. Reboot the router, login as root again and make sure the samba mount
is active (# mount) and that your new firewalling rules are enabled (#
iptables -L). The system starts with a default set of iptables rules,
so you'll need to look at the output just a bit to make sure you're
seeing your rules.
That's about it. The HOWTO blog article I referred to above
(http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jns/wp/2006/03/24/iptables-on-a-linksys-cisco-wrt54gl-broadband-router-howto/)
was very helpful, but it talks about enabling JFFS and remounting the
samba share onto /jffs. It isn't necessary. You can just grab the
firewalling rules out of /tmp/smbshare.
Now, if you want to install the "mini" version of DD-WRT, I believe you
can put the firewalling rules right into nvram and not have to point to
a samba share. But that makes changing the rules that much harder, of
course. Another thing to consider: it seems to me that the samba
sharing doesn't work 100% of the time. Sometimes when I've suffered a
power hit, I've found that the firewall rules aren't in place. I login
to the router and check, and it is because the samba mount never got
mounted. Rebooting the router again at that point usually clears that
right up. I don't know why it isn't more deterministic. To combat
that, I now have my router (and the fileserver that shares out the
ruleset) protected by a UPS.
I hope that's helpful.
Thanks,
Rick Reynolds
--
If you're a mad scientist, you can use GPLv2'd software for your evil
plans to take over the world ('Sharks with lasers on their heads!!'),
and the GPLv2 just says that you have to give source code back. And
that's OK by me. I like sharks with lasers. I just want the mad
scientists of the world to pay me back in kind. -- Linus Torvalds
--
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Using an initrd image for a diskless system
I'm still considering what the best option is to build a diskless Debian system that can replace my current Linksys firewall [1]. I've tried booting from PXE and using NFS for the rest of the system. While this approach works, I don't like the idea that if the NFS server goes down, the firewall also doesn't work anymore. So I thought, what if I were to use a ramdisk, loaded from an initrd image. Isn't that how those firewalls from cdrom work? Just like now, the system boots from PXE and loads the initrd image. Only instead of switching to the NFS mountpoint, the initrd image is bigger and loads the system in RAM. Not really revolutionary perhaps, but I can't seem to find much available documentation. So has anyone else tried this approach? [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/08/msg00479.html -- Frank Hart -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian
Frank Hart wrote: A couple of months ago, I switched from a normal PC router to a Linksys WRT54G with OpenWRT. It's a good image but the problem is space. There is barely room for an OpenVPN server and shorewall. Also, I'm somewhat worried about timely updates. One of the big pro's is that the device is quiet and doesn't suffer from harddisk failures. I'm doing nearly the same thing: WRT54GS router, but I'm running the DD-WRT distro on it. It has the ability to do what you're talking about, namely mount an NFS partition at boot time and then read firewalling rules from a file on the NFS partition. I found a HOWTO on a blog out there showing me how to set this up, but then I figured out a slightly better way to do it. But it's certainly possible with DD-WRT without having to reinvent that wheel... Thanks, Rick Reynolds -- I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. -- Galileo Galilei -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian
On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 10:13:08AM +0100, David Goodenough wrote: > The problem with network booting is that you are then not only reliant on > the disk on your server, but all of the rest of the server and network > infrastructure. True, but the risk can be reduced with a ramdisk and regular backups. Then the only time the firewall relies on the server is when it boots, whitch should not be that often. Besides, if the network ifrastructure is down there isn't much use for a firewall anyway ;) > Have you considered something like a mini-ITX board with a Compact Flash > card on it. These come with quire reasonable amounts of space these days > and you can fit a stripped down Debian install on it with no difficulty. That sounds like a more professional option indeed. It's just that I would like to use one of my old PC's for this task. But it's a good option for the next project. > Alternatively you can use some of the small comms boards that are around > these days. There are the WRAP boards from pcengines.ch and the Routerboard > boards from Microtik. The WRAP boards need CF, but the new RBs (the 500 and > 110 series) come with 64MB NAND memory. OpenWRT support for the 532 is being > tested at the moment, and for the 112 is being worked on and given that > OpenWRT is built to run on machines with between 4 and 8 MB NAND memory the > 64MB that these boxes have is more then enough for all the packages you > could want. I like the OpenWRT project a lot but the advantage with a Debian install is more updates and more choice in software. > David -- Frank Hart -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian
On Sunday 06 August 2006 03:20, Frank Hart wrote: > A couple of months ago, I switched from a normal PC router to a Linksys > WRT54G with OpenWRT. It's a good image but the problem is space. There > is barely room for an OpenVPN server and shorewall. Also, I'm somewhat > worried about timely updates. One of the big pro's is that the device is > quiet and doesn't suffer from harddisk failures. > > So what I would like to build is a diskless Debian router that boots > from the network. I don't know yet if it's better to build a large > initrd image that contains the whole system as a ramdisk or that I > should add a NFS share on another system that the firewall can use. In > the second scenario I would like to mount the share read only so I can > change to image on the server but not on the client. Is this possible? > > What would you recommend? I guess the first option is more secure but I > don't like the idea of creating a new image every time I have to change > a firewall rule. > > The PC has a PXE capable nic and I got pxelinux to work. Etherboot can't > find a DHCP server so I'll stick with pxelinux for now. > > There is quite a lot of documentation available but I haven't found much > info about a diskless Debian router/firewall on a ramdisk or a NFS > share. If you have usefull pointers, please let me know. The problem with network booting is that you are then not only reliant on the disk on your server, but all of the rest of the server and network infrastructure. Have you considered something like a mini-ITX board with a Compact Flash card on it. These come with quire reasonable amounts of space these days and you can fit a stripped down Debian install on it with no difficulty. Alternatively you can use some of the small comms boards that are around these days. There are the WRAP boards from pcengines.ch and the Routerboard boards from Microtik. The WRAP boards need CF, but the new RBs (the 500 and 110 series) come with 64MB NAND memory. OpenWRT support for the 532 is being tested at the moment, and for the 112 is being worked on and given that OpenWRT is built to run on machines with between 4 and 8 MB NAND memory the 64MB that these boxes have is more then enough for all the packages you could want. David -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Diskless Debian
A couple of months ago, I switched from a normal PC router to a Linksys WRT54G with OpenWRT. It's a good image but the problem is space. There is barely room for an OpenVPN server and shorewall. Also, I'm somewhat worried about timely updates. One of the big pro's is that the device is quiet and doesn't suffer from harddisk failures. So what I would like to build is a diskless Debian router that boots from the network. I don't know yet if it's better to build a large initrd image that contains the whole system as a ramdisk or that I should add a NFS share on another system that the firewall can use. In the second scenario I would like to mount the share read only so I can change to image on the server but not on the client. Is this possible? What would you recommend? I guess the first option is more secure but I don't like the idea of creating a new image every time I have to change a firewall rule. The PC has a PXE capable nic and I got pxelinux to work. Etherboot can't find a DHCP server so I'll stick with pxelinux for now. There is quite a lot of documentation available but I haven't found much info about a diskless Debian router/firewall on a ramdisk or a NFS share. If you have usefull pointers, please let me know. -- Frank Hart signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Debian diskless cluster
Hi everybody, ^ I am trying to build a Debian cluster consisting of 5 computers for some scientific calculations. I'd like to have identical filesystems on each machine as much as possible. My first idea is to use lessdisks package, store all the filesystems on the server node of the cluster and share them via NFS. The disks on the other nodes will be used just for storing the results of the computation. Does anybody have some another recommendation for some solution of the cluster? The priority is as good synchronization as possible (when I install something on the server node, it should be available at every node) and some user accounts management. Each hint is welcome. Thank you in advance for any comment on this. Regards Michal signature.asc Description: Toto je digitálne podpísaná časť správy
Semi-diskless clients
I have a network setup with a few debian diskless clients. It also has few windows clients, which constantly get messed up. These computes do not have much memory so require a swap partition. I would like to have them boot disklessly (in order that that I can manage them centrally, and this also provides a simple way to reset them) but still use the disk for swap. Is there a way i can set up the system in that if there is a hard disk it loads up the ide modules, and if it finds a swap partition activates it (when the partition could have different numbers on different machines)? Ben
Re: Diskless client problems
I have fixed the problems with all the error messages, The server was using an ancient RTL8029, i replaced it with an e100, and the whole network is now flying. I still know why it is not using tcp, but this is not so important now. Thank You Ben. On 31/10/05, Ben Sagal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have tried to mount it with on tcp, the dhcp sends the following for > rootpath: >"192.168.1.1:/srv/client,ro,tcp,hard,intr" > but the tcp part seams to be ignored by the client, > > I have confirmed the server can handle tcp since i have been > successful in connecting using tcp from another (non-diskless) client. > > Ben > > On 31/10/05, Daniel Nilsson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ben Sagal ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > > > > > > I have a few diskless clients setup, using a read-only nfs root, and > > > with a tmpfs mounted for /var, /home and /tmp. The system regularly > > > prints the following messages: > > >nfs: server 192.168.1.1 not responding, still trying > > >nfs: server 192.168.1.1 OK > > > the output from mount on the client is: > > >/dev/root on / type nfs > > > (ro,v2,rsize=4096,wsize=4096,hard,udp,nolock,addr=192.168.1.1) > > > > Ben, > > > > These kinds of issues are usually related to network issues, see > > the NFS HOWTO http://nfs.sourceforge.net/nfs-howto/ > > > > NFS is rather sensitive with respect to packet loss, and issues with > > the cabling for example quickly results in the messages you are > > observing. I would first make sure the /sbin/ifconfig doesn't show > > and errors associated with the adapter you are using (a lof of > > dropped packets, errors, etc). Check hubs switches and all things > > related. > > > > When running NFS over a wireless link for example, this has been > > is a common problem for me, but you can't really make the wireless > > connection perfect such that all packets always arrive on time. > > Fortunately you can switch to run NFS over TCP instead which makes a > > huge difference for wireless links or other high loss networks. If > > you are using normal ethernet and can't find the cause, you could > > try to run NFS over TCP instead. It's an option on the mount command. > > > > Hope this helps > > > > /Daniel > > > > > > -- > > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > >
Re: Diskless client problems
I have tried to mount it with on tcp, the dhcp sends the following for rootpath: "192.168.1.1:/srv/client,ro,tcp,hard,intr" but the tcp part seams to be ignored by the client, I have confirmed the server can handle tcp since i have been successful in connecting using tcp from another (non-diskless) client. Ben On 31/10/05, Daniel Nilsson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ben Sagal ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > > > > I have a few diskless clients setup, using a read-only nfs root, and > > with a tmpfs mounted for /var, /home and /tmp. The system regularly > > prints the following messages: > >nfs: server 192.168.1.1 not responding, still trying > >nfs: server 192.168.1.1 OK > > the output from mount on the client is: > >/dev/root on / type nfs > > (ro,v2,rsize=4096,wsize=4096,hard,udp,nolock,addr=192.168.1.1) > > Ben, > > These kinds of issues are usually related to network issues, see > the NFS HOWTO http://nfs.sourceforge.net/nfs-howto/ > > NFS is rather sensitive with respect to packet loss, and issues with > the cabling for example quickly results in the messages you are > observing. I would first make sure the /sbin/ifconfig doesn't show > and errors associated with the adapter you are using (a lof of > dropped packets, errors, etc). Check hubs switches and all things > related. > > When running NFS over a wireless link for example, this has been > is a common problem for me, but you can't really make the wireless > connection perfect such that all packets always arrive on time. > Fortunately you can switch to run NFS over TCP instead which makes a > huge difference for wireless links or other high loss networks. If > you are using normal ethernet and can't find the cause, you could > try to run NFS over TCP instead. It's an option on the mount command. > > Hope this helps > > /Daniel > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
Re: Diskless client problems
Ben Sagal ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > > I have a few diskless clients setup, using a read-only nfs root, and > with a tmpfs mounted for /var, /home and /tmp. The system regularly > prints the following messages: >nfs: server 192.168.1.1 not responding, still trying >nfs: server 192.168.1.1 OK > the output from mount on the client is: >/dev/root on / type nfs > (ro,v2,rsize=4096,wsize=4096,hard,udp,nolock,addr=192.168.1.1) Ben, These kinds of issues are usually related to network issues, see the NFS HOWTO http://nfs.sourceforge.net/nfs-howto/ NFS is rather sensitive with respect to packet loss, and issues with the cabling for example quickly results in the messages you are observing. I would first make sure the /sbin/ifconfig doesn't show and errors associated with the adapter you are using (a lof of dropped packets, errors, etc). Check hubs switches and all things related. When running NFS over a wireless link for example, this has been is a common problem for me, but you can't really make the wireless connection perfect such that all packets always arrive on time. Fortunately you can switch to run NFS over TCP instead which makes a huge difference for wireless links or other high loss networks. If you are using normal ethernet and can't find the cause, you could try to run NFS over TCP instead. It's an option on the mount command. Hope this helps /Daniel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Diskless client problems
I have a few diskless clients setup, using a read-only nfs root, and with a tmpfs mounted for /var, /home and /tmp. The system regularly prints the following messages: nfs: server 192.168.1.1 not responding, still trying nfs: server 192.168.1.1 OK the output from mount on the client is: /dev/root on / type nfs (ro,v2,rsize=4096,wsize=4096,hard,udp,nolock,addr=192.168.1.1) The server runs debian sarge. The nfs root also runs debian sarge which was setup with debootstrap, and further configured from a chroot. Can anyone help me with this? Ben
Re: Help neeed with the 'diskless' package
One more usefull thing that I just found out : The client-customized directories are well mounted if the NFS root file system is mounted read-only However, if the NFS root file system is mounted read-write (this is my case thanks to my SYSLINUX/PXE boot file), then the customized directories are not mounted as expected (as described below). Any idea why this is ? Is this a 'diskless' bug ? Fred Frederic Dernbach a écrit : Hello, I've installed a diskless client using the 'diskless' package of Debian sarge (stable). I successfully managed to start my diskless client (through PXE and recompiled kernel with appropriate options).The root file system is mounted as expected by the client though NFS. On my server, I did not chage the defaults proposed by both commands 'diskless-newimage' and 'diskless-newhost' at installation time: - the root file system for myclient to NFS mount is : /var/lib/diskless/default/root - the customized '/etc' '/tmp' and '/var' directories for my diskless client (with IP adress being 10.1.0.4) are stored in : /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4 However, during the client boot, the cutomized directories ( /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4/etc, /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4/var and /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4/tmp are not mounted as /etc, /var, /tmp). I believe they should. What did I miss ? I cannot see which script does the mouting of those customized directories ? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Fred -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Help neeed with the 'diskless' package
Hello, I've installed a diskless client using the 'diskless' package of Debian sarge (stable). I successfully managed to start my diskless client (through PXE and recompiled kernel with appropriate options).The root file system is mounted as expected by the client though NFS. On my server, I did not chage the defaults proposed by both commands 'diskless-newimage' and 'diskless-newhost' at installation time: - the root file system for myclient to NFS mount is : /var/lib/diskless/default/root - the customized '/etc' '/tmp' and '/var' directories for my diskless client (with IP adress being 10.1.0.4) are stored in : /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4 However, during the client boot, the cutomized directories ( /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4/etc, /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4/var and /var/lib/diskless/default/10.1.0.4/tmp are not mounted as /etc, /var, /tmp). I believe they should. What did I miss ? I cannot see which script does the mouting of those customized directories ? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Fred -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless client using sarge?
Fredrik Jonson wrote: Hello, I'm considering turning my desktop, a mini-itx via epia-v, into a diskless client. Debian seems to provide a diskless package, but that package unfortunately also seems to be more or less abandoned. What I wonder is, should I still try go the diskless package way, as regards instructions etc? And also, does anyone here have any experience setting up a diskless client (using dhcp/nfs) using sarge as base? Any hints in this area would be greatly appreciated. Oh, I did find the howtos at tldp already, but they all seem a bit outdated, using 2.4-kernels etc, so I've dismissed them for now. TIA && regards, LTSP might be a good alternative. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Diskless client using sarge?
Hello, I'm considering turning my desktop, a mini-itx via epia-v, into a diskless client. Debian seems to provide a diskless package, but that package unfortunately also seems to be more or less abandoned. What I wonder is, should I still try go the diskless package way, as regards instructions etc? And also, does anyone here have any experience setting up a diskless client (using dhcp/nfs) using sarge as base? Any hints in this area would be greatly appreciated. Oh, I did find the howtos at tldp already, but they all seem a bit outdated, using 2.4-kernels etc, so I've dismissed them for now. TIA && regards, -- Fredrik Jonson -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
Salman Haq wrote: I've gotten so far as actually getting a client to boot by using PXELinux. Since the client is actually diskless, the boot process stops when the kernel tries to mount a filesystem - that results in a kernel panic as expected. I'm considering using a RAM disk image or NFS to remotely mount the filesystem. If anybody has any tips on this, I would really appreciate it. A custom kernel is ideal. You need to configure some particular options - see the Documentation directory for details, and build in the driver for your NIC. On boot, the kernel Initialises the NIC Gets an IP address etc Mounts your NFS filesystem. You might also take a look at the Linux Terminal Server project. In addition to what you've already done (and the kustom kernel) you need to run NFS server on something, create filesystem(s), export filesystem(s). You can (in fstab) mount addition filesystems. /usr can be to /var must be per-host. /etc must be per-host. I think you can mount tmpfs on it. / can be ro (think cd booting). /tmp must be rw and per host. /home can/should be sharedrw (natch). -- Cheers John -- spambait [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tourist pics http://portgeographe.environmentaldisasters.cds.merseine.nu/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
I've gotten so far as actually getting a client to boot by using PXELinux. Since the client is actually diskless, the boot process stops when the kernel tries to mount a filesystem - that results in a kernel panic as expected. I'm considering using a RAM disk image or NFS to remotely mount the filesystem. If anybody has any tips on this, I would really appreciate it. Thanks ... Salman On Jul 12, 2004, at 12:16 PM, Patrick Ouellette wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used removable hard drives - very time consuming. From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. If you have access to boot media on the client (a floppy, usb boot device, CF card, etc.) you have many options. My favorite is to create boot media with GRUB. You can then chose to present a boot menu (or not) to the user. If all you have is a boot PROM on the NIC, PXE is not too difficult to set up (assuming the boot PROM supports PXE). Most useful tip: Make sure syslog is running on your server and use a network sniffer (packet capture) to monitor the boot process if things are not working properly. Good Luck, Pat -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used removable hard drives - very time consuming. From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. If you have access to boot media on the client (a floppy, usb boot device, CF card, etc.) you have many options. My favorite is to create boot media with GRUB. You can then chose to present a boot menu (or not) to the user. If all you have is a boot PROM on the NIC, PXE is not too difficult to set up (assuming the boot PROM supports PXE). Most useful tip: Make sure syslog is running on your server and use a network sniffer (packet capture) to monitor the boot process if things are not working properly. Good Luck, Pat -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
On Mon, 2004-07-12 at 10:48, Salman Haq wrote: > Hi All, > > I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. > The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may > be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used > removable hard drives - very time consuming. > > From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of > ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel > nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. > > I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and > have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with > advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. > > I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. Well, I've never gone so far as to set up diskless clients, but I have set up network booting for the purpose of doing network-based installs without a CD-ROM. I used PXE and followed the instructions on the debian-installer wiki. Important things to note are to use a TFTP server that supports PXE (tftpd does not. tftpd-hpa and atftpd both do however.) Make sure your DHCP server is properly set up to give out TFTP info, and you should be good to go. One important thing to note is that one of the PC's that I used for testing did not work for quite a while. It was an old Compaq using an Intel network card. No matter what I did, it would either come back with a timeout error or the TFTP server would report a client error. Upgrading the BIOS (the network card was built into the motherboard) took care of the problem and it's been working fine since. I'd imagine that all newer boards should have no problems. -- Alex Malinovich Support Free Software, delete your Windows partition TODAY! Encrypted mail preferred. You can get my public key from any of the pgp.net keyservers. Key ID: A6D24837 signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
Hi All, I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used removable hard drives - very time consuming. From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. Thanks! Salman -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian diskless pseudo tty devices
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hello > not being able to open a new pseudo tty device. I know this problem is > related to udev, but I can't figure out how to overcome it... Any ideas? I assume the kernel you're running was compiled with pty support? Hint: "grep -i pty /boot/config-$(uname -r)" -- Thomas Adam = "The Linux Weekend Mechanic" -- http://linuxgazette.net "TAG Editor" -- http://linuxgazette.net " We'll just save up your sins, Thomas, and punish you for all of them at once when you get better. The experience will probably kill you. :)" -- Benjamin A. Okopnik (Linux Gazette Technical Editor) Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
debian diskless pseudo tty devices
Hello I am configuring a network with 8 diskless hosts, using the debian diskless package and Linux 2.6.5. It worked allright when I tried with Linux 2.4.23, but now with 2.6.5 I'm having this strange problem. I can't start xterm. It complains about not being able to open a new pseudo tty device. I know this problem is related to udev, but I can't figure out how to overcome it... Any ideas? -- Nicolau Werneck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 9F99 25AB E47E 8724 2F71 http://cefala.org/~nwerneck EA40 DC23 42CE 6B76 B07F "There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that is your own self." -- Aldous Huxley -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless client can't use apt-get
On Saturday 29 November 2003 14:17, Pernilla Uhlin wrote: > Hi, > > I have created two diskless client with debians diskless package (I've > followed every step and created diskless-createbasetgz and > diskless-newimage as well). The clients boot perfectly, every seems to > be ok. The only thing that doesn't seem to work is installing new > packages with apt-get. I've tried apt-get update on booth clients, and > as chroot root (in the /var/lib/diskless/defaul/ directory), both ways > failed. The error I get is: > > Err http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Packages > Something wicked happened resolving 'security.debian.org:http' (-3) > Err http://debian.sysinst.ida.liu.se stable/main Packages > Something wicked happened resolving > 'debian.sysinst.ida.liu.se:http' (-3) Err http://ftp.se.debian.org > stable/main Sources > Something wicked happened resolving 'ftp.se.debian.org:http' (-3) > Err http://non-us.debian.org stable/non-US/main Sources > > ... and so on... Hello, this seems to be a DNS problem. Have you added a working nameserver in your /etc/resolv.conf? Have you tried to ping the servers? Regards Jakob -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Diskless client can't use apt-get
Hi, I have created two diskless client with debians diskless package (I've followed every step and created diskless-createbasetgz and diskless-newimage as well). The clients boot perfectly, every seems to be ok. The only thing that doesn't seem to work is installing new packages with apt-get. I've tried apt-get update on booth clients, and as chroot root (in the /var/lib/diskless/defaul/ directory), both ways failed. The error I get is: Err http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Packages Something wicked happened resolving 'security.debian.org:http' (-3) Err http://debian.sysinst.ida.liu.se stable/main Packages Something wicked happened resolving 'debian.sysinst.ida.liu.se:http' (-3) Err http://ftp.se.debian.org stable/main Sources Something wicked happened resolving 'ftp.se.debian.org:http' (-3) Err http://non-us.debian.org stable/non-US/main Sources ... and so on... I've updatet the apt/source.list in: /var/lib/diskless/default/root/etc/apt/ /var/lib/diskless/default/130.236.189.92/etc/apt/ but this doesn't help either. I have Debian 3.0 with kernel 2.4.19. Does anyone have an idea what to do? Thanks in advance, Pernilla Uhlin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Etherboot + grub + dhcp3 for diskless
Hello,
I have this problem with booting over network:
client PC:
NIC: OvisLink 8139ATX
EtherBoot 5.0.4
server: 2.4.19
tftp server: atftp
dhcpdhcp3
nfs
When booting from NIC this happended:
loaded EtherBoot 5.0.4 ...
got IP from DHCP (192.168.0.249)
tried to load /tftfboot/nbgrub
it starts to write dots and dots ...
I propably can't make grub to load menu.lst.
NOTE: /tftpboot/menu.lstexists with rwx-r-r
/tftpboot/nbgroubexists too rwx-r-r
atftp server logs:
Jun 4 09:47:09 rih in.tftpd[9358]: connect from 192.168.0.249
Jun 4 09:47:09 rih tftpd[9358]: Trivial FTP server started (0.7cvs)
Jun 4 09:47:09 rih tftpd[9360]: Serving /tftpboot/nbgrub to 192.168.0.249:
2001
Jun 4 09:47:19 rih tftpd[9360]: timeout: retrying...
Jun 4 09:47:29 rih tftpd[9360]: timeout: retrying...
Jun 4 09:47:39 rih tftpd[9360]: timeout: retrying...
Configuration of dhcp3.conf:
...
option grub-config code 150 = text;
...
host instalace {
hardware ethernet 00:4F:4E:04:11:20;
fixed-address 192.168.0.249;
option grub-config "(nd)/tftpboot/menu.lst";
filename "/tftpboot/nbgrub";
}
...
I have tried to boot Etherboot 5.0.10 from a floppy ... with the same result.
I loaded nbgrub with tftp client after booting knoppix on the same client PC.
I tried to specify:
option grub-config "(nd)/192.168.0.36/tftpboot/menu.lst";
...no success
How to check the options dhcp server gives?
Regards,
--
Jan Stavěl
--
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Re: Initrd diskless boot
On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 09:52:16PM -0500, Jameson C. Burt wrote: > On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 03:30:32AM +0100, Carel Fellinger wrote: ... > > I never could really find the info whether that 15Watt power supply is > > part of the bricks or not and whether it needs any fan itself. > > Could you enlighten me? > The power supply is external, the size of a large eraser, > in the middle of a cord like ... > They mention 15 watts on their webpage [URL probably wrapped thru email], > http://www.disklessworkstations.com/cgi-bin/cat/info/jam125.html?Bpdb2RQX;;99 Thanks for the info. -- groetjes, carel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Initrd diskless boot
The power supply is external, the size of a large eraser, in the middle of a cord like || house-connection--|power-supply|diskless-workstation || where "--" represents a foot (30cm) of cord. The power-supply says on it, 5Volts 2Amps output While the power-supply gets slightly warm, the outstretched handsized "Jammin 125" workstation from http://workstations.com does not get warm. I only wished it supported more than 1024x768 at 16-bit since I attach a 21" monitor. With Dell occasionally selling their 20" 2000FP LCD monitor for $850, I consider wanting 1600x1200 DVI (digital) output, but the "Jammin 125" is small so does NOT allow any add/change PCI/AGP cards. They mention 15 watts on their webpage [URL probably wrapped thru email], http://www.disklessworkstations.com/cgi-bin/cat/info/jam125.html?Bpdb2RQX;;99 On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 03:30:32AM +0100, Carel Fellinger wrote: > On Fri, Jan 24, 2003 at 09:55:06PM -0500, Jameson C. Burt wrote: > > I re-emphasize the www.ltsp.org approach. > ... > > I bought a diskless workstation 3 weeks ago from a link on ltsp.org, > > a workstation the size of your outstretched hand yet having > > audio, USB, parallel, serial, and ethernet ports -- all with > > a 15 watt power supply and no fans. > > I never could really find the info whether that 15Watt power supply is > part of the bricks or not and whether it needs any fan itself. > Could you enlighten me? -- Jameson C. Burt, NJ9L Fairfax, Virginia, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.coost.com (202) 690-0380 (work) msg26504/pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Initrd diskless boot
On Fri, Jan 24, 2003 at 09:55:06PM -0500, Jameson C. Burt wrote: > I re-emphasize the www.ltsp.org approach. ... > I bought a diskless workstation 3 weeks ago from a link on ltsp.org, > a workstation the size of your outstretched hand yet having > audio, USB, parallel, serial, and ethernet ports -- all with > a 15 watt power supply and no fans. I never could really find the info whether that 15Watt power supply is part of the bricks or not and whether it needs any fan itself. Could you enlighten me? -- groetjes, carel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Initrd diskless boot
I re-emphasize the www.ltsp.org approach. In the mid-1990's, I worked with diskless Suns and also tried making several Debian Linux computers diskless. After several weeks identifying files I wanted to keep, sometimes different for each computer, I abandoned that too-time-consuming approach to diskless computers. The Linux Terminal Server Project (ltsp) approach greatly simplifies running computers diskless. You still must configure your DHCP server (configure one file), run the package tftpd or atftpd on your server, configure NFS with permissions to server your diskless computers (one file on your server), configure xdm/gdm/kdm to serve your diskless computers (2 files on your server), and install the operating system files for your diskless computers (in /opt with LTSP's packages). The last part was greatly simplified by LTSP. With LTSP, your disless Linux GUI terminals let you login to your main computer, and only by changing the runlevel can you even see your tranparently running diskless computer (its processes, its mounts, ...). LTSP's default installation has your diskless computers working like X-servers, but without software on a local disk. While you can extend this with LTSP to run software locally, you increase configuration complexities; eg, you must then run Network Information Service (NIS) for usernames/passwords and you must tailor several files for each computer. Without extra configuration, your local computer can rather easily get sound off your main computer into your diskless workstation (if it has a sound card), by running a daemon without needing full NIS user configuration. And you can attach a webcam to your workstation, though I have worked for 2 days trying to get someone else's webcam tar files working in Debian. I bought a diskless workstation 3 weeks ago from a link on ltsp.org, a workstation the size of your outstretched hand yet having audio, USB, parallel, serial, and ethernet ports -- all with a 15 watt power supply and no fans. Magic. This LTSP approach gives "wonder", since so many technical details work so smoothly, and those diskless workstations work seemingly oddly. On Thu, Jan 16, 2003 at 08:42:42PM +0100, Tobias Kraus wrote: > Check www.ltsp.org . This might help you. > Tobias > > Am Donnerstag, 16. Januar 2003 17:17 schrieb Rodrigo F. Baroni: > > m needing to set a diskless pc, and I have been > > studing the initrd procedure. > > The idea is to have the read-only directories > > mounted on nfs, and others one read-write in > > ram-disks. -- Jameson C. Burt, NJ9L Fairfax, Virginia, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.coost.com (202) 690-0380 (work) msg26083/pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Initrd diskless boot
Check www.ltsp.org . This might help you. Tobias Am Donnerstag, 16. Januar 2003 17:17 schrieb Rodrigo F. Baroni: > m needing to set a diskless pc, and I have been > studing the initrd procedure. > The idea is to have the read-only directories > mounted on nfs, and others one read-write in > ram-disks. -- /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign \ / No proprietary formats in attachments without request X i.e. *NO* WORD, POWERPOINT or EXCEL documents / \ Respect Open Standards http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html Registered Linux User #293344 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Initrd diskless boot
Hello all, I'm needing to set a diskless pc, and I have been studing the initrd procedure. The idea is to have the read-only directories mounted on nfs, and others one read-write in ram-disks. Does anybody have done this before, or have some suggestions ? Would be very welcome. Thanks ! Rodrigo F Baroni Computer Science Grad Student ___ Busca Yahoo! O melhor lugar para encontrar tudo o que você procura na Internet http://br.busca.yahoo.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Another guide for a diskless installation?
On Sun, 2002-06-16 at 17:00, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > On Sun, Jun 16, 2002 at 05:35:09PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [snip] > 1. Boot via bootrom on nic (etherboot, dhcp, tftp and nfs). Mount your local > harddisk, partition it and install to it. (You will of course need > another computer in the same network to offer these services) I'd be really interested in seeing a boot ROM on a PCMCIA card. -- +-+ | Ron Johnson, Jr.Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Jefferson, LA USA http://ronandheather.dhs.org:81 | | | | "Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea | | which could only have originated in California." | | --Edsger Dijkstra | +-+ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Another guide for a diskless installation?
On Sun, 2002-06-16 at 16:19, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I have an IBM Thinkpad 560 with no external floppy drive or (any) CD-ROM. > It's running Win '95 with no other partitions and the only way to get data in > or out of the laptop is with an Ethernet PC Card. > > That's why I'd like to execute a diskless installation. The installation > guide seems to treat this type of installation as an afterthought, but I'm > also having trouble finding a more thorough guide to a diskless installation. Google is your friend!!! http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=thinkpad+560 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=thinkpad+560+linux The web-sites I saw did refer to floppy drives. Getting one (on Ebay??) would make your life infinitely simpler. Then, it it no problem to do a network install once you have the 3(?) initial floppy disks. > I'm also looking to convert this laptop into a basic Internet surfing machine. > What *lightweight* browsers can I use? I also define weight to be total > weight, including any desktop GUIs that I'll need to install. I've heard of > Galeon and Skipstone, and I think at least of of them needs GNOME (I was also > originally thinking about using XFree86). > > Any thoughts and resources would be greatly appreciated! How much RAM do you have? Opera is a very good light-weight browser. You will almost definitely have to forgo GNOME & KDE, and must use something like blackbox or fvwm2. -- +-+ | Ron Johnson, Jr.Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Jefferson, LA USA http://ronandheather.dhs.org:81 | | | | "Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea | | which could only have originated in California." | | --Edsger Dijkstra | +-+ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Another guide for a diskless installation?
On Sun, Jun 16, 2002 at 05:35:09PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi! > > Thanks for the response: > > Indeed, there's no internal floppy either ... this is their ultra-light > Pentium laptop. The only type of floppy drive available to this machine is > external, and it wasn't available to me when I bought the laptop. > > I also have no desire to keep anything Windows, so I would like to install to > the partition that contains Windows, too. There are two ways: 1. Boot via bootrom on nic (etherboot, dhcp, tftp and nfs). Mount your local harddisk, partition it and install to it. (You will of course need another computer in the same network to offer these services) 2. Use your Windows partition (disk) to hold the kernel (and the driver files), use loadlin to start the installation process. As I haven't installed lately the following is perhaps not accurate: To be able to install the base packages (so apt-get will work) to /, you will have to format at least one partition as a native linux fs (e.g. ext2). But for the installation process to be able to read the base packages, you must not wipe your current vfat partition. To get out of this paradox, make some space, by deleting (uninstalling) most windows programs, use fips, or (partition magic) to repartition and create a small vfat partition that can hold the base packages. Start installation (loadlin), (partition and) format hda1 as ext2, install base from the other vfat partion, and the rest from the net. Untested, just the way I would go about and do it. Good Luck! -- Note that I use Debian version 3.0 Linux emac140 2.4.17 #1 sön feb 10 20:21:22 CET 2002 i686 unknown Hans Ekbrand pgpb3uF9HHbjD.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Another guide for a diskless installation?
On Sun, Jun 16, 2002 at 05:19:13PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I have an IBM Thinkpad 560 with no external floppy drive or (any) CD-ROM. > It's running Win '95 with no other partitions and the only way to get data in > or out of the laptop is with an Ethernet PC Card. > > That's why I'd like to execute a diskless installation. The installation > guide seems to treat this type of installation as an afterthought, but I'm > also having trouble finding a more thorough guide to a diskless installation. 1. Will you install to the partition that currently holds MS Windows? 2. When you say diskless installation and also states that there is no external floppy or (any) CD-ROM, do really mean diskless (e.g. use a bootrom on a nic to boot over the network) or is there an internal floppy drive? -- Note that I use Debian version 3.0 Linux emac140 2.4.17 #1 sön feb 10 20:21:22 CET 2002 i686 unknown Hans Ekbrand pgpXDf1vWF20X.pgp Description: PGP signature
Another guide for a diskless installation?
I have an IBM Thinkpad 560 with no external floppy drive or (any) CD-ROM. It's running Win '95 with no other partitions and the only way to get data in or out of the laptop is with an Ethernet PC Card. That's why I'd like to execute a diskless installation. The installation guide seems to treat this type of installation as an afterthought, but I'm also having trouble finding a more thorough guide to a diskless installation. I'm also looking to convert this laptop into a basic Internet surfing machine. What *lightweight* browsers can I use? I also define weight to be total weight, including any desktop GUIs that I'll need to install. I've heard of Galeon and Skipstone, and I think at least of of them needs GNOME (I was also originally thinking about using XFree86). Any thoughts and resources would be greatly appreciated! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: diskless
On Sun, Apr 14, 2002 at 09:46:59PM +0200, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > If you use etherboot to boot, you also have to compile in "IP: kernel > level autoconfiguration". To clarify, any solution which involves giving IP, hostname, and network information as boot arguments to the kernel (in contrast to having that information stored in files in /etc, possibly in a ramdisk) requires the option above to be compiled in. -- Note that I use Debian version 3.0 Linux emac140 2.4.17 #1 sön feb 10 20:21:22 CET 2002 i686 unknown Hans Ekbrand pgpN5hbm4Esa7.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: diskless
On Thu, Apr 11, 2002 at 10:05:54PM -0500, dman wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 12:07:26AM +0200, Hans Ekbrand wrote:
> | On Thu, Apr 11, 2002 at 11:08:16AM -0300, Marcelo Leal wrote:
> | > i have one FreeBSD box running diskless fine.
> | > now, i wanna one linux box, and...
> | > the bootp, tftp and nfs servers are the same for FreeBSD and linux.
> | > the linux box get the kernel, but do not get the root filesystem.
> | > why???
>
> I'm having the same problem.
Do you have a setup that works with other clients? (ie. is NFS really
working for diskless clients?)
> In my case I see messages to the effect that the diskless machine
> couldn't find either the nfs or mountd RPC services and it will use
> the default locations. Then I get an error ("101") and it says it
> couldn't find the root partition.
I think that is a general error that might show up if the nic on the
client is not recognized by the kernel. I once had an old box that
etherboot could boot and get a kernel with, but Linux could
not find the nics (plain old 3com509b). The boot process ended in an
"VFS: cannot mount root fs ..."
What does the kernel think of its IP and hostname? Can you ping the
client from the server?
> | Has the kernel root-NFS compiled in (or do you use initrd)
>
> It has root-over-NFS and no modules whatsoever.
If you use etherboot to boot, you also have to compile in "IP: kernel
level autoconfiguration".
> | > i don't see neither the requests from inicialization messages of my
> | > linux box! only: VFS: cannot mount root fs... put floppy disk... bla bla
> | > bla...
> |
> | Any log messages from the NFSdaemon?
>
> None at all. The only logs on the server are successful entries from
> dhcpd and tftpd. This is what I can't figure out. I can mount the
> export from another system (that has a disk), but not from the
> diskless node.
>
> | www.ltsp.org is a great diskless linux project. Their documentation is
> | good.
>
> I'd rather do it myself. I've seen their binary packages and scripts
> that need to be run as root, and I'd rather be in control and
> understand what is going on.
You don't need to run those scripts, but LTSP can be of help anyway:
it comes with templates for various files in /etc that you can learn
from and manually insert parts from in your existing config files.
> I'm also so close to success that I know
> the problem must be something stupid I'm overlooking. I've just
> noticed the use of "rdev" in some root-over-nfs instructions, so I'll
> see if that makes any difference tomorrow. In the meantime, if you
> have any ideas or pointers as to what error code 101 means and how I
> can debug this, they are greatly appreciated!
rdev is not suitable for this task, according to is manpage. If you
don't use etherboot and dhcp + tftp, which IMHO is the easiest way,
you need to use LILO (or possibly some other bootloader). There is an
example in /usr/share/doc/lilo/Manual.txt.gz You are being less
diskless in that case, of course.
If you use etherboot you will need to tag the kernel with mknbi.
--
Note that I use Debian version 3.0
Linux emac140 2.4.17 #1 sön feb 10 20:21:22 CET 2002 i686 unknown
Hans Ekbrand
pgp8Oicft2YWv.pgp
Description: PGP signature
Re: diskless
On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 03:39:44PM -0700, David Wright wrote: | | > Root-NFS: Server returned error -101 while mounting /tftpboot/kiosk0 | | Hmm. Use ethereal to watch the RPC calls going back and forth; it often | gives more detailed info on the meaning of error codes. Ok, I'll try that. | Have you tried booting off /tftpboot/192.168.1.2 (or whatever your client | IP is) instead of /tftpboot/kiosk0? Yes the name should work, but try to | do things the simplest way first. No, I haven't. I specified that name in the nfsroot= parameter. | Also, make sure the client /etc/hosts file and server /etc/hosts file both | have the same names for the client IP, and that name is also in | /tftpboot/192.168.1.2/etc/hostname; NFS can be picky about FQDNs being | right. I'll make sure they are the same. AFAIK I haven't even gotten that far yet! | Oh, and your server /etc/exports exports /tftpboot to the client IP with | no_root_squash, right? Yes. /tftpboot/kiosk0192.168.1.2(rw,no_root_squash) | I'll send you my entire kernel config file later tonight, so you can check | for any differences in deail. Ok, thanks. Can you send me the boot loader config for the diskless term too? Just out of curiosity, which boot loader are you using? -D -- In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality. Proverbs 12:28 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: diskless
> Root-NFS: Server returned error -101 while mounting /tftpboot/kiosk0 Hmm. Use ethereal to watch the RPC calls going back and forth; it often gives more detailed info on the meaning of error codes. Have you tried booting off /tftpboot/192.168.1.2 (or whatever your client IP is) instead of /tftpboot/kiosk0? Yes the name should work, but try to do things the simplest way first. Also, make sure the client /etc/hosts file and server /etc/hosts file both have the same names for the client IP, and that name is also in /tftpboot/192.168.1.2/etc/hostname; NFS can be picky about FQDNs being right. Oh, and your server /etc/exports exports /tftpboot to the client IP with no_root_squash, right? I'll send you my entire kernel config file later tonight, so you can check for any differences in deail. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: diskless
On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 12:08:21PM -0700, David Wright wrote: | | I have a 6-machine computational cluster running diskless under Debian. | We are using a custom-compiled kernel 2.4.17. To get this to work, you | MUST compile your own kernel. The stock Debian kernels don't fufill the | requirements for diskless booting. I'm afraid I won't be able to recall | them all the requirements off the top of my head, but here are a few: | * NFS support compiled in, not a module | * driver for your NIC compiled in, not a module | * NFS as RootFS support enabled I've got these. | * CRAMFS support compiled in, not a module Isn't this only necessary for an initrd? | * RAM disk support compiled in, not a module I have CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM enabled. (I think this is the ramdisk option you're referring to) | Finally, when you make-kpkg be sure to include the --initrd option. I didn't make anything a module, it's all built in or non-existant. That way I don't need to deal with initrds or modules for anything. | That's all I can think of at the moment. Does it work now? No. The 'rdev' modification didn't help either. The exact error messages I get on the client are : ~~~ Looking up port of RPC 13/2 on 192.168.1.1 RPC: sendmsg returned error 101 portmap: RPC call returned eror 101 Root-NFS: Unable to get nfsd port number from server, using default Looking up port of RPC 15/1 on 192.168.1.1 RPC: sendmsg returned error 101 portmap: RPC call returned error 101 Root-NFS: Unable to get mountd port number from server, using default RPC: sendmsg returned error 101 mount: RPC call returned error 101 Root-NFS: Server returned error -101 while mounting /tftpboot/kiosk0 VFS: Unable to mount root fs via NFA, trying floppy. ~~~ The server is 192.168.1.1. It has portmap, nfsd, and mountd running. It has ALL:ALL in /etc/hosts.allow. The path /tftpboot/kiosk0 exists and contains a chrooted manual install of woody. The server has no messages in it's log. I can mount that directory via nfs from another workstation (that has a disk). If I boot the potato installer on that workstation, I can ping the server. Thanks for your suggestions. -D -- "640K ought to be enough for anybody" -Bill Gates, 1981 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
