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General => Installation issues => Topic started by: freymann on March 09, 2008, 10:19:12 pm

Title: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: freymann on March 09, 2008, 10:19:12 pm
Does LinuxMCE support diskless MD's when configured to use only 1 NIC and be the DHCP server?

My very old Compaq supports PXE booting. It just kept trying to load different ranges of the same thing.

A new AMD 4200+ system stalled and then fell back to HD. (yes a slight contradiction of terms. The drive is only a 40 GB test drive but can be utilized the MD. I'm just 'seeing if it works')

My Dell Latitude D600 Notebook... talks about PXE booting when you select internal NIC from the temp boot menu. it eventually times out and falls back to a HD boot.

Nobody answered one of my posts about the dhcp config.

It talks about "next-server 192.168.0.2"

and I asked if that was correct (that's the IP # of the core) or should it be changed to the regular IP pool? I changed it to the first IP of the pool. No idea if that is correct.

Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: 1audio on March 09, 2008, 11:03:14 pm
A one NIC core works fine as long as you are using the default settings that LMCE setup. You will need to set the external address to static and point it at the router. Otherwise strange things could happen. Also you must disable the DHCP in the external router or the PXE will never work.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: freymann on March 09, 2008, 11:11:28 pm
A one NIC core works fine as long as you are using the default settings that LMCE setup. You will need to set the external address to static and point it at the router. Otherwise strange things could happen. Also you must disable the DHCP in the external router or the PXE will never work.

 I set up both network cards in the admin to 192.168.0.2 yada yada.

 I disabled the DHCP server in my LinkSys router.

 I tried to boot 3 machines via network today. Nothing.

 Sorry, but MythTV is looking better all the time. I'm downloading the ISO now and will set it up on yet another test machine before wiping LinuxMCE with my ass.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: 1audio on March 10, 2008, 12:11:33 am
You changed the default settings. The external needs to be in the range that the router supports DHCP off. The internal needs to be  192.168.80.1 and the DHCP needs to be on. The default will work fine except for setting the external IP to talk to the router. If both the internal and external are the same it won't work.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: freymann on March 10, 2008, 12:26:44 am
You changed the default settings. The external needs to be in the range that the router supports DHCP off. The internal needs to be  192.168.80.1 and the DHCP needs to be on. The default will work fine except for setting the external IP to talk to the router. If both the internal and external are the same it won't work.

 Yes, but I followed the instructions given in "Single NIC & Existing DHCPd" which I can't locate the link for, because I guess, I hate this wiki system.

 I printed that page out and as far as I can figure, both nics are to given the same IP.

 I have a linksys router, 192.168.0.1

 I said, I disabled the DHCP server in it.

 I set both nic specs in admin to 192.168.0.2 as instructed...

 And the DHCP server is active in LinuxMCE.

 My wireless and networked computers that need DHCP work OK.

 I've asked about the wording in /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf but nobody has responded.

 I'm beginning to feel if you want to run LinuxMCE, you either have to be part of the development team or part of the "gang" or else you're screwed. The documentation is terrible, the forum support is not that great, and you get "yeah it works" or "no it doesn't work" answers instead of "instructions" that people can read and follow, or worse, you get pointed to several variations that do different things but claim the same result and nothing works.

 I'm no dummy, but after 4 days of struggling (and hey, I have made great progress to date) with LinuxMCE, my views about it are rather dim right now.

 Search my posts. I've made it a point to document my experiences in the hopes of helping the "team" or "gang" follow along. I've asked decent questions and I've provided (what I think) are good details.

 I spent the entire day today just trying to figure out how to make my remote change the channel on my Bell Dish Receiver with no luck. No setup should take an entire day just to configure a remote!

 So I gave up on that, thought I'd see if a MD would boot up. 3 machines. Nada.

 That "demo video" should be taken down and destroyed. It's completely mis-leading.

 Sure, if you gave me all the equipment that he had I could do the same thing. Try building it yourself? and you're s-o-l, unless you're "in the club"

 Yeah, I'm steamed, 'cause I spent 4 days friggin with the stuff. Believing the "demo video" I went out and spend $300-$400 on equipment to make media directors, get gyro mouses, video capture cards, IRD transceivers and remote, and gave up my ubuntu workstation to act as the core.

 Impressed? Not.

Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: 1audio on March 10, 2008, 02:00:28 am
I'm really sorry that someones effort to use the system in a non-standard way lead you down this path. I know that its frustrating when this happens. I have been going in circles for weeks sorting out Alsa with tons of misleading info on the web.

I'm using your exact setup and have back to before 1.1.

Here is how I have it and have recommended to many for the last year:

1) enable DHCP server (so LMCE passes out IP addresses and can host PXE boot)
2) Range for Pluto devices 192.168.80.2 to 192.168.80.129 (the devices that LMCE interacts with. PXE boot devices will be in this range. It needs to be in the same range as the internal IP.))
3) Range for non-pluto devices 192.168.80.130 to 192.168.80.256 (Non LMCE devices like desktop computers)
4) Use a static IP address (with DHCP off on the router there is no other way to get an address)
5) ip 192.168.0.2 (in the same range as the router)
6) subnet mask 255.255.255.0
7) gateway 192.168.0.1 (Router's IP address)
8) dns 192.168.0.1 (DNS server. You can use Opendns here and it may speed things up. Or at the router itself.)
9) internal ip 192.168.80.1
10) subnet mask 255.255.255.0

update and reload the router. If the PXE targets already started to boot they may have IP's in the table outside the range that the system will support so it won't hand out boot images. That may take a bit of snooping to untangle. This is why I don't recommend changing anything that isn't necessary. The Static IP change above should be all that is necessary on a clean DVD install. There are many interlocking scripts to make the system run and when one gets disconnected the machine can jam up tight. Like a very complex Swiss watch.

I hope this helps.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: freymann on March 10, 2008, 02:29:38 am
I'm really sorry that someones effort to use the system in a non-standard way lead you down this path. I know that its frustrating when this happens. I have been going in circles for weeks sorting out Alsa with tons of misleading info on the web.

I appreciate your response, especially after my last rant. However, your response is like "tease". It gives me a "hint"

So here's what I did (with failed results again of course).

First, let's talk about the "admin" page

http://192.168.0.2/pluto-admin/index.php

I go there, click on Advanced > Network > Network Settings.

This is what I have:

EXTERNAL_IFACE     eth0
EXTERNAL_MAC    00:04:4B:06:F4:9A
EXTERNAL_IP    192.168.0.2
EXTERNAL_NETMASK    255.255.255.0
EXTERNAL_DHCP    0
INTERNAL_IFACE    eth0:0
INTERNAL_MAC    00:04:4B:06:F4:9A
INTERNAL_IP    192.168.0.2
INTERNAL_NETMASK    255.255.255.0
GATEWAY    192.168.0.1
DNS1    192.168.0.1
DNS2    207.164.234.193

DHCP server on Core:
   Enable DHCP server (checked)
     Range of IP addresses for Pluto devices: 192.168.80.2 - 192.168.80.129
     Provide IP addresses for anonymous devices not in Pluto's database.
             Range of IP addresses for non-Pluto devices: 192.168.80.130 - 192.168.80.254
Number of network adapters: 1

Your core has the following network adapters:
1. External network card eth0
Obtain an IP address from DHCP
Use a static IP address
     Core's IP address:    192.168.0.2
     Subnet mask:    255.255.255.0
     Gateway:    192.168.0.1
     Nameserver (DNS) #1:    207.164.234.193
     Nameserver (DNS) #2:    192.168.0.1
2. Internal network card eth0:0
     IP address:    192.168.0.2
     Subnet mask:    255.255.255.0
   OfflineMode (unchecked)

I'm "guessing" the internal network should be 192.168.80.1?

Then, in  /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

--start---
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
authoritative;

option routers 192.168.0.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
(other lines omitted)
subnet 192.168.80.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        next-server 192.168.0.2;
        filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
        option pxelinux.reboottime = 30;

        default-lease-time 86400;
        max-lease-time 604800;
        pool {
                 allow unknown-clients;
                 range 192.168.80.130 192.168.80.254;
        }
}

# PXE booting machines
group {
        next-server 192.168.0.2;
        filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
        option pxelinux.reboottime = 30;

}
# regular machines
group {
}
----end---

From your perspective, what needs to be corrected?

After Edit:

I did update the ip on the core for the internal IP address to 192.168.80.1

reload, etc..

Hmmm. One of my test machines actually booted off the network! I've been through the A/V wizard and I'm waiting for it to finish.

Odd, she comes up and I get if you can see and hear me, but then it freezes and no mouse/keyboard.

Hard Reset #1.

Then the core talks about a device being added but something needs to be downloaded from the net.

The core screensaver (flickr) images can't be seen, the background is all gray, and the boxes around your options are "empty" so going by memory, I tell the core to reload and I power off the MD.

The core now has a grey screen/background and I can see the network lights blinking... beats me what's going on. I'll let the core do its thing for a while. Since it's now 11pm ET, I think I'll go to bed, let the core do whatever it's doing, and see what's happening in the morning.

My MythUbuntu iso image is here and I've burned it to a CD. If nothing happens in the morning, I'll load MythTV on the "MD" box I was just trying to play with and see what happens.





Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: 1audio on March 10, 2008, 05:11:01 am
At the risk of sounding like Microsoft, going outside of the supported configurations can be difficult to sort out.

All of the settings are database driven and "sometimes" manual edits get over written. Not always.

What I would do in your position would be to do a clean re-install from the DVD. When it gets past the first orbiter rebilt I would go to advanced-computing from the UI and select the web configuration screen. There I would set the static IP of the external interface and turn of DHCP for the external interface and the network stuff should be done. no need to fiddle again.

Its possible that the changes have disconnected the UI from the MD, a mess I have been in before. My fix was to start over. While time consuming you don't need to watch and it will announce when its done.
               
Actually with so many interlocking settings you may be troubleshooting for a week.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: freymann on March 10, 2008, 01:06:08 pm
At the risk of sounding like Microsoft, going outside of the supported configurations can be difficult to sort out.

What's surprising to me the Wiki gave explicit directions on how to set up with 1 nic and they appear to be wrong. It was those instructions I followed.

Quote
               
Actually with so many interlocking settings you may be troubleshooting for a week.

If it came down to struggling with this for yet another week, it would be gone. My wife misses me.

So at the end of last night, I had a test MD going through the setup phase, and frooze in the AV Wizard. At that time the core screen was just a big gray background, but I could see the network lights blinking so I powered off the MD and let the core do whatever it wanted all night.

This morning (MON - Day 5 of my experiment) the core is still doing whatever it is doing, so it's HARD RESET #2 (of Sun, or #1 of Mon), rebuild all orbiter screens, it's back.

Then I fire up the test MD (this is actually the machine destined for use upstairs in the living room with the other dish) and it boots up just fine into the LinuxMCE interface! Nice. I can view pictures, playback music, playback video and even watch TV. It actually works!

I think for fun I'll even try to set up my old compaq as a MD today.

I have a box of X10 home automation arriving this week. I got too excited about LinuxMCE and ordered some stuff online last week. If I knew then what I know now, I would have waited and saved my $70. But that's another challenge forthcoming (I think).

Getting a MD running is another success story. But again, something that shouldn't take a day to accomplish.

Where I'm stuck at now is getting my IR Transceiver set up to change channels on the dish receiver. The dish is our main source for TV viewing (antenna feed out here sucks). If we can't have the unit change channels it is no good.

Over at MythTV and all their distros, they talk about using the Hauppage PVR15-MCE IRD transceiver (the one that includes the usb blaster) as a piece of cake (to control the dish).

Here in LinuxMCE land? I have no idea. I did post about it yesterday, with a thorough description of what I had done and where I got lost. Will it take a week before somebody has time to drop me another 'tip'? can you? ;-)

Without your advice I'd never have gotten the MD to fire up, and I thank you for that. If I ever find the wiki page I will add a comment about setting up the network config as you have suggested.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: boris on March 22, 2009, 08:51:51 am
Sorry all, this post is more suitable for this http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=6042.0 , sorry I got them mixed up .

Yes it is possible.
I just upgraded to 710 adm64 from 704 with keep settings, well that did not really work well. In retrospect I should have just done clean install.

If you planing to have only one NIC then the best thing to do, in my opinion is to disable the the second NIC on hardware level before installation. Most of motherboard have option to disable NIC in BIOS.  Also, in order to have NetBoot working you must check "Provide IP addresses for anonymous..." in network setup and provide range of for addresses for anonymous devices. If you do not, then DHCP server configuration file (/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.con) is not generated correctly by /usr/pluto/bin/PlutoDHCP, and as result DHCP server does not re/start due to error in configuration file. If there is no rage specified for anonymous devices PlutoDHCP writes incorrect range to dhcp.conf file and sets it to 0.0.0.0-0.0.0.0.
Here what it looks like in file :
...
pool { allow unknown-clients; range 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0;}
...

You need DHCP server in order to do netboot, aka diskless media director.

If you do not feel like reinstalling then keep reading.
1. In Advance->Configuration->Devices->CORE change "Network Interfaces" and remove everything after "|" and including  "|" (without "s), and Save changes. This will force network reconfig on reboot". Only do this step if you had previously 2 NICs and removed/disabled second NIC and the first thing after "|" is "eth1".
2. Remove everything in /etc/network/interfaces that has to do with configuring eth1 (ex.
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
        address 192.168.1.101
        netmask 255.255.255.0
).

3. If you disabled second NIC then check /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and remove or comment out (with #) all the lines that are not for your existing interface. To match you interface use MAC address, also make MAC address be assigned to eth0 interface in this file (ex. SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:1d:60:54:35:56", NAME="eth0").
4. Set up your network, check "Enable DHCP server" and "Provide IP addresses for anonymous devices....". And provide not over lapping ranges (ex. 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.150 and 192.168.1.151-192.168.1.170). Set static IP address for external interface, and remove IP address and Sub Net mask from second NIC.

Once you click Update your Core should reboot. After reboot you internal network card should be eth0:0, set the address and sub net mask for this interface (I used the same address for internal and external interfaces). Your Core should reboot one more time. Then go to Wizard->Devices->Media Directors and click Setup Diskless MD, pay attention to any errors after (and make user that dhcp server re/starts), it may make a while for Setup Diskless to complete. If you get no errors  and dhcp server started then your Diskless boot should work. To check if your dhcp server running run this "/etc/init.d/dhcp3-server status" without "s from command prompt.

I did all of my changes vi ssh/command prompt and directly in database using mysql so, above is the best interpretation of how to do same steps via admin web interface and ssh/command prompt. To get to command prompt press Crl+Alt+F2 and login as linuxmce user.

Here are my setting that work for me (make sure to replace MAC addresses if you try to use them):
-----/etc/default/dhcp3-server---
INTERFACES="eth0"
-------------------------------------
----/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf----------
# option definitions common to all supported networks...
#option domain-name "fugue.com";
#option domain-name-servers toccata.fugue.com;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.101;
authoritative;

option routers 192.168.1.101;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;

# lease IPs for 1 day, maximum 1 week
default-lease-time 86400;
max-lease-time 604800;

allow booting;
allow bootp;

option space pxelinux;
option pxelinux.magic code 208 = string;
option pxelinux.configfile code 209 = text;
option pxelinux.pathprefix code 210 = text;
option pxelinux.reboottime code 211 = unsigned integer 32;

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        next-server 192.168.1.101;
        filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
        option pxelinux.reboottime = 30;

        default-lease-time 86400;
        max-lease-time 604800;
        pool {
                 allow unknown-clients;
                 range 192.168.1.231 192.168.1.250;
        }
}

# PXE booting machines
group {
        next-server 192.168.1.101;
        filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
        option pxelinux.reboottime = 30;

        # Generic PC as MD (75)
        host moon75 { hardware ethernet 00:E0:18:A7:BD:4B; fixed-address 192.168.1.200; }
        # Generic PC as MD (98)
        host moon98 { hardware ethernet 00:1D:7D:D6:F5:F7; fixed-address 192.168.1.201; }
}

# regular machines
group {
        # CORE (1)
        host pc1 { hardware ethernet 00:1D:60:54:35:56; fixed-address 192.168.1.101; }
        # DCEROUTER - DCEROUTER (120)
        host pc2 { hardware ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00; fixed-address 192.168.1.203; }
}
-----------------------------------

Out put from Network Config on admin site:

EXTERNAL_IFACE     eth0
EXTERNAL_MAC    00:1D:60:54:35:56
EXTERNAL_IP    192.168.1.101
EXTERNAL_NETMASK    255.255.255.0
EXTERNAL_DHCP    0
INTERNAL_IFACE    eth0:0
INTERNAL_MAC    00:1D:60:54:35:56
INTERNAL_IP    192.168.1.101
INTERNAL_NETMASK    255.255.255.0
GATEWAY    192.168.1.2
DNS1    64.59.176.13
DNS2    64.59.176.15

Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: totallymaxed on March 22, 2009, 10:49:23 am
Does LinuxMCE support diskless MD's when configured to use only 1 NIC and be the DHCP server?

My very old Compaq supports PXE booting. It just kept trying to load different ranges of the same thing.

A new AMD 4200+ system stalled and then fell back to HD. (yes a slight contradiction of terms. The drive is only a 40 GB test drive but can be utilized the MD. I'm just 'seeing if it works')

My Dell Latitude D600 Notebook... talks about PXE booting when you select internal NIC from the temp boot menu. it eventually times out and falls back to a HD boot.

Nobody answered one of my posts about the dhcp config.

It talks about "next-server 192.168.0.2"

and I asked if that was correct (that's the IP # of the core) or should it be changed to the regular IP pool? I changed it to the first IP of the pool. No idea if that is correct.



Ok...firstly turn off DHCP on your Broadband Router and set its LAN side address to a range other than 80.xx ie in the example below I set it to 192.168.20.1. Next install LinuxMCE-0710 from scratch with only a single NIC installed. Setup your Orbiter etc with the AVwizard as normal... Now from the Orbiters 'Computing' menu select Web Admin and go to the Advanced -> Network -> Network Settings page (see my screenshot attachment)

You'll notice that the WAN side address for the Core is 192.168.20.99 so that it is in the same range as the Broadband Router (this is critical as it is your WAN side connection) and it is not in the same range importantly as the LAN side addresses that your Core's DHCP server will hand out to devices (eg MD's, IP Cams, N800's etc etc) ie 192.168.80.xx

Make sure you select 'Use a static IP address' for the external network card eth0 and then click 'Update' at the bottom of the page. your Core will then reboot to configure the new IP setup and on reboot you are all set. No editing of conf files or other changes required. My home Core has been setup like this for years...

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: dbs on March 22, 2009, 07:27:03 pm
This thread has been very helpfull. Thanks to all the patient responders. I do have a question to add to the mix.

Since I'm in the early stages of implementing LinuxMCE and I know the core will be down more than it's up, what is the best approach to keeping my existing PCs onliine while I play and configure?

Thanks
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: colinjones on March 22, 2009, 11:39:59 pm
Leave them on the external network for now, so they are not dependant on the core being up. Patch one over to the internal network whilst you are testing and back again, when done. The only other sane option is to dual home one of the PCs on both internal and external networks, but even that is not very sane!
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: dbs on March 23, 2009, 05:24:35 am
Leave them on the external network for now, so they are not dependant on the core being up. Patch one over to the internal network whilst you are testing and back again, when done. The only other sane option is to dual home one of the PCs on both internal and external networks, but even that is not very sane!

Given that it's a single NIC core configuration, I was contemplating turning off the DHCP server on the firewall/router and assigning fixed IPs to the existing PCs as well as the LinuxMCE core itself.  I'm thinking that should keep me going with a minimum amount of fuss. Do you see a problem with this?

Thanks
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: tschak909 on March 23, 2009, 07:19:49 am
Yeah, you'll break it all.

Why do you people make this so difficult, really?

-Thom
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: colinjones on March 23, 2009, 07:40:30 am
Leave them on the external network for now, so they are not dependant on the core being up. Patch one over to the internal network whilst you are testing and back again, when done. The only other sane option is to dual home one of the PCs on both internal and external networks, but even that is not very sane!

Given that it's a single NIC core configuration, I was contemplating turning off the DHCP server on the firewall/router and assigning fixed IPs to the existing PCs as well as the LinuxMCE core itself.  I'm thinking that should keep me going with a minimum amount of fuss. Do you see a problem with this?

Thanks

I didn't realise that you were also planning a single NIC installation. One word: Don't.

If you have read this thread, and any of hundreds of other threads like it, you should already know that this is NOT a supported configuration, you will break the system, and you definitely do not have the experience yet, necessary to install and maintain such a configuration. Requiring a separate network segment, being the DHCP server for that segment, routing and even to an extent firewalling are all required features of the network setup to ensure LMCE works correctly. If you try to re-engineer around this, whole portions of LMCE will cease working.... additionally you won't get any support!

Dual NIC is the correct configuration, can cost as little as $10 more to implement, and has none of the disadvantages that newbies fear of it.... so people trying to go this way receive little sympathy or assistance once they have broken their system having been advised not to do it :)

Read here - http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Network_Setup
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: totallymaxed on March 23, 2009, 12:45:04 pm
Leave them on the external network for now, so they are not dependant on the core being up. Patch one over to the internal network whilst you are testing and back again, when done. The only other sane option is to dual home one of the PCs on both internal and external networks, but even that is not very sane!

Given that it's a single NIC core configuration, I was contemplating turning off the DHCP server on the firewall/router and assigning fixed IPs to the existing PCs as well as the LinuxMCE core itself.  I'm thinking that should keep me going with a minimum amount of fuss. Do you see a problem with this?

Thanks
Dual NIC is the correct configuration, can cost as little as $10 more to implement, and has none of the disadvantages that newbies fear of it.... so people trying to go this way receive little sympathy or assistance once they have broken their system having been advised not to do it :)

Read here - http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Network_Setup

Hmmm... look we've been using single NIC Core's since 2005 and they can work very well if setup as I recommended in my earlier post in this thread. In some cases using a single NIC is convenient if you only have a single run of CAT5 going to where you Core is located (as in my case in fact)...or if you just dont have any spare slots for a 2nd NIC is another situation that might make this config suitable (again this applies to me too). If none of these limitations apply to you and you can configure a 2nd NIC then I would do so as overall it gives you a better topology and additional security through the routing/firewall capabilities in the Core.

So as long as you use the config I described earlier your Core will be perfectly happy with a single NIC...any deviation though will give you problems.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: dbs on March 23, 2009, 06:56:54 pm

[/quote]

Hmmm... look we've been using single NIC Core's since 2005 and they can work very well if setup as I recommended in my earlier post in this thread. In some cases using a single NIC is convenient if you only have a single run of CAT5 going to where you Core is located (as in my case in fact)...or if you just dont have any spare slots for a 2nd NIC is another situation that might make this config suitable (again this applies to me too). If none of these limitations apply to you and you can configure a 2nd NIC then I would do so as overall it gives you a better topology and additional security through the routing/firewall capabilities in the Core.

So as long as you use the config I described earlier your Core will be perfectly happy with a single NIC...any deviation though will give you problems.

All the best

Andrew
[/quote]

Thanks Andrew and, also, collinjones

Some of your constraints apply and I was also hoping to be able to bring the core up on my existing lan for testing without having to recable or reconfigure to keep my legacy units online. Additionally, in another thread a member indicated a preference for his existing firewall and didn't want to put the overhead on the core. I tend to lean that way myself.

Your configuration looks pretty straightforward.

Turn off DHCP on the firewall/router and assign a fixed IP to LinuxMCE 192.168.1.xx (my gateway)

Allwo LinuxMCE to assign 192.168.80.xx logins

The crux of my question is can I assign a static IP to my existing PCs in the 192.168.1.xx domain without breakiing or confusing LinuxMCE? If not, I'll take collins kind advice.

Thanks

Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: totallymaxed on March 23, 2009, 08:56:37 pm
[quote author=dbs link=topic=4574.msg49621#msg49621 date=1237831014

Thanks Andrew and, also, collinjones

Some of your constraints apply and I was also hoping to be able to bring the core up on my existing lan for testing without having to recable or reconfigure to keep my legacy units online. Additionally, in another thread a member indicated a preference for his existing firewall and didn't want to put the overhead on the core. I tend to lean that way myself.

Your configuration looks pretty straightforward.

Turn off DHCP on the firewall/router and assign a fixed IP to LinuxMCE 192.168.1.xx (my gateway)

Allwo LinuxMCE to assign 192.168.80.xx logins

The crux of my question is can I assign a static IP to my existing PCs in the 192.168.1.xx domain without breakiing or confusing LinuxMCE? If not, I'll take collins kind advice.

Thanks


[/quote]

If you want to use some static addresses then adjust to top end range for non-pluto devices down from say 192.168.80.254 (the default) to say 192.168.80.244. This would give you 10 addresses outside the non-pluto devices DHCP range that you could use for fixed addresses etc. That will work fine in my experience.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: hari on March 23, 2009, 11:44:24 pm
Andrew, you have years of LMCE/Pluto experience, so I really expect _you_ to be able to setup a single NIC system :-)

br, hari
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: dbs on March 24, 2009, 12:59:49 am
[quote author=dbs link=topic=4574.msg49621#msg49621 date=1237831014

Thanks Andrew and, also, collinjones

Some of your constraints apply and I was also hoping to be able to bring the core up on my existing lan for testing without having to recable or reconfigure to keep my legacy units online. Additionally, in another thread a member indicated a preference for his existing firewall and didn't want to put the overhead on the core. I tend to lean that way myself.

Your configuration looks pretty straightforward.

Turn off DHCP on the firewall/router and assign a fixed IP to LinuxMCE 192.168.1.xx (my gateway)

Allwo LinuxMCE to assign 192.168.80.xx logins

The crux of my question is can I assign a static IP to my existing PCs in the 192.168.1.xx domain without breakiing or confusing LinuxMCE? If not, I'll take collins kind advice.

Thanks



If you want to use some static addresses then adjust to top end range for non-pluto devices down from say 192.168.80.254 (the default) to say 192.168.80.244. This would give you 10 addresses outside the non-pluto devices DHCP range that you could use for fixed addresses etc. That will work fine in my experience.

All the best

Andrew
[/quote]

Thanks, Andrew, I'll give it a go. I had planned on keeping a small range of IPs for the purpose. If it works, great. If not, no biggie. Just wanted to know if there were any obvious conflicts.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: boris on March 24, 2009, 08:33:21 am
...
pool { allow unknown-clients; range 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0;}
...

After recompiling and replacing PlutoDHCP in usr/pluto/bin, without any code changes, this problem went away. I no longer need to check "Provide IP addresses for anonymous...". I wanted core/hybrid to work this way, so I have control of PCs booting from network. Also, all other devices on network get address from DHCP server on Dlink router. DHCP ranges on core/hybrid router and Dlink router do not overlap, but are on the same subnet.

The reason I want it to work this way so I can use my iPAQ as orbiter via wireless network.

So, in my opinion, if you plan to use wireless orbiters then it is better to use only one NIC. As far as I understand if you use wireless orbiter, I my case iPAQ, then it has to connect to internal NIC. So if two NICs are used and one is external connected to router(most of them are wireless these days), then one would need to have second wireless router connected to internal NIC, right or I am missing something? The second wireless router has to be on internal network so your wireless device gets configured via DHCP (I am assuming we trying to say away from manual network confutation as much as possible) and load orbiter from the core.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: hari on March 24, 2009, 02:25:32 pm
thats called an access point.

Quote
So, in my opinion, if you plan to use wireless orbiters then it is better to use only one NIC
please don't suggest that to users..

you just need to connect a $15 access point to the internal nic.. done.

br, Hari
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: boris on March 24, 2009, 04:51:31 pm
thats called an access point.

Quote
So, in my opinion, if you plan to use wireless orbiters then it is better to use only one NIC
please don't suggest that to users..

you just need to connect a $15 access point to the internal nic.. done.

br, Hari

Hi Hari,
You call it access point, I call it wireless router (that would be used as access point), but at the end it does not matter because they both serve the same purpose :).  I can not find access point for $15.00, the least expensive access point that I can find is about $40.00 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=access%20point&bop=And&Order=PRICE). So extra nic $10 then $15-40 for access point, I thought one of the goals was to use equipment user already have and keep the cost down. I have read a few posts where users were pretty upset because they had to spend money on new equipment (regardless of cost $1 or $100).

I think, I understand the design concepts, goals and intended use/configurations of LinuxMCE, only because I do not agree with some of them, it does not make me a bad person, right? I do like, the capabilities and futures of LinuxMCE, if I did not like it I would not use it :). 

I did not meant for my comment to be interpreted as suggestion or advice, I only stated my opinion, and I am sorry if it was misinterpreted as suggestion.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: tschak909 on March 24, 2009, 05:14:12 pm
No, it's just hard enough when we have to deal with users that quite simply think they know better, and confuse many users who are NOT network geeks.

We have ONE supported configuration, that is what we can support, if you do anything else? guess what? YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. Don't be surprised when things do not work as expected.

I am tired of reading these threads, and having to say the same things OVER and OVER and OVER because people refuse to read what has happened in the past. But i'm sure i'll be saying the same thing, once again, to someone else who thinks they know better, or didn't follow directions...

-Thom
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: boris on March 24, 2009, 05:33:05 pm
Thom, as I already said I am sorry. I know if I do out of the box config install I am on my own. Please do not get mad, I am not mad :). It looks that freymann was following instructions. My point is make decision about 1 or 2 nics before you start install, I did test install on single nic just to confirm that PlutoDHCP would work on other machine and it was easy, because I knew I was installing for single nic and it was install from scratch. Also, LinuxMCE install is intelligent to configure it self correctly, regardless 1 or 2 nics, but the trick is to do clean install knowing if you plan to use 1 or 2 nics. It seems to me that all these problems happen when user start to make changes after install.   

.....
 Yes, but I followed the instructions given in "Single NIC & Existing DHCPd" which I can't locate the link for, because I guess, I hate this wiki system.
......
 I'm no dummy, but after 4 days of struggling (and hey, I have made great progress to date) with LinuxMCE, my views about it are rather dim right now.
.....
 Yeah, I'm steamed, 'cause I spent 4 days friggin with the stuff. Believing the "demo video" I went out and spend $300-$400 on equipment to make media directors, get gyro mouses, video capture cards, IRD transceivers and remote, and gave up my ubuntu workstation to act as the core.

 Impressed? Not.

Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: totallymaxed on March 24, 2009, 07:22:26 pm
Does LinuxMCE support diskless MD's when configured to use only 1 NIC and be the DHCP server?

and yes of course diskless PXE booted MD's work fine on single NIC cores. My system at home and numerous customer systems we have installed have always been single NIC. In fact twin NIC cores were an 'after thought'...in the early Pluto days all Cores were single NIC. I guess at home I have just not bothered to change. Generally speaking as a company we only install twin NIC systems today... except for in the smallest apartment sized systems.

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: colinjones on March 24, 2009, 11:26:15 pm
Thom, as I already said I am sorry. I know if I do out of the box config install I am on my own. Please do not get mad, I am not mad :). It looks that freymann was following instructions. My point is make decision about 1 or 2 nics before you start install, I did test install on single nic just to confirm that PlutoDHCP would work on other machine and it was easy, because I knew I was installing for single nic and it was install from scratch. Also, LinuxMCE install is intelligent to configure it self correctly, regardless 1 or 2 nics, but the trick is to do clean install knowing if you plan to use 1 or 2 nics. It seems to me that all these problems happen when user start to make changes after install.   

.....
 Yes, but I followed the instructions given in "Single NIC & Existing DHCPd" which I can't locate the link for, because I guess, I hate this wiki system.
......
 I'm no dummy, but after 4 days of struggling (and hey, I have made great progress to date) with LinuxMCE, my views about it are rather dim right now.
.....
 Yeah, I'm steamed, 'cause I spent 4 days friggin with the stuff. Believing the "demo video" I went out and spend $300-$400 on equipment to make media directors, get gyro mouses, video capture cards, IRD transceivers and remote, and gave up my ubuntu workstation to act as the core.

 Impressed? Not.


Boris

The point here is please don't start recommending modifications to the architecture until you have been here long enough to realise what this means. I recognise that you have technical competance, but that doesn't translate to experience. Andrew (Totallymaxed) is both highly experienced and a professional, and even he specifically does not recommend single NIC installations, in fact specifically says 2 NICs is better and that is what they usually use. But moreover, he says nothing about disabling or rebuilding the DHCP system.

Saying "make decision about 1 or 2 nics before you start install" sets entirely the wrong tone for newbies. This is not something that people just starting should even be thinking about unless an experienced LMCEer is prepared to support them through it. A quick search through the boards on this subject will reveal: 1) countless instances of agonising experiences of this and 2) enormous angst and irritation of experienced users trying to help others get this right when more fruitful activities could have been undertaken.

I'm not denying that there will be some instances where this is the more appropriate setup, however, that is rare - but setting this tone makes it seem like just a multi-choice option, that inevitably new users will lean towards, when the real point at issue was a <$20 NIC card... believe me, it is human nature, and is backed up by dozens of threads on the board. The recommendation should always be 2 NICs, no questions asked, until a user outlines a genuine roadblock to that approach. In such instances, I am more than happy to provide assistance as it is needed, but in practice I haven't needed to for a v long time. There are not 2 right ways, there is a right way, and an alternate way if the right way genuinely doesn't work .... genuinely not working does not include "I need to save $20 on a NIC!" You are spending at least $500 in the first place to set up a core (generally ... usually more).

Saving money on the point about wireless APs is a completely fatuous and specious argument for the same reasons! It is one thing to try to keep costs down by engineering smartly, it is another entirely to force an incompatible design/topology to achieve this end. APs are cheap, and naturally you don't need yet another NIC, Hari meant connect it to your internal switch. If you are setting up a hybrid/core, 1 MD, an orbiter or two, and perhaps even a NAS or big disks on a PC, you are already in for >$1000, saving ~$20 or so on an AP for the internal network, by trying to route a different broadcast domain across the firewall, transparently, is specious. By all means, save money by making smart decisions on hardware, but not by trying to force a square peg into a round hole.... after all, you could use your neighbour's wifi AP, and route that traffic back into your network, and save money, too!
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: totallymaxed on March 25, 2009, 12:25:04 am
Thom, as I already said I am sorry. I know if I do out of the box config install I am on my own. Please do not get mad, I am not mad :). It looks that freymann was following instructions. My point is make decision about 1 or 2 nics before you start install, I did test install on single nic just to confirm that PlutoDHCP would work on other machine and it was easy, because I knew I was installing for single nic and it was install from scratch. Also, LinuxMCE install is intelligent to configure it self correctly, regardless 1 or 2 nics, but the trick is to do clean install knowing if you plan to use 1 or 2 nics. It seems to me that all these problems happen when user start to make changes after install.   

.....
 Yes, but I followed the instructions given in "Single NIC & Existing DHCPd" which I can't locate the link for, because I guess, I hate this wiki system.
......
 I'm no dummy, but after 4 days of struggling (and hey, I have made great progress to date) with LinuxMCE, my views about it are rather dim right now.
.....
 Yeah, I'm steamed, 'cause I spent 4 days friggin with the stuff. Believing the "demo video" I went out and spend $300-$400 on equipment to make media directors, get gyro mouses, video capture cards, IRD transceivers and remote, and gave up my ubuntu workstation to act as the core.

 Impressed? Not.


...look Thom and the rest of us 'lifers' here... have seen people stumble on this aspect of the system so many times...and people always seem to get 'hot under' collar when after 6secs of using LinuxMCE they decide they 'know better' and start messing with networking setups that are just plain stupid.

Of course LinuxMCE will allow you to do 'stupid' things like that... it has very little protection for the uninitiated in this respect. So to avoid the mess that normally ensues... we say 'two nics' and love it to everyone. However as you can see from the way that Web Admins network settings page is designed... single NIC setups are handled correctly... but you do have to set them up with some understanding of not just networking configs in general, but also, the design ideology inherent in LinuxMCE's design. If you do that then single NIC can and DOES work fine. Believe me I would not leave my home system like that for 2 mins if it was not...I'd be killed by my family too!!

Andrew
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: Oatz on March 30, 2009, 05:51:36 am
Yeah, you'll break it all.

Why do you people make this so difficult, really?

-Thom

Because LinuxMCE really isn't a great gateway compared to some other offerings. Sure it has a full Linux network system that could be locked down (probably already is), but configuring QOS, Port Triggering, and the multitude of other cool Linux networking duties is difficult for the avg user without a web interface. The LinuxMCE web interface has BOREBONES gateway configuration when compared to DDWRT or Openwrt. Sure you can put your router in front of your gateway, but if you want wireless access on your LinuxMCE network (I have 2 wireless diskless MD and wireless devices that need access to all of the media directories) you need to buy a 2nd wireless router/AP and place it behind your Linux MCE gateway.

Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: tschak909 on March 30, 2009, 05:54:37 am
Would you people _STOP_ thinking like network geeks and put yourselves in the shoes of a non-power user for once?

-Thom
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: Oatz on March 30, 2009, 07:40:01 am
LOL, ok you're totally right, but....

aren't we already asking Joe User to turn off DHCP on their wireless router?
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: tschak909 on March 30, 2009, 07:41:54 am
This replaces their wireless router.

-Thom
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: colinjones on March 30, 2009, 07:49:10 am
LOL, ok you're totally right, but....

aren't we already asking Joe User to turn off DHCP on their wireless router?


I think turning DHCP off on a router is a fairly trivial process. It quite possibly not on in the first place (wasn't on mine). Unless you were referring to a broadband router that has wireless as well, in which case, no, they don't need to turn that off anyway, its on a separate network segment.
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: bugui on April 12, 2009, 07:25:54 am
Hello all,
I have a custom network setup running using VLANs in one NIC using 802.1q and also you can setup an Access Point with madwifi, in my case I'm using a cheap atheos wireless PCI card and a 5dbi antenna.
There are two VLANs in one Gigabit nic (Vlan1 outside and Vlan5 internal), also I liked to configured the wifi AP in brigde mode, because I want to use the same VLAN to address the wifi IP phones (VLAN5=192.168.80.x).

I will share this ordinary script

# create the AP and SSID (in this example no security was implemented)
wlanconfig ath0 destroy
wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
iwconfig ath0 essid NokiaVoIP

iwconfig ath0 channel 11
iwconfig ath0 essid NokiaVoIP
iwconfig ath0 key open off
iwpriv ath0 wds 1

#now you must to create the new VLANs (VLAN1 is not tagged because is the native vlan and is located in eth0)
 
vconfig add eth0 5
ifconfig eth0.5 0.0.0.0 up
ifconfig ath0 0.0.0.0 up

# now we can create the bridge using eth0.5 and ath0 - this is my case.
brctl addbr br0
brctl addif br0 eth0.5
brctl addif br0 ath0
brctl stp br0 on

ifconfig br0 192.168.80.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

# remember that you must to restart the DHCP server

/etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

Sorry by my english
Best regards
Hernan
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: speedyone on April 13, 2009, 06:32:31 am
TotallyMaxed:

I'm trying to set up a linux MCE 7.10 core and MD system with two adapters.

I currently have a cable modem feeding a Linksys BEFSR41 router that then feeds my networked PC's.

I was first going to change the router into a switch and let the core assign DHCP IP addresses to the MD and all other networked PC's .....but then I didn't want to lose internet connectivity to my networked PC's if I was to either 1). dual boot the core into Ubuntu and/or 2). turn off the core.
 
So, I was thinking about trying to use my BEFSR41 in the following way - from cable modem to BEFSR41 WAN port ----from uplink on BEFSR41 to onboard lan on linux MCE core machine------from  PCI NIC card on linux MCE core machine to MD.

I was thinking that by using the uplink option I could still let the router assign DHCP for my external networked computers and also get external connectivity to the linux core....this way if I want to dual boot the core or shut down the core, I wouldn't loose my connectivity on the external networked computers.

Can this be done? Do I need to convert my router to a switch first?

This currently works as in I have internet connectivity to my networked PC's via the router (no changes to the router yet) and I have internet connectivity to the core--------what doesn't work is I can't get the MD to LAN boot....it's like the PCI NIC card in the core is not being recognized.


Here are my settings:

From the Linux MCE Launch manager/ open admin website/ advanced/ network/network settings/

the DHCP server on core is enabled

range of IP for pluto devices is: 192.168.80.2 - 192.168.80.128

range of IP for devices not in pluto database is: 192.168.80.129 - 192.168.80.254

the number of adapters is 2

External network card Eth1 - obtain IP address from DHCP

Internal network card eth0 - IP address is 192.168.80.1 - subnet mask is 255.255.255.0


From within the linux MCE launch manager - when viewing IP addresses, I have:

External_Iface = eth1
External_MAC= 00:1F:C6:11:9B:61
External_IP = 192.168.1.102
External_Netmask = 255.255.255.0
External_DHCP = 1

Internal_Iface = eth0
Internal_MAC= 00:1E:2A:CF:F5:50
Internal_IP = 192.168.80.1
Internal_Netmask = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.1.1
DNS1 = 68.105.28.12
DNS2 = 68.105.28.11



Any Ideas?

Thx,
Speedy :)
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: totallymaxed on April 13, 2009, 02:42:38 pm
TotallyMaxed:

I'm trying to set up a linux MCE 7.10 core and MD system with two adapters.

I currently have a cable modem feeding a Linksys BEFSR41 router that then feeds my networked PC's.

I was first going to change the router into a switch and let the core assign DHCP IP addresses to the MD and all other networked PC's .....but then I didn't want to lose internet connectivity to my networked PC's if I was to either 1). dual boot the core into Ubuntu and/or 2). turn off the core.
 
So, I was thinking about trying to use my BEFSR41 in the following way - from cable modem to BEFSR41 WAN port ----from uplink on BEFSR41 to onboard lan on linux MCE core machine------from  PCI NIC card on linux MCE core machine to MD.

I was thinking that by using the uplink option I could still let the router assign DHCP for my external networked computers and also get external connectivity to the linux core....this way if I want to dual boot the core or shut down the core, I wouldn't loose my connectivity on the external networked computers.

Can this be done? Do I need to convert my router to a switch first?

This currently works as in I have internet connectivity to my networked PC's via the router (no changes to the router yet) and I have internet connectivity to the core--------what doesn't work is I can't get the MD to LAN boot....it's like the PCI NIC card in the core is not being recognized.


Here are my settings:

From the Linux MCE Launch manager/ open admin website/ advanced/ network/network settings/

the DHCP server on core is enabled

range of IP for pluto devices is: 192.168.80.2 - 192.168.80.128

range of IP for devices not in pluto database is: 192.168.80.129 - 192.168.80.254

the number of adapters is 2

External network card Eth1 - obtain IP address from DHCP

Internal network card eth0 - IP address is 192.168.80.1 - subnet mask is 255.255.255.0


From within the linux MCE launch manager - when viewing IP addresses, I have:

External_Iface = eth1
External_MAC= 00:1F:C6:11:9B:61
External_IP = 192.168.1.102
External_Netmask = 255.255.255.0
External_DHCP = 1

Internal_Iface = eth0
Internal_MAC= 00:1E:2A:CF:F5:50
Internal_IP = 192.168.80.1
Internal_Netmask = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.1.1
DNS1 = 68.105.28.12
DNS2 = 68.105.28.11



Any Ideas?

Thx,
Speedy :)

You can do the following;

Broadband router (issuing DHCP addresses) -> 1 x port connected to the WAN side port of your core. Other ports on Broadband router used for your PC's that are offered DHCP addresses by the router (these are not connected to your LinuxMCE WAN and must be separately cabled). WAN side of your Core connected to a Switch and then all MD's and other devices controlled by core are connected to ports of this Switch (or additional switches connected to it)...

Thats it two separate LAN's one offered DHCP addresses by the Broadband router with the Core's WAN side getting its address from this network too. The 2nd network is offered DHCP addresses by the Core (and only the Core).

All the best

Andrew
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: boris on April 14, 2009, 05:43:23 am
WAN side of your Core connected to a Switch and then all MD's and other devices controlled by core are connected to ports of this Switch (or additional switches connected to it)...
...
Andrew

Andrew,
Did you mean "Internal side of your Core..."?
Title: Re: Diskless Media Directors on a 1 NIC Core, is that possible?
Post by: colinjones on April 14, 2009, 07:06:41 am
WAN side of your Core connected to a Switch and then all MD's and other devices controlled by core are connected to ports of this Switch (or additional switches connected to it)...
...
Andrew

Andrew,
Did you mean "Internal side of your Core..."?

Perhaps a typo for "LAN", but yes he was referring to the Internal NIC/network...