LinuxMCE Forums

General => Installation issues => Topic started by: krys on November 15, 2008, 07:26:28 pm

Title: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 15, 2008, 07:26:28 pm
hey guys, I now have 3 pc's successfully netbooting, however my fourth and last one keeps getting hung up after it announces itself to the router and starts diskless setup and dhcp setup. I looked on the admin page and noticed that this MD's image had was listed as AMD64, I changed this to i386 rebuilt the image reloaded router etc, rebooted and on the MD boot screen it still calls itself an AMD64 right before it says "stopping all MD's" "rebooting"
and it just keeps rebooting at this same spot. Is there something else that I need to do to get this MD to show up properly as an i386?
Thanks,
Krys
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: superfro on November 15, 2008, 11:49:03 pm
Thats odd, if you manually changed the md in the admin to i386 instead of amd64, did update, then rebuild image ..... it should be using i386.

So how far does the md boot ?
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 16, 2008, 03:39:48 am
it gets to the part where it says

setup diskless
setup dhcp

then it just says stopping all md's rebooting, and then it reboots

there is a part during the boot where it clearly says AMD64 every time, even after I change it to i386 in the admin site
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: Marper on November 16, 2008, 10:48:40 am
I have the same issue.  I've updated the admin page and also gone into the template and changed it to read i386 and reloaded everything and still the MD boots as AMD.  In my case the MD Boots up and everything appear to run fine, just buggy.
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 17, 2008, 04:11:52 pm
I wish that was the case, mine wont even boot. I noticed that it goes one step further than I thought, after it says configuring DHCP it says something about configuring NFS or something, then it reboots. It also says alot of stuff about USB that none of my other MD's say when booting. I am confident that the issue is the architecture mismatch I just dont know how to fix it since changing it on the admin page gets me no where.
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: seth on November 17, 2008, 04:30:30 pm
All that should be required to fix this (I had to do the same thing) is to change the arch line in the webadmin under Media Directors from amd64 to i386, and then click "Rebuild Image" This is all I had to do.

Hope it works for you.

Regards,

Seth
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 17, 2008, 06:22:11 pm
argh.. I hate when something is supposed to be that easy and it just doesnt work. I have tried this step multiple times letting it completely rebuild before powering up the MD and it always uses AMD64. I put i386 in the blank, click rebuild, wait till it gives me the ok, reload the router, fire up the MD and wham Archetecture type AMD64. crazy!!! Once the MD gets this far into a boot is there any way it could still be something like an unsupported NIC? I used to use the machine as my core so I cant imagine any other compatibility issues.
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: seth on November 17, 2008, 07:59:33 pm
 ???

The next couple of boots, watch for the IP address. Make sure it is not re-assigning the next one up. You may have to modify the file that reserves ip addresses, per MAC address.

If it is changing, follow the things in my old post here:
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=6550.0 (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=6550.0)

Regards,

Seth
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: colinjones on November 17, 2008, 11:06:30 pm
Also, just a silly point, but worth pointing out - when you put i386 in the architecture field, you are hitting Update before you hit rebuild aren't you?
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 17, 2008, 11:15:36 pm
yes, I have actually done it both ways just to check, I have also deleted the image and tried from scratch. Also i should note that once I change the field in the Admin site the architecture remains i386, even after closing the browser and reopening or restarting the core completely. The admin site has it listed and saved correctly, its just the MD that has AMD64 listed.
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: colinjones on November 17, 2008, 11:56:27 pm
When you say it remains i386 in the web site, you mean even after the rebuild and after rebooting the MD? The MD says AMD64 whereas the website is still saying i386?

If so, then it is i386 - the MD saying AMD64 during the boot is a furfy - it is just indicating that the hardware is 64 bit, however the image being sent to it is 32 bit and selects that mode when it starts.... sounds like you have a different problem.
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: superfro on November 18, 2008, 07:14:55 am
When you say it remains i386 in the web site, you mean even after the rebuild and after rebooting the MD? The MD says AMD64 whereas the website is still saying i386?

If so, then it is i386 - the MD saying AMD64 during the boot is a furfy - it is just indicating that the hardware is 64 bit, however the image being sent to it is 32 bit and selects that mode when it starts.... sounds like you have a different problem.

This is what I would suspect also.  I would suggest watching closely to the last messages on the screen before it reboots to figure out whats oopsing....
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 18, 2008, 04:18:22 pm
ok I will pay very close attention tonight when I get home, I really want this box to boot since it is going to be my main one in my home theater room. I might even try and take a video to give you guys something to go off of.
Thanks,
Krys
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 18, 2008, 04:29:01 pm
When you say it remains i386 in the web site, you mean even after the rebuild and after rebooting the MD? The MD says AMD64 whereas the website is still saying i386?

If so, then it is i386 - the MD saying AMD64 during the boot is a furfy - it is just indicating that the hardware is 64 bit, however the image being sent to it is 32 bit and selects that mode when it starts.... sounds like you have a different problem.

Would this make sense if the hardware is not 64 bit?
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: colinjones on November 18, 2008, 09:16:47 pm
Not really, the hardware would need to be 64 bit Intel or AMD (doesn't have to be AMD, that's just what it calls it cos AMD got there first!) What CPU are you using that isn't 64 bit??
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 19, 2008, 03:11:18 am
well, I did some more fiddling, and here is what I have come up with. I took out all of the variables by removing the video card some usb devices and the PCI NIC that I was using. I try to boot from the NIC on the mobo and I got a kernel panic. So i did some research on this NIC and found a link on how to get it to PXE boot. The only problem is the link sets you up to PXE boot off of a linux server, not LMCE. I am wondering if the method would be the same or different, here are the links if anyone feels like telling me whats what.

Well, for those who might be interested, I have found the solution, which is compile the driver into the ltsp chroot and re-build the initramfs; have used some of the instructions provided on:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToSetupLTSPDevelEnvironment

For complete instructions on how-to build the driver in general (for those interested in driver for Intel 82562v-2 NIC installed on Dell Vostro 200 and maybe other HW) :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=551720

I would just boot from the add on NIC but for some reason the PC will only go into PXE boot if the onboard NIC is the one connected, I can swap the cable once it starts to boot, but I feel like that might be part of the original problem.
-Krys
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: colinjones on November 19, 2008, 04:23:47 am
http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Unrecognized_NIC


Its not really surprising that it will only PXE boot the onboard NIC. The BIOS has to be able to activate the NIC and send ethernet packets to start the tftp process to get the boot image. How is it going to be able to do this for just any old NIC? Clearly it will have a very basic "driver" for the NIC it is designed for but beyond that?
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 19, 2008, 03:33:36 pm
Colin,
I had already referenced that link, unfortunately when I google Intel 82562v-2 Kernel module as the author says I can not find any Kernel module already associated with this NIC and I am not sure what to do.
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 19, 2008, 05:01:47 pm
This is partially for me when I get home, but I would also like input on whether the experts think this is the correct approach

"Ok, looks like this is a more complicated issue than it should be, but it appears (through brief googling) that there may be a solution. Check out this page: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=343757 (specifically near the bottom). It states that you should grab the sources from here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=42302 (the e1000 stable sources) and compile them. Alternatively, you could upgrade your kernel to >= 2.6.24 and use the e1000e module (which also exists in 2.6.21.5, but is apparently not very functional). I would *try* using the e1000e module first since it's there, but don't expect it to work. Then make a choice about whether to compile a new kernel module or upgrade your kernel."
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: colinjones on November 19, 2008, 07:54:34 pm
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=998&DwnldID=6647&lang=eng
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: krys on November 19, 2008, 09:06:44 pm
I have been trying to figure out how to get the Linux driver like the one Colin posted above, onto the core machine so that the MD's can use it to boot. I have seen some tutorials on compiling drivers into modules by they were quite vague and I couldn't follow them. Any help would be much appreciated.
-Krys
Title: Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64
Post by: colinjones on November 19, 2008, 09:20:30 pm
Use the Unrecognised NIC link to compile the driver. It also details how to get it into the MD, but most importantly how to update the MD's initramfs image to include the driver for boot time...