purps, you are a God amongst men: the driver was the f*&king culprit!!  I installed the r8168 module and boom, the Jetway Ecomini pulled in a IP and started the PXE boot.  Thanks man! I would not have considered the Realtek module in 0810 as being the source of the issue - at least not for a while.

So, back to the question of what's in the MD.  Guess what?  It's a Realtek PCIe Gb NIC.  Sweet!!   

I rebuilt the diskless image after installing the r8168 module, but the MD still kernel panics.  From memory, the error is something about an eth0 file not being present.

What's my next step?  I'm going to search the forums and wiki in the meantime.

Note: my switch is a Dell PowerConnect Gb 8port...probably 6 years old now.

What NICs are in the MDs out of interest?

I don't know.  I'll find out tonight.  I'll probably just boot the thing from a USB stick to get the answer quickly.

But if you look in /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf you should see a section that looks like this:

Code:

subnet 192.168.80.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        next-server 192.168.80.1;
        filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
        option pxelinux.reboottime = 30;

        default-lease-time 86400;
        max-lease-time 604800;
        pool {
                 allow unknown-clients;
                 range 192.168.80.129 192.168.80.254;
        }
}

The important bit here is this:

Code:

        next-server 192.168.80.1;
        filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";

That's all there.  I've checked the dhcpd.conf file dozens of times.  I was hoping the problem was a simple misconfiguration, but as far as I could tell, it wasn't.

I'm not trying to be an ass but unless there is a problem with the snapshot you downloaded this pretty much means there is a hardware problem.  Either broken, bad connection or not compatible.  Try a different snapshot to confirm, boot to an os other than linuxmce and confirm the nics actually work, then replace (not swap) cables. If all these test come back okay, check the LMCE network diagram and make sure you're connected properly.

I installed Fedora 15 on the same PC a month ago when I was having problems with getting LinuxMCE to see the IDE drive (I'm using an old PATA drive for the OS).  Fedora 15 saw all the hardware without any problems. Everything works.

Are you certain the PXE boot is failing and not the boot up itself?  <--- I couldn't phrase that any better...

To be exact: the DHCP bit is failing.  That is, before the MD starts to boot off the network, it's supposed to get an IP from the DHCP server (on the core). It's the DHCP part that's failing.  Thus, the MD never starts the PXE boot.

Maybe I should try out 10.10 just to see if my hardware works with it.

Hmmm. You said one of the NICs is an Intel - is that the non-onboard one? Is your onboard one a Realtek by any chance?

Yes, the on-board nic is a Realtek:

04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8432
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 220
   I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
   Memory at fdfff000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
   Memory at fdff8000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: r8169
   Kernel modules: r8169

And you've tried all possible combinations of swapping the labels in udev and swapping the cables (either physically or in web admin)?

I believe so.

Could it be that both your Jetway and HP laptop both have unrecognised NICs? I'm sure you're aware that Kubuntu 810 is somewhat long in the tooth now, so you do need to sometimes fart around with more modern hardware in order to get it working.

IPCop is even older, yet it happily hands out IPs to these devices.  I know Kubuntu 8.10 is old, but IPCop runs a 2.4 kernel!  LinuxMCE loads the kernel modules for the NICs no problem - they wouldn't come up otherwise, right?  Also, I've used both NICs as the external interface - they got IPs from my external DHCP server without issue.

The PC I have LinuxMCE installed is new.  Well, 6 months old now, but still...

I really hope I'm not missing something basic.

So this is what I did:

1. took the udev approach and made the add-in nic eth0, and the onboard nic eth1.  PXE boot still fails.
2. I reinstalled LinuxMCE.  PXE boot still fails.
3. I changed cables.  PXE boot still fails.
4. I change the switch.  PXE boot still fails.
5. I plugged the Ecomini directly into eth1 on the core. PXE boot still fails.
6. I plugged in a lexmark printer, a random PC, and a HP laptop.  PXE boot or just plain IP assignment via DHCP fails on all of them.
7. I checked iptables - no rules, at all.

I ran tshark on eth1 to see what's happening on the wire (I had a feeling the DHCPOFFER wasn't getting out).  When I PXE boot anything, tshark shows the DHCPDISCOVER.  /var/log/daemon then shows DHCPOFFER, but tshark NEVER sees it.  That is, even though the core shows a DHCPOFFER being sent, tshark reveals the DHCPOFFER never actually reaches eth1. This explains why I wasn't seeing a DHCPREQUEST before: the PXE client isn't getting the DHCPOFFER, so it can't send a DHCPREQUEST!

Something is preventing DHCP from working correctly. I don't think it's the hardware: both nics exhibit the same behaviour.  No matter how many times I install LinuxMCE, I see the same problem.

I don't know LinuxMCE well enough to troubleshoot this.  Does anyone know what's going on?

m3freak,
Your logs are showing that your internal network is on eth0.
The external n/w should normally be on eth0 and internal on eth1.
If you swap your n/w cables and click "Swap interfaces" on the Network Admin page this should swap over eth0 and eth1 interfaces.

Try pxe-booting your machines again.

No way.  I'm going to cry if this really is the case.  Why would LinuxMCE care?

FYI: I put the internal on eth0 because eth0 is the on board Gb NIC.  eth1 is an Intel PRO1000 PCI card.  I figured the on-board NIC would have better performance.

I'll try the swap tonight and report back.

Did you run /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh  to create the initial images.

Yes, of course I did.  I even said so in my post!

I have also run the script a few times, but the result is the same - no device will PXE boot.

I've installed LinuxMCE on a 2-nic server with the snapshot image LinuxMCE-8.10-24098-i386.iso.  The instructions on the 8.10 install page are missing steps, so it was a bit of a challenge because I'm not used to Ubuntu (I'm a Red Hat guy).  In the end, I got the core updated.  I also ran the script for creating the diskless boot image. It seemed to complete without any issue.

When I try to PXE boot a Jetway Ecomini, it never gets an IP and eventually the PXE boot fails.  After many failed attempts, I tried another random PC (HP laptop) - PXE boot on it failed, too.  I reviewed the logs on the core, and saw this:

Jul 24 17:51:03 core dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:30:18:ae:b5:56 via eth0
Jul 24 17:51:03 core dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.80.129 to 00:30:18:ae:b5:56 via eth0

The DHCPREQUEST and DHCPACK are never logged.  Oh, the above log is for the Ecomini.

I don't understand why the device attempting the PXE boot doesn't follow through with the DHCPREQUEST.

It's very likely I've missed something.  Would someone please point out what that something is?

Hi,

When you go to install choose options (or something like that) at the end of the kernel command line add

all_generic_ide

and see if that helps any.

Cheers.

That helped plenty - drive was detected!  Sweet!  Thanks for the tip.

I've never heard of this kernel boot parameter.  Is it new???

Take the latest recommended snapshot please. In all of my use of crapy HD's, never saw this one. Are you sure you have a proper PATA HD Cable connected on the correct port on mainbord (usually blue).
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Snapshot_overview

I downloaded the latest snapshot - failed again.  I'm going to try editing the kernel boot parameters next (as suggested by another poster).

I know you checked the BIOS, but I had a similar problem that finally turned out to be an incorrect setting in BIOS. My board uses a JMicron chip to control PATA drive, and I think you have the same chip. Maybe you could tell us what you are seeing at POST.

Behavior when the JMicron chip is enabled correctly:
  -If a hard drive is connected, you will see a message at POST that says the JMicron found the drive.
  -If a hard drive is not connected, there will be a message in broken English "no any hard drive found".

If the JMicron chip is disabled, there will be no POST message about JMicron.

The BIOS sees the drive. Before Fedora 14 or before the LinuxMCE CD boots, the Maxtor drive is displayed on the Marvel screen.

Take the latest recommended snapshot please. In all of my use of crapy HD's, never saw this one. Are you sure you have a proper PATA HD Cable connected on the correct port on mainbord (usually blue).
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Snapshot_overview

The download of the latest snapshot should be finished soon.  I'm planning on trying another install later tonight. I'll report my success/fail at that time.

I'm 100% sure I've installed the PATA drive correctly.  Further, if the drive wasn't installed correctly, the Fedora 14 installation wouldn't have worked either.  But, it did!

Background:

I have an Asus M488TD-M/USB3 to which I have connected a Maxtor 80GB PATA drive. The PATA drive will have the OS installed to it.  I'm going to be using SATA drives in a Linux RAID 5 config for the media storage.  However, instead of starting from scratch, I'm going to take an existing RAID 5 set from a Fedora 12 box and drop it in my LinuxMCE Core server at a later date.

I downloaded LinuxMCE-8.10-23796-i386.iso, and burned the image to a DVD.

The Problem:

When I boot from the DVD, select "install LinuxMCE", and eventually get to the storage screen, the PATA drive is never displayed!  Thus, I can't install LinuxMCE.  I've double checked the BIOS settings, I've rebooted several times, and even run the install from a USB stick, but always with the same result - no PATA drive is found.

I thought maybe the drive was faulty or perhaps there was some other hardware problem.  So, I downloaded the Fedora 14 Live iso, installed it onto a USB stick, booted off the stick, and viola, I could see the PATA drive. Whaaa?!  I was even able to install the Live CD to the PATA drive.  When I rebooted the machine, Fedora happily booted up and ran.

Lesson Learned:

I can only conclude something is fubared with the LinuxMCE installer.  Why is my PATA drive not being detected?  Should I download a newer build?

I have one as well, however I can't yet install: I need to run a separate 24v wire to the thermostat for power.  I may need an electrician to do the install.

It's good to hear the thermostat mostly works in LinuxMCE.