Messages

226

Installation issues / Media upload to core - **Workaround established**

« on: December 01, 2008, 07:18:28 pm »

Hello all,

  The occassional system freeze issues i've been having were traced to NIC card issues, to isolate the problem I ran a few tests.

  1. Shut down LMCE
  2. Shut down all NICs but 1 (eth1)
  3. hard wired this nic with my external network and tested small file copies and large.

  The issue occurs when large file copies (~250MB), the failure occurs between file 2 and file 5 in a series. The problem is a total system freeze that requires a hard boot. My pci bus information and ifconfig info is below. Has anyone run into this in the past?

dcerouter_97614:/etc/network# ifconfig

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:E0:4C:A0:01:04
          inet addr:192.168.1.155  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::2e0:4cff:fea0:104/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:6663 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:7871 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:896809 (875.7 KB)  TX bytes:2038965 (1.9 MB)
          Interrupt:21 Base address:0xe800

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:61869 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:61869 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:6593019 (6.2 MB)  TX bytes:6593019 (6.2 MB)

dcerouter_97614:/etc/network# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07c0 (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07cb (rev a2)
00:01.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07cd (rev a1)
00:01.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07ce (rev a1)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07cf (rev a1)
00:01.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d0 (rev a1)
00:01.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d1 (rev a1)
00:01.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d2 (rev a1)
00:01.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d3 (rev a1)
00:02.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d6 (rev a1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d7 (rev a2)
00:03.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d8 (rev a1)
00:03.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d9 (rev a1)
00:03.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07da (rev a2)
00:03.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07c8 (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07fe (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056a (rev a1)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056c (rev a1)
00:09.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07fc (rev a1)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056d (rev a1)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056e (rev a1)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056f (rev a1)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056f (rev a1)
00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07f0 (rev a2)
00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07dc (rev a2)
00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07e0 (rev a2)
01:06.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
02:00.0 RAID bus controller: 3ware Inc 9650SE SATA-II RAID (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6120/VT6121/VT6122 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev 81)
04:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): JMicron Technologies, Inc. Unknown device 2380

227

Installation issues / Re: Installation Experience

« on: December 01, 2008, 06:10:02 am »

Update:

  I decided to proceed with the CD based install. This corrected the need to mess with the udev rule as the install/config process was slightly more robust. I did hit an issue of the MD being reconized as a amd64 architecture when it was actually i386 (according to my bill of sale anyway) which made the diskless_setup.sh process fail. I modified the MD entry on the admin website GUI from amd64 to i386 and the diskless MD config completed successfully.

  I look forward to continuing the configuration and expanding from the media based benefits of lmce to the home automation items.

228

Installation issues / Installation Experience

« on: November 30, 2008, 09:29:09 pm »

Hello all,

  After doing research over the course of a month or two i decided to pull the trigger and purchase some hardware to use with LMCE. I ended up utilizing Fiire (despite many suggestions to the contrary), the 12TB (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Fiire_Engine) and Prestige-lite (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Fiire_Station). My experience with fiire has been *ok* in that it took a bit longer than i expected for my order to ship, I have a potential issue with a 500GB hard drive (mentioned below) and the UIRT i had included in my order did not arrive with the rest of my equipment. On the bright side, both pieces of hardware look good, the 12TB has what seems to be an aluminum case for cooling, and quite a few relatively quiet fans and the prestige is ultra quiet.

Here are some additional details:

Hardware:
Core - Fiire 12TB
MD - Fiire Prestige-lite (diskless/pxe boot)
Remote - Fiire chief (not wild about the color)
Network (LMCE) - Netgear 1gbps switch
Network (External) - Linksys (wireless g)

Software:
LMCE from DVD (no base OS loaded first)

  The most difficult part of the implementation was implementing the wireless NIC in a configuration that LMCE/pluto would recognize as the external NIC. I ended up working around the issue by creating a udev rule then modifying the interface file to match accordingly.
Example from my system:
/etc/udev/rules.d# cat 70-persistent-net.rules
# This file maintains persistent names for network interfaces.
# See udev(7) for syntax.
#
# Entries are automatically added by the 75-persistent-net-generator.rules
# file; however you are also free to add your own entries.

# PCI device 0x1022:0x2000 (pcnet32)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:0c:29:f7:6c:d5", NAME="eth0"
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:12:17:71:fd:6a", ATTRS{type}=="1", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x10de:0x07dc (forcedeth)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:1d:92:63:39:d5", NAME="eth1"

# PCI device 0x1106:0x3119 (via-velocity)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:e0:4c:a0:01:04", NAME="eth2"

# PCI device 0x1814:0x0201 (rt2500pci)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:12:17:71:fd:6a", ATTRS{type}=="1", NAME="wlan0"


My sample interface file:
cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
        iface lo inet loopback
        address 127.0.0.1
        netmask 255.0.0.0

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
        address 192.168.80.1
        netmask 255.255.255.0
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
wireless-essid #######
wireless-key #######
address 192.168.1.105
netmask 255.255.255.0


  The other issue i had was with the original boot drive, it had unrecoverable issues on rootfs, so i swapped the 500GB with a 1TB drive and redeployed MCE and things have been much better since. I do need to run a diagnostic on that drive though, if anyone is aware of a good linux disk utility please let me know.

  MCE works great (fantastic job to every contributor), the only gripe I have is occasional OS level hangs (screen freeze) on the core which halts my media director as well. I'm thinking this may be due to the non-specific/inherent wireless driver i'm using though I can't find any evidence to support that. Due to the fact that i'm now more comfortable with the solution I'm giving consideration to rebuilding the core with a base kubuntu deployment and installing MCE on top of it, though I do need to do additional research before beginning to see if doing this is worth it (does anyone have any thoughts on this?).

- Ryan

229

Installation issues / Re: PXE-Boot hangs up, looping......

« on: November 29, 2008, 06:01:32 am »

I just had the same problem. You just need to disable the on-board NIC via the BIOS menu. Hit [f2] or <del> upon first boot.