Launch Manager gets hosed after a couple reboots hours after fresh install

[trossman]

I installed kubuntu 7.10 and only added webmin and NXServer.  Then I installed the 7.10 RC2 via CDs as a core/hybrid.  I tried to pxe boot a MD but it failed at the diskless script.  I used the admin website to create a group for my MD to hopefully use a different boot image which I got from the fiire guys for my via based machine.

Before I could try to re-PXE-boot my MD, the core was pooched and check out the attachment to see all the missing buttons.  I manually ran several appropriately named scripts to try to get the server back and running. I pretty much tried every script with the word "start" in /usr/bin/pluto.

Any idea what happened?  Any idea how to restore the launcher (without reinstalling ;-)?

p.s. the attachment option doesn't work - says "Cannot access attachments upload path!"

Anyway, here's the attachment

thanks in advance
Andrew

[radmofo]

So you cant upload the boot image the fiire guys gave you, that would be nice!!

[trossman]

I think there are several problems - right now I don't think the core services are actually running properly.  No, I don't think my MD is booting with the fiire files, but now I think the problems are deeper with core not running.  Maybe also has something to do with this weird launcher screw up  I'm now very close to removing all pluto packages and trying to install again.  I just really don't want to have to reinstall the whole os too ;-)

[radmofo]

This isn't windows. It don't take 3 hours to install! Thankfully!! I don't know what it could be. Maybe a frsh install, boot the md normally to see if it works properly then go into the diskless directory, which should have something since you bootied an md and replace the image with your fiire image. I haven't done it personnally but it could work.

[trossman]

I did reinstall (from dl dvd) so it was pretty quick.  But then my sound card config got hosed up again  - but I'll worry about that later.  Now the core comes up ok and when I rebuild the MD I do in fact get a directory under /usr/pluto/diskless - hurray!  But it still does not work :-(.  The MD still barfs when it tries to run Diskless_Setup.sh reporting "Diskless Setup Failed". 

Anyone have some tips how to debug this?  Any logs I should look at?  The other alternative is to try putting my own distro on a usb flash drive.  Suggestions welcome.

BTW, I really like the hardware - small, low power, quiet, and a decent price for the performance http://www.wdlsystems.com/modperl/view_services.cgi?r=detail&prod_num=1EBX48T&aisle_id=1016
"VIA Eden Esther 1.2GHz processor, 512MB DDR2, MPEG4/WMV9 decoding accelerator, 1x EIDE, 1x 10/100 LAN, 1x PS/2 K/B, 1x PS/2 Mouse, 2x USB 2.0 Ports (One in front), TV-out/S-Video (no VGA). Use with EmbedDisk horizontal left RoHS"

I tried using the fiire station via drivers - but that didn't seem to work.  Although I think it's failing before we even get to the drivers.  Anyone who knows the PXE boot sequence for pluto?
thanks in advance

Andrew

[trossman]

Apparently this is a reproducible bug!

I completely reinstalled 7.10 rc2 using the dvddl.  Note the first time this happened I had installed the same release from CDs.  Once installed, I added the latest webmin and the free NXServer.  I changed the samba config to work with my lan.  I added firewall rules to allow some local service on my lan - I have two subnets  -the core is connected to both and provides firewall/routing between.  The "external" subnet is NAT'd, firewalled, routed to my internet connection.

The only other thing I did was try to use the core to deploy a diskless MD connected on the protected 192.168.80 network.  Best I could achieve thus far was that the MD gets an IP, downloads the kernel, gets a MD identifier, does a pre-mount script then attempts to run Diskless_Setup.sh which returns a "Diskless Setup Failed" message on the MD which appears to halt.

Before I blast this and repave it, would anyone like to see some logs etc. for debugging?

[tekoholic]

I'm not sure where I found this info, but I believe the "Diskless Setup failed." error MAY have something to do with the NIC in the MD not being recognized by the kernel's drivers used in the Diskless_Setup.sh.  I've had this problem with a particularly troublesome notebook, with Nvidia chipset.  I believe that there is a fix on the wiki, but cannot find it for the life of me (and haven't tried it, as yet).

Good luck!!