HELP! How do I add a media director for diskless boot?

[Hipper]

I have installed LMCE from the 7.04 from the DVD ISO and all went fine and the Core/hybrid is up and running. I have two NIC’s installed and working; ED0 and ED1 are both accessible. Ed0 is the LMCE DHCP internal interface and it is connected to a 10 port hub that has one other pc connected to it that I want to net boot from the core. So now I’m trying to follow the directions on the Wiki to setup the diskless boot system.

Heres the step from the Wiki that I’m stuck on:

“In LinuxMCE Admin go to Wizard > Devices > Media Directors. Add the media director if this is a new one, and set the Mac address. The Mac address should be a series of six 2 character sequences separated by colons, like this: 1A:00:F2:21:23:9F”

So I go to the admin site and go to wizard and find my way to the media directors and I see one MD listed “core/hybrid”. Seeing how the Wiki doesn’t explain how to add the new device I assume that I need to click on the “Add Device” button. After clicking Add Device I get a popup to select the device template. In the Device template pull down I select “Generic PC as MD” and click close.  The popup closes and I see the Media Directors admin page again but I don’t see my new device added? Even with a refresh there is still no new device added. What’s going on, am I doing this right? How is one suppose to manual add media directors? I even tried going in to the advanced devices menu and tried to add a new “top level device” and I can’t get that page to add a device either, no matter what template I select?

[Greg]

You don't have to do anything on the core to add a diskless MD.  Just turn on the MD< making sure it is set to net/PXE boot, and the core will autodetect it and set it up.  It'll take a while before the MD is ready for use, but it works.

[Hipper]

Hmmm, well that contradicts the Wiki (http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Automatic_diskless_boot_of_media_directors) and what I'm seeing. That’s not to say that the Wiki is not out of date or I’m doing something wrong. I'm trying to net boot a Dell GX50, it does not have a boot from network option in the bios but it does have a net boot option when powering on. On the main power up splash screen there are two options F2 for setup and F12 for network boot. When I attempt to use the network boot option it tries to connect but does not sees the core, so I assumed I needed to do what the Wiki said (i.e. set the MD MAC address on the core). I know the core NIC’s and DHCP server are working because LMCE can get to the web and if I boot the GX50 into windows I get an IP address from the core’s DHCP server. Any ideas why this isn’t working?

[tschak909]

Did you read the instructions when building your core?

You should have two separate network cards.. one connected directly to your internet modem, and the other connected to your internal network.

The system should also be the only DHCP server on the network...if you have a wireless router, DHCP needs to be turned off, and only the LAN ports on the wireless router used.

-Thom

[Hipper]

Yep I read them. The networking is working just fine, its the net boot of the GX50 that I cant get to work.

Take a look at my previous posts

From my first post:
"I have two NIC’s installed and working; ED0 and ED1 are both accessible. Ed0 is the LMCE DHCP internal interface and it is connected to a 10 port hub that has one other pc connected to it that I want to net boot from the core."

And my Second:
"I know the core NIC’s and DHCP server are working because LMCE can get to the web and if I boot the GX50 into windows I get an IP address from the core’s DHCP server"

[royw]

Howdy,

I hit the same problem this evening when trying to add an old Sony VAIO as an MD.  These are the steps I think I took to get it working on 0710B2:

1) At the bottom of the Wizards|Media Directory page there is a button: "Setup Diskless MD *".  Press it and wait for the script it runs to complete.

2) reload the router. 

3) Finally boot your PXE MD.

The boot is pretty slow, but you should have lot's of messages scrolling.  Eventually you'll get to the AV setup wizard.

Now on to figuring out how to let the diskless MD have 1280x768 display resolution...   


HTH,
Roy

[totallymaxed]

Howdy,

I hit the same problem this evening when trying to add an old Sony VAIO as an MD.  These are the steps I think I took to get it working on 0710B2:

1) At the bottom of the Wizards|Media Directory page there is a button: "Setup Diskless MD *".  Press it and wait for the script it runs to complete.

2) reload the router. 

3) Finally boot your PXE MD.

The boot is pretty slow, but you should have lot's of messages scrolling.  Eventually you'll get to the AV setup wizard.

Now on to figuring out how to let the diskless MD have 1280x768 display resolution...   


HTH,
Roy

Hmmmm... well you should not have to the above. If the Dell is Network bootable and the network interfaces are setup ok then it should just commence intitial boot and announce itself and then automatically add itself. This takes 10 mins or so if you network usually on a 100mbit connection with the Core/Network lightly loaded.

[rrambo]

Howdy,

I hit the same problem this evening when trying to add an old Sony VAIO as an MD.  These are the steps I think I took to get it working on 0710B2:

1) At the bottom of the Wizards|Media Directory page there is a button: "Setup Diskless MD *".  Press it and wait for the script it runs to complete.

2) reload the router. 

3) Finally boot your PXE MD.

The boot is pretty slow, but you should have lot's of messages scrolling.  Eventually you'll get to the AV setup wizard.

Now on to figuring out how to let the diskless MD have 1280x768 display resolution...   


HTH,
Roy

Hmmmm... well you should not have to the above. If the Dell is Network bootable and the network interfaces are setup ok then it should just commence intitial boot and announce itself and then automatically add itself. This takes 10 mins or so if you network usually on a 100mbit connection with the Core/Network lightly loaded.

No, you don't have to do anything other than make sure your MD will network boot...  It will automatically set everything up...  the wiki is outdated and if I have time I will update it...

[colinjones]

Couple of questions:

1. You say "both are accessible" - what do you mean by that? Do you mean both NICs are on the same LAN segment? So the "internal" NIC is able to talk through your hub to both the PC you are trying to boot and your broadband router? If so, then this can easily be the cause of your problem.

2. What does the PC do when it fails to boot? Do you see the PC acquiring an IP address? Does it fail to get one? Or does it get the IP address, and start saying that it is accessing the TFTP server, but then fail at that point?

The answers to both these questions are critical to whether you will get this working or not. The first because if your broadband router can see the DHCP requests, it could be getting in first and supplying an IP before LMCE does. You CAN add MDs manually, BUT you should never have to if you have set your network up correctly and there isn't another problem (like dead DHCP server) which needs to be fixed anyway. Plus if you do it manually, you are likely to be setting up more complexity than you need, and could mask other problems. Start by removing the manually added MD as this will prevent you from being sure that everything is working fine.

Also, separate your internal and external networks physically, if this is how they are set up. There are also DHCP lease issues with the core if you try to REnew an old lease from your broadband router even if they are no longer on the same network together - but this should only effect non-network boot devices like NAS's and Windows shares for your media. Either way, double confirm that the IP address your MD gets is not only from the core, and on the core's internal subnet, BUT also in the small sub-range that the core sets up by default for this, can't remember the exact range but its something like 192.168.80.20-40 (not the entire 80 subnet)

[tkmedia]

If you have two nics on the MD, disable one.

I have seen many times now If you have two nics in a MD and try to pxeboot off of one, when it starts loading the lan drivers it loads driver for eth0 but its for the other nic.  This stops the install of the MD in it's tracks.

[colinjones]

oops, I didn't notice that bit! mustn't have read it properly, assumed that it was the core...!

[Hipper]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

My network is setup as two distinct segments one on ED0 and one on ED1
ED0 is the external segment connected to a ten port switch  and its getting its IP address from my internal FreeBSD (dhcp, file/print server firewall) box. That segment also has several other systems and a wireless access point (yet another segment). ED1 is connected to a 10 port hub (not switch) for testing and because this is the only other free network hardware I have left. At this point I'm just playing with LMCE to get to know it and see how it works on some of my old hardware.

When it comes to what I see on the GX50 when I try to net boot, I see noting. I see a message attempting network boot then a blank screen for about 10 sec, where I assume it's trying to get an ip and connect to the tftp server. After the 10 sec of blank screen the bios moves on the next boot device or fails to boot of no other devices are found. If I put a HD in the system and boot into windows the system gets an IP address form the core and the networking works just fine.

At this point I think its one of two things, the fact that I am using a hub and not a switch or the GX50 can't net boot with the dhcp and tftp config setup on the core. So I figured I would try to build a grub boot disk and use that to net boot the box. Well that went down hill fast, the boot disk works but grub throws an error "Error 23: Error while parsing number" on the first command "root (nd)" which I'm guessing is from one of two things my NIC is not supported correctly (3c920 with 3c905c compatibility) or grub cant connect to the tftp server on the core.

Does anyone know how I can test the tftp and net boot setup on my core to see if it is working as need?
Also is it possible to net boot on a hub or must you have a switch?

[tkmedia]

Is there more than one option for lan boot in the bios I think I have seen options for boot rom or boot agents on various setups try the boot agent if listed in bios.

[Hipper]

There are no options in the bios for net boot it is an F12 prompt with the initial bios splash screen i.e. press F12 for network boot.
Oh and the NIC does support it too so the system should be able to net boot. Something else is up either the fact that I'm using a hub or the core is messed up some how.
I would really like to manually test the tftp and nfs services used by the net boot but I don't know enough about the boot process to know how to.
DHCP seems to be working just fine, any ideas on testing the other services?

[hari]

There are no options in the bios for net boot it is an F12 prompt with the initial bios splash screen i.e. press F12 for network boot.
Oh and the NIC does support it too so the system should be able to net boot. Something else is up either the fact that I'm using a hub or the core is messed up some how.
I would really like to manually test the tftp and nfs services used by the net boot but I don't know enough about the boot process to know how to.
DHCP seems to be working just fine, any ideas on testing the other services?

try to get the files "pxelinux.0", "pxelinux.cfg/default", "default/vmlinuz" and "default/initd" from the core with tftp. That and a valid DHCP response will at least allow a PXE client to boot the kernel into the initial ramdisk.
best regards,
Hari