Fiire Station "Diskless Setup failed"

[trossman]

OK, so I got my wall mount fiire station and reinstalled my core  - this time from cds to preserve some disk partitions containing media.  Clean install.  Then I put the 3 files from fiire in /usr/pluto/install/via and then pxe booted the fiire station.  It didn't complete the boot.  I'm pretty sure it loaded the kernel over tftp b/c you see the message "Loading default/vmlinuz.......", "Loading initramfs....." followed by a bunch of things including what looks like network setup - gives the device the following permanent address etc.  192.168.80.2.

I checked in the admin website and the media director shows up and even has two kernels both with a via/xxx path - one is debian and the other is kubuntu.  I tried setting it to use ubunutu - hoping that would mean kubuntu - but still same results.

Help, please
How do I even debug this?  PXE booting should be pretty easy to get a base os running.

Thanks
Andrew

[totallymaxed]

OK, so I got my wall mount fiire station and reinstalled my core  - this time from cds to preserve some disk partitions containing media.  Clean install.  Then I put the 3 files from fiire in /usr/pluto/install/via and then pxe booted the fiire station.  It didn't complete the boot.  I'm pretty sure it loaded the kernel over tftp b/c you see the message "Loading default/vmlinuz.......", "Loading initramfs....." followed by a bunch of things including what looks like network setup - gives the device the following permanent address etc.  192.168.80.2.

I checked in the admin website and the media director shows up and even has two kernels both with a via/xxx path - one is debian and the other is kubuntu.  I tried setting it to use ubunutu - hoping that would mean kubuntu - but still same results.

Help, please
How do I even debug this?  PXE booting should be pretty easy to get a base os running.

Thanks
Andrew

If your installing LinuxMCE-0710 then as far as i know the Via based Fiire boxes do not work currently. I'd suggest getting in touch with Fiire for an update on when this will be fixed.

All the best

Andrew

[trossman]

I downloaded fiire's archives for their hardware and followed their instructions, but it still didn't work.

[totallymaxed]

I downloaded fiire's archives for their hardware and followed their instructions, but it still didn't work.

As I said as far as i know the Via based Fiire boxes are not compatible with LinuxMCE-0710 currently. You should contact Fiire directly for an update.

Andrew

[justdeb]

Trossman,

Does your fiire station fail just after the msg comes up about 'diskless setup failed'?

Mine did and after several reboots it appears to get a but further and then hngs. From my point of view this is progress compared to previously. I thought originally my core had a poor choice - but too much scoth and time too think made me realise my core was well within the guidelines of where i should have a working diskless md - but alas poor Yorklok it is not so...... anyhows i think it is something that the core doesn't understand and it is specifcially related to the onboard nic that the machine is using. I believe fiire think that it 'works' but to date it falls short. I suspect based on the unrecognised via setup i think it will reguire input from fiire themselves to get it working... I have been tinkerging since my return from holidays 2 days ago and have yet to find out why this will not work... Lets hpe our comments within this forum will incite fiire to respond with a solution!!!.

Regards justins

[justdeb]

Quick update - i still am unable to get the unit to boot. It hangs everytime after it is announced to the dcreouter at the point it announces that it is trying to do a diskless setup.. But what i found interesting is that when i plug a keyboard and mouse into the usb slots - the unit boots alot further and i get to the point where is hangs on the usb devices. Needless to say for something that should work out of the box it is certainly doing the opposite. I have sent a query off to the FIIRE guys and lets see if i get a responce.

Trossman - how is your Fiire unit going ?

[trossman]

I gave up on this whole thing for a few months until recently.  The fiire guys remotely "fixed up" my core, but I don't even know what they did.  It took them a few tries before it finally appears to work.  I've had the fiire station basically working for a couple months now.  I'm just starting to get it into regular use.  Today I fired up my other MD which took a few reboots, but eventually booted to the orbiter screen!  This is a via based ebox fanless, diskless box.  It shows up using the same fiire station template and boots up ok.

I can watch youtube videos fine with sound etc.  However, I can't play any audio or video files on this MD. 

On my fiire station, I can play all the dvds ripped by my core, but I can't play any of my videos on file - mpg, avi, etc.  I have the restricted drivers installed, but the videos are seriously distorted.  The sound comes through ok, but the video is all messed up.  Ironically, I can play all my mp3 files ripped separately, but I have problems playing the audio files ripped by my core.  Although it does not seem to be every file.

I still like linuxmce, but it's quite a struggle - especially since I don't have a lot of time to spend on this :-(.  I really like this project.  Is there any commercial interest to invest in active development?  Or is this entirely developed on spare time?

[tschak909]

Currently we assume that any VIA based system is a Fiire station.

The Fiire Station is 1st generation hardware, as such, it has a number of bugs, that have been deemed unfixable, and generally unstable.

We cannot support the hardware, because it can't be tracked to newer versions of our software at all.

The best way to use LMCE is to use recommended hardware in the wiki. It will work a lot better this way.

And, LMCE is being developed mostly in spare time, based on code from a commercial company. There are also a few companies that build products and solutions based on this code base.

I'm sorry you're having difficulties, but the Fiire hardware is very problematic, VIA hardware in general is very problematic, the only thing i can suggest, since you have limited time, is to get properly supported hardware.

-Thom

[justdeb]

Hi Trossman,

I gave up on the idea of using my fire station as it is just too much to get it working with LMCE. And besides as others have already mentioned there are plenty of other supported options available and they require little or no effort to get up and running. I ended up putting a 2.5 inch drive in the unit and gave it to one of my kids to play with and it suits there purpose extremely well.

I like others have learnt the hard way in relation to via based products.......

If you do get it running - please let everyone know as i know there would be a number of us who would love to get their original units up and running....

Regards

Justin