MD Hardware Upgrade question.

[pigdog]

Hi all.

I've got an old P4 1Gig which is PXE booting via ROM-O-Matic floppy.

Compared to my Home Theatre unit this system freezes a lot during DVD play back.

I thought I'd swap it out with another system that has a Sempron 2800+ / EP-8KDA3+ mobo 1Gig RAM.

I was wondering if I could cheat and go into webadmin/media directors and edit the ethernet MAC address?

I'm using the original video card because I need the S-video out.

I figure leaving it as architecture/Model i386 would be O.K.

Any suggestions?


Thanks.

[orgel]

The processor is ok, the video card is too slow for DVD playback.

I was wondering if I could cheat and go into webadmin/media directors and edit the ethernet MAC address?

see here to add another MD:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Generic_PC#Setup_of_the_Media_Director

[pigdog]

Sorry, but what I'm asking is can I do it without deleting the existing MD?

I want to know if anyone has tried this approach.

I'm just curious if it would work.  I thought for sure someone must have tried it before.

If no one has then I will try it just to see the results.

However, if someone has tried this approach and it doesn't work then I won't bother.

Also, what I mean by the original card is the NVIDIA 6600 in the original P4, not the graphics chip on the 8KDA.

Sorry if I didn't explain it properly.

Thanks

[totallymaxed]

Sorry, but what I'm asking is can I do it without deleting the existing MD?

I want to know if anyone has tried this approach.

I'm just curious if it would work.  I thought for sure someone must have tried it before.

If no one has then I will try it just to see the results.

However, if someone has tried this approach and it doesn't work then I won't bother.

Also, what I mean by the original card is the NVIDIA 6600 in the original P4, not the graphics chip on the 8KDA.

Sorry if I didn't explain it properly.

Thanks

Well it will work if the hardware in the new machine is similar... just go to Web Admin -> Wizard -> Devices -> Media Directors and then update the Mac Address field for the MD you want to do the swap with. Save the change and then boot the new MD

Andrew

[pigdog]

Thanks Andrew.

It's a different mobo, chipset, CPU, more memory, etc.

What I was really wondering (without originally explaining why -sorry) was when you upgrade a PC with a new mobo etc., I usually just pull the HDD out of the old one.

I let the software "discover" the new devices.

With some operating systems and newer hardware, you can have udev or "device manager - whatever they call it" balk at things.

I figured that since the mobo has been around for a while (not as long as the original), the OS should see everything O.K. and just update it on PXE boot.

From a hardware point I didn't think that LMCE would actually care that much.

I thought that Kubuntu would recognize the newer hardware and update the drivers, etc. needed in my diskless directory.

Or am I wrong with that assumption on how the software operates?

I will try it out and keep you posted.

I'm just curious to find out if I really need to delete/add a MD.

Thanks.

Cheers.

[colinjones]

As you are netbooting, it might not be that simple. At the least the NIC would have to be either identical or happen to use the same driver module. If not, you will need to rebuild your initramfs image with the correct modules and configuration.... might just be easier to rebuild.. the idea of MDs is that they are easy to build.... just switch to PXE and turn on. A few questions and 30 mins, you have a new MD....

Remember, a shortcut is the longest distance between any two points....

[pigdog]

Hi,

Thanks colinjones.

I think that both NIC's are Realtec but one is 10/100T and the 8KDA 10/100/1000.

After having to totally rebuild Core & MD's after a floorplan, UI2 bug (this week) I thought I'd like to try this w/o MD delete/add.

A question.  What is the purpose of the rebuild image button in Media Directors?

Thanks aaagain.

[colinjones]

It triggers the same process as when you first create an MD by turning on the hardware. It rebuilds all the files on the diskless images file system back to default.

[totallymaxed]

Hi,

Thanks colinjones.

I think that both NIC's are Realtec but one is 10/100T and the 8KDA 10/100/1000.

After having to totally rebuild Core & MD's after a floorplan, UI2 bug (this week) I thought I'd like to try this w/o MD delete/add.

A question.  What is the purpose of the rebuild image button in Media Directors?

Thanks aaagain.

Well the Realtek's may be ok... but they may also be detected differently and then the initramfs will possibly need to be updated. Rebuild image is useful if you change the config of you MD in someway or in situations where the boot image has become damaged or messed up in some way. Thats the beauty of pxe booted MD's really... you can mess around with them experimentally and if you really mess the setup up you can just rebuild the image (or delete the MD and re-add it again) and you back where you started. We do this a lot when testing configs or different bit of hardware out...its a bit like using VMware to run an OS instead of running it directly on the hardware...starting again if you mess things up is easy ;-)

All the best

Andrew

[pigdog]

O.K. cool.  That's nice to know that I can get back to default.

Thanks colinjones and totallymaxed for the info.

[pigdog]

Rats!

Didn't work.  I ran into an unrecognized NIC  (NVIDIA forcedeth module).

I've got to play around with the NV MAC address in the BIOS setup each time I want to get PXE boot to even start.

The NVIDIA Boot Agent is just plain ugly.

Oh well.

Thanks all.

[totallymaxed]

Rats!

Didn't work.  I ran into an unrecognized NIC  (NVIDIA forcedeth module).

I've got to play around with the NV MAC address in the BIOS setup each time I want to get PXE boot to even start.

The NVIDIA Boot Agent is just plain ugly.

Oh well.

Thanks all.

Either use 'Rebuild image' or delete the MD and re-add it again by letting it be re-detected etc.

Andrew