disked MD over wireless (MCE 710)

[kjaerjen]

I have for some time been experimenting with a single hybrid/core MCE install. I would now like to extend with a MD connected over wireless. It need to end up as a wireless MD as a cabled connection isn't an option. During installation it will be possible to have a cabled setup. My preferred way would be to have this as a disked MD, but as I understand it the support for disked MD has been removed from 710.

The only supported solution as I understand it, is a diskless MD and use a grub based PXE boot to run over wireless. I have two problems in this:
- I need to use the core as a DHCP server, which implies that it shall running all the time to support other PCs in my home with DHCP service.
- I expect the bootstrap of the MD to take longer time than needed for disked MD. Furthermore the installation of a grub based PXE boot involves quite many steps.

My questions are:
- Is it possible to replicate my core/hybrid and degrade one instance to a pure MD?
- Is there other easier/better ways for me to follow than those outlined above?

Thanks in advance
Jens Kristian

[tschak909]

If you follow the FAQ and do things properly, then you can simply boot a hybrid as an MD by switching to network boot.

And yes, the core has to be the DHCP and Gateway. It's the only way we can make all of the system work as it should out of the box.

As an aside, I really wish you new users would spend some time reading previous posts, the wiki, the FAQ, I am getting very tired of answering the same questions over and over.

-Thom

[colinjones]

Thom - can you please place a link to the relevant wiki article that describes the process of booting a hybrid as an MD, I think that is the most appropriate way of answering this question and leaves a trail for future users to follow when trying to address the same problem...

rgds
Colin

[tschak909]

Go into bios, set boot type to network, done.

-Thom

[colinjones]

I have for some time been experimenting with a single hybrid/core MCE install. I would now like to extend with a MD connected over wireless. It need to end up as a wireless MD as a cabled connection isn't an option. During installation it will be possible to have a cabled setup. My preferred way would be to have this as a disked MD, but as I understand it the support for disked MD has been removed from 710.

The only supported solution as I understand it, is a diskless MD and use a grub based PXE boot to run over wireless. I have two problems in this:
- I need to use the core as a DHCP server, which implies that it shall running all the time to support other PCs in my home with DHCP service.
- I expect the bootstrap of the MD to take longer time than needed for disked MD. Furthermore the installation of a grub based PXE boot involves quite many steps.

My questions are:
- Is it possible to replicate my core/hybrid and degrade one instance to a pure MD?
- Is there other easier/better ways for me to follow than those outlined above?

Thanks in advance
Jens Kristian

1. You need the core on permanently anyway, as it controls the entire LMCE system and mediates access to the Internet, etc. You cannot run an MD standalone whether or not it is disked, as it requires the core services to work. So you would need to install it as a hybrid at the very least. And yes it needs to be the gateway and DHCP server - see here for an explanation of how simple this can be http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Network_Setup

2. Even a relatively low powered machine like one of my MDs (Intel Atom) network boots quite quickly on a GigE network - a minute or so - a disked MD will not be dramatically faster as a lot of the tasks are hardware/CPU bound and not related to the download of the code.

Either way, you are going to have problems wirelessly PXE booting as this is not a supported configuration. The simplest way currently is to buy an external wireless bridge that you can preconfigure with your SSID/keys/etc and plug into the NIC of your MD, this way you don't need to deal with the other issues.... bearing in mind that anything less than an N wireless AP will mean that your MD boots slowly. Other than that, your best option is to await the support of Disked MDs again... this is planned by some, but not in the immediate future.

[cirion]

If a wired ethernet is not possible for you, you might want to look at Homplug/Powerline.
It uses your powerlines to create a network, so diskless boot works.
It's slower than ethernet cable but faster and more stable than wifi.

You can even use it as a bridge if you have more equipment near your MD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePlug_Powerline_Alliance

[kjaerjen]

Thanks Colin for your advice and pointers.

I have decided to add a dedicated MCE home network where the core/hybrid can serve as DHCP server. The Internet connection will in the first hand be timeshared with my wireless LAN network as I don't dare to run my WLAN through the core/hybrid during my installation of linuxmce.

I am right now trying to install the MD across a wired LAN. I will investigate how I can handle the missing wireless possibility. Anyhow I feel the lack of possibility to run an MD on a wireless 802.11 LAN as a major drawback of linuxmce and hope the disked MD will be prioritized. The proposed alternatives can be good interim workarounds, but not the right long term solution.