Problem with integrated NIC on MD

[rednaxelan]

I just bought all the components for an MD in my family room, did a load of research and selected the created the quietest machine I could create. For some unknown reason I completely missed the fact that the integrated NIC on the ASUS M3N78-EM (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ASUS_M3N78-EM) isn't recognized by MCE 0710 so obviously the diskless setup fails.

The page above suggests upgrading the kernel in order to fix to allow the NIC to work, I am a Linux newb and upgrading the kernel scares the cr@p out of me, especially after reading all the warnings about all the things it can break.

My question is this,if I buy a $10 NIC and throw it in a PCI slot and disable the integrated NIC can I pxeboot from it? If so, is there anything I need to know when considering the card?

Thanks in advance,

Neil

[Techstyle]

In most Bios' the Boot from LAN and enable LAN boot rom are separate (I have enabled one and not the other in the past).  Check in your particular bios if you can (if it will let you) enable the PXE boot rom and disable the onboard LAN.  Install your $10 PCI NIC and try it.  If it fails you can always use GRUB or gPXE (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7930.0).  gPXE is easier for Linux Newbie's, just make sure the card you buy is listed.

[rednaxelan]

Thanks for the info, that is what I will try. My mobo only enables boot ROM if the onboard NIC is enabled, so I will have to go the gPXE route. Just tried this and unfortunately I get an error on the very fist step...

tar xvf grub-0.97.tar.gz
tar: grub-0.97.tar.gz: cannot open: No such file or directory

any suggestions?

[pigdog]

Hi rednaxelan,

If you've got a floppy drive why don't you take a look at ROM-O-MATIC.

It's (to me anyway) easier to setup.

Cheers.

[rednaxelan]

Just wanted to let everyone that may search and find this that I installed a rosewill RC-400 Gigabit PCI NIC (realtek 8169 chipset) and used Rom-o-matic to created a bootable cd-rom (no floppy drive in my setup). I disabled the on-board NIC and the machine boots to the PCI NIC with no problems, I am still having display issues but that is another post. Thanks to everyone that replied, really good information...the hardest part was finding a cheap gigabit card to work with Rom-o-matic and the RC-400 was only $9.99 with free shipping, can't beat that!

[Techstyle]

You should add pages on the wiki covering these pieces of hardware. (And any others you have experience with)