[K12OSN] Custom kernel for thin clients

[Patrick Fleming]

Hi Barry,

Replies to two emails inline:

Barry R Cisna wrote:
> Patrick,
> 
> Just noticed in your naming your new kernel. In the pxe world you have
> to convert the pxelinux.cfg/# of your newly complied kernel to hex. Not
> 00-01 like you have it .I am fairly certain unless things have changed
> recently in pxe that that name 00-01 will not work? 

This is actually based upon the MAC of the TC. It does work for me and 
it does load the file.

>So, if your Optiplex
> TC is set to say 192.168.0.1 in your dhcpd-k12ltsp.conf file you need to
> change the file name to C0A80001. With this set like this you should not
> even need an entry in your lts.conf file of 'nic = tg3'.The nic=tg3
> should be appended to the end of your actual C0A8001 file.

Without NIC = tg3 in the MAC specific file it fails to recognize the NIC 
after the PXE request. With it in the MAC file it boots further then 
fails with a similar NIC error. The Optiplex we purchased last year 
needed both of these steps to boot. This one seems to need more steps :(

> 
> You can determine what the hex 'name' should be for your particular TC's
> ip address by doing the following:
> gethostip 192.168.0.1
> ,,should return C0A8001
> 
> Knowing that tg3 is compiled into the stock k12ltsp tree kernel why
> don't you make a copy of it,and simply append nic=tg3 to the end of it
> and rename this one C0A80001 ( if the optiplex is .1).
> Hope this makes sense.

I hadn't tried this yet, will give it a shot tomorrow back at the office.

> 
> Barry.
> OK. Do you see as this TC is booting it is in fact "trying" to load the
Yes, I can see it load the initrd file. It's failing past this point.

> kernel specific initrd you have compiled for this machine? try doing the
> following and post back the output here.
> as root on the server  ' tail -f /var/log/messages '
> boot this TC and copy/paste the output from this to the list here. 
Jun 20 15:43:13 server dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:23:ae:88:ad:9e via eth0
Jun 20 15:43:13 server dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.1.8 to 
00:23:ae:88:ad:9e via eth0
Jun 20 15:43:17 server dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.1.8 
(192.168.1.254) from 00:23:ae:88:ad:9e via eth0
Jun 20 15:43:17 server dhcpd: DHCPACK on 192.168.1.8 to 
00:23:ae:88:ad:9e via eth0
Jun 20 15:43:17 server xinetd[2289]: START: tftp pid=7370 from=192.168.1.8
Jun 20 15:43:17 server in.tftpd[7371]: tftp: client does not accept options


And that's it. On a TC that boots all the way up I get- note the mountd 
request toward the end (then I see entries for Busybox):


Jun 19 09:57:39 server dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via eth0
Jun 19 09:57:39 server dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.1.6 to 
00:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via
eth0
Jun 19 09:57:43 server dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.1.6 
(192.168.1.254) from 0
0:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via eth0
Jun 19 09:57:43 server dhcpd: DHCPACK on 192.168.1.6 to 
00:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via et
h0
Jun 19 09:57:43 server in.tftpd[12322]: tftp: client does not accept options
Jun 19 09:57:53 server dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via eth0
Jun 19 09:57:53 server dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.1.6 to 
00:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via
eth0
Jun 19 09:57:53 server dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.1.6 
(192.168.1.254) from 0
0:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via eth0
Jun 19 09:57:53 server dhcpd: DHCPACK on 192.168.1.6 to 
00:1e:c9:36:5d:f5 via et
h0
Jun 19 09:57:53 server mountd[2384]: authenticated mount request from 
ws6.ltsp:9
86 for /opt/ltsp/i386 (/opt/ltsp/i386)



It
> may show what the TC is choking on.
> Also are you seeing in the first few lines as the TC boots the correct
> ip address that you have assigned this TC to, via lts.conf?
> ,,,me ipaddress 192.168.0.# ....
> ,,,and lastly does this optiplex have a setting in the bios to change
> for pxe booting from int13 to int19?,,try switching this back and forth.

I will look for these settings in the morning. Thanks for all the advice 
so far.

Patrick