etherboot-users — Discussion of user issues

[Etherboot-users] RAMdisk netboot again

[Pricop I. <pn...@ya...>]

> 
> Dear Kent,
> 
> Maybe you can help me with my problem. I am using
> EtherBoot to experiment with a diskless client.
> After
> a few hoops, I made it working from a NFS-root
> filesystem. Now I am experimenting with RAM-disks.
> I
> tried with a 9 MB fs and it seems to work. Then, I
> tried with a 96 MB fs. Of cause, I modified the
> /usr/src/linux-2.2.5/drivers/block/rd.c to be able
> to
> create ramdisks of 128 MB (have 196 MB on the
> client)
> and recompiled the kernel. I tested these, by
> creating
> a 128 MB RAMdisk and populating it with the fs I
> downsized at 96MB. It worked with a "chroot",
> exception the X part (only fvwm and Netscape). I
> obtained a 50 MB "rdImage.gz". But when I tried to
> make a NBI and boot it, all is well until it's
> tftp-ing the NBI. Than the rotator keeps spinning
> and
> spinning forever - i think, cause after 2.5 hours
> I stopped the process. Anyway, with "tcpdump" I
> estimated the 3.8 MB composed immage loading time
> (fs
> of 9 MB gzipped) and calculated the 51 MB one's -
> it
> must have been 1 min and 47 secs. What can be
> wrong?
> Can anyone tip me on some sites where I can find
> specific documentation on NBI use of ramdisks?
> 
> > Thank you for at least reading this mail,
> 
> =====
> Ioan (John) NIKY Pricop
> Bucharest - ROMANIA
> pn...@ya...
>

Hi folks,

I previously said that the 9MB filesystem compressed
to a 2.8MB rdImage and tagged with a kernel into a
3.5MB tftp-loaded file works. But it seems I have
something wrong even here. Although it seems booting
OK, when I reach the login screen (runlevel 3), after
username and <ENTER>, it says "Incorect login" and it
prompts again. I don't get even a "Password" prompt.
More, when I try to reboot "Ctrl-Alt-Del", I get the
message: "You don't exist. Go away." There was a big
laugh here on me because of this, but I'm desperate.
BTW: The kernel decompresses and initializes well,
then I see a glimpse of something like "Compressed
ramdisk found at..." and then jumps straight into the
login screen. It doesn't do any of the "[  OK  ]"
stuff - "rc.sysinit", I guess. I tried to put some
echoes both at the beginning of "rc.sysinit" and into
a "linuxrc" at the root of the compressed RAMdisk, but
it seems the box never comes in touch with these
files. Does anyone know where can I be wrong?

Thanks for all past and future advices,


=====
Ioan (John) NIKY Pricop
Bucharest - ROMANIA
pn...@ya...

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Re: [Etherboot-users] IP Adress Problem

[<cku...@t-...>]

Thanks,
i found a bootp client and a dhcp client at debian.org

the secound question i asked is solved, too.
I'm using mknbi-linux from etherboot and everything is doing as i expect it.
I think a parameter was wrong

Clemens


ke...@nl... wrote:

> > I created the Image with netboot mknbi  -x -d ram -i rom -r initrd.gz -k
> > zImage -a "console=ttyS1,115200" -o Image
> > When going through init linux is loading a module for the crystal
> > ethernet chip an configuring the
> > device for tcpip with ifconfig.
> > Now my question: how can i get the ip adress that my bootp requests once
> > got at startup ?
> > I want to configure the system with that ip adress.
>
> You should use a user level program like dhcpcd on the initrd to request the IP
> address and configure your network interface.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> This mail sent via NLC WebMail: http://www.nlc.net.au/

[Etherboot-users] booting PCI NICs

[<ke...@nl...>]

Steve Smith sent me some changes which are said to fix booting on some PCI
BIOSes that don't hook into INT19H. I attach them. Since they could affect
current users, before I put these changes into 4.6.6, I would like confirmation
that:

1. It doesn't break booting that currently works, and if possible,

2. If you were having problems with some PCI BIOSes that seemed to ignore
Etherboot before, that it now works.


------------------------------------------------------
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Re: [Etherboot-users] IP Adress Problem

[<ke...@nl...>]

> I created the Image with netboot mknbi  -x -d ram -i rom -r initrd.gz -k
> zImage -a "console=ttyS1,115200" -o Image
> When going through init linux is loading a module for the crystal
> ethernet chip an configuring the
> device for tcpip with ifconfig.
> Now my question: how can i get the ip adress that my bootp requests once
> got at startup ?
> I want to configure the system with that ip adress.

You should use a user level program like dhcpcd on the initrd to request the IP
address and configure your network interface.

------------------------------------------------------
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[Etherboot-users] IP Adress Problem

[<cku...@t-...>]

Hello

I have a litte problem:
I'm booting a linux system with a netrom for the cs89x0 chip created by
etherboot 4.6.5.
I get the IP Adress from a java bootp Server. I'm loding a Image from a
java tftp server.
The image contains a Linux Kernel 2.2.10 using a file system in a
ramdisk. The system is running ok.
I created the Image with netboot mknbi  -x -d ram -i rom -r initrd.gz -k
zImage -a "console=ttyS1,115200" -o Image
When going through init linux is loading a module for the crystal
ethernet chip an configuring the
device for tcpip with ifconfig.
Now my question: how can i get the ip adress that my bootp requests once
got at startup ?
I want to configure the system with that ip adress.

A secound question:
I thought that when using initrd ( system as described above ) a script
named linuxrc is run after root is mounted in the
ram. But on my system always the normal init process is done. I created
a linuxrc link in the root to /bin/bash but the bash was never started.


Many thanks for your answers
Clemens

[Etherboot-users] epic 100 problem

[Zanikolas S. <se...@it...>]

	Hi

	About 10 days ago I've written for a problem related to the SMC
Etherpower II network card. During the boot procedure it is giving the
message ``OOPS, Something wrong with transmitter. status=2003''
	The weird thing is that it _does_ tranmits and, after configuring
right the boopd, it finally worked.
	So, after etherboot loads, it prints repeatedly the message
mentioned, for say 10secs or somethin', and then it works!

	The BIOS doesn't have any PCI options
	While checking the epic100.c, I've noticed that the variable
which controls the loop, the one related to the message ``OOPS...'',
have been declared as int and gets a value of 100000
	Well, I'm not aware of the technical stuff required to understand
the code, but this is clearly an overflow. And, yes, I did tried to change
that little ``int'' to ``long int'' but nothin' changed...

anyway, thanx again for your time, etherboot is most userfull...

serafim

[Etherboot-users] RE: Problems with Etherboot 4.6.0

[Peter K. <kun...@ci...>]

Hello UG,

thank you for your help. I tried to look at tftp but could not detect
any errors so far.
I tried the same tests with BNC and it worked fine. I made over 10000
boots without any error. What is the difference between
BNC and 10 Mbps half duplex? May the card transmit and receive at the
same time even in half duplex? I will also give another tftp a try and
will post the results.

Thank you anyway.

Peter

[Etherboot-users] here's something that might be fun to boot diskless

[Ken Y. <ke...@nl...>]

http://www.htwm.de/fhackenb/projekt/moof/htmldoc/

MP3-player on one floppy. Requires a 486-133 minimum.

Re: [Etherboot-users] Problems with Etherboot 4.6.0

[Robb M. [Genedyne] <gen...@ac...>]

Peter,

I'm not familiar with the card you are using, but I experienced problems
with Intel 82595 that might shed some light.  These chips "Auto-detected"
which interface (RJ45, AUI, or BNC (although we did not implement the BNC)),
but the autodetection algorithm had a definite pre-disposition for the AUI
port.  If the chip detected sufficient noise on the AUI, it would ignore the
RJ45 traffic, and switch over to the AUI port.  We fixed the "problem" by
disabling the auto-dectection mechanism, and forced the chip to use the
RJ45.

If your chip has a similar auto-detection mechanism, you might want to try a
similar fix.

Cheers,
R. Main.

----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Kunzmann <kun...@ci...>
To: <ne...@ba...>
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2000 10:51 AM
Subject: [Etherboot-users] Problems with Etherboot 4.6.0


>
> Hello UG,
>
> I use etherboot 4.6.0 and my problem is, that the system stalls
> sporadically while loading the kernel image. I have set the
> "SIZEINDICATOR" flag
> to see where it happens, but its always a different value. Sometimes
> after a few boots,
> sometimes over a thousand boots. I have programmed a loop where the
> system boots after every loading of the kernel (3 times per minute). I
> run this test over several weeks now. I use (and must use because of the
> BNC,
> AUI, RJ45 in one card) a Etherlink XL PCI card and
> a 650 MHz. Pentium III PC.
> First I thought there is a problem in the 3c90x driver because I found
> some bugs. But after removal of the "bug" the system continues stalling.
> My question is, has anybody else encountered such a problem and can
> someone help me to give me a hint where to search for a bug.
>
> Here a short description of the bug I found in the 3c90x driver:
>
>
> ----------------- snip ---------------------
>
>  /*** a3c90x_poll: exported routine that waits for a certain length of
> time
>  *** for a packet, and if it sees none, returns 0.  This routine should
>  *** copy the packet to nic->packet if it gets a packet and set the size
>  *** in nic->packetlen.  Return 1 if a packet was found.
>  ***/
> static int
> a3c90x_poll(struct nic *nic)
>     {
>     int i, errcode;
>
>     if (!(inw(INF_3C90X.IOAddr + regCommandIntStatus_w)&0x0010))
>     {
>     return 0;
>     }
>
>     /** we don't need to acknowledge rxComplete -- the upload engine
>      ** does it for us.
>      **/
>
>     /** Build the up-load descriptor **/
>     INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpNextPtr = 0;
>     INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus = 0;
>     INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.DataAddr = virt_to_bus(nic->packet);
>     INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.DataLength = 1536 + (1<<31);
>
>     /** Submit the upload descriptor to the NIC **/
>     outl(virt_to_bus(&(INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD)),
>          INF_3C90X.IOAddr + regUpListPtr_l);
>
>     /** Wait for upload completion (upComplete(15) or upError (14)) **/
>     for(i=0;i<40000;i++);
>     while((INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus & ((1<<14) | (1<<15))) == 0)
>     for(i=0;i<40000;i++);
>
>     /** Check for Error (else we have good packet) **/
>     if (INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus & (1<<14))
>  -------------------------snap-----------------------------------------
>
> I thaught the problem is the while loop:
>     for(i=0;i<40000;i++);
>     while((INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus & ((1<<14) | (1<<15))) == 0)
>     for(i=0;i<40000;i++);
>
> First I wondered why there is a the timing loop before the while loop.
> Then I deleted the timing loop and the system stalls. The problem is
> that the 3Com card writes the changes to the memory but the memory area
> was not declared "volatile" therefore the optimizer makes a code where
> the location is never read. I added "volatile" to the structure and it
> works. But my system stalls nevertheless. There is a similar bug in the
> transmit routine.
>
>
> Thats the code I use instead of the above:
>
>     /** Wait for upload completion (upComplete(15) or upError (14)) **/
>     for(i=0; i<50000; i++)
>     {
>         Status = INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus;
>         if((Status & ((1<<14) | (1<<15))) != 0)
>             break;
>     }
>     if(i >= 50000)
>             printf("a3c90x_poll: UpPktStatus timeout\n");       /* tell
> us there was a t
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Peter
>
> _______________________________________________
> Etherboot-users mailing list
> Eth...@li...
> http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/etherboot-users
>
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Re: [Etherboot-users] Problems with Etherboot 4.6.0

[C J C. <co...@co...>]

Sounds like your tftp server isn't timing out and retransmitting
after a lost packet.  If you dump packets you can fix which end 
is letting you down.  TFTP is very simple, er trivial.

Peter Kunzmann wrote:
> 
> Hello UG,
> 
> I use etherboot 4.6.0 and my problem is, that the system stalls
> sporadically while loading the kernel image. I have set the
> "SIZEINDICATOR" flag
===========================================================================
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To get help about this list, send a mail with 'help' as the only string in
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[Etherboot-users] Problems with Etherboot 4.6.0

[Peter K. <kun...@ci...>]

Hello UG,

I use etherboot 4.6.0 and my problem is, that the system stalls
sporadically while loading the kernel image. I have set the
"SIZEINDICATOR" flag
to see where it happens, but its always a different value. Sometimes
after a few boots,
sometimes over a thousand boots. I have programmed a loop where the
system boots after every loading of the kernel (3 times per minute). I
run this test over several weeks now. I use (and must use because of the
BNC,
AUI, RJ45 in one card) a Etherlink XL PCI card and
a 650 MHz. Pentium III PC. 
First I thought there is a problem in the 3c90x driver because I found
some bugs. But after removal of the "bug" the system continues stalling.
My question is, has anybody else encountered such a problem and can
someone help me to give me a hint where to search for a bug.

Here a short description of the bug I found in the 3c90x driver:


----------------- snip ---------------------

 /*** a3c90x_poll: exported routine that waits for a certain length of
time
 *** for a packet, and if it sees none, returns 0.  This routine should
 *** copy the packet to nic->packet if it gets a packet and set the size
 *** in nic->packetlen.  Return 1 if a packet was found.
 ***/
static int
a3c90x_poll(struct nic *nic)
    {
    int i, errcode;
 
    if (!(inw(INF_3C90X.IOAddr + regCommandIntStatus_w)&0x0010))
    {
    return 0;
    }
 
    /** we don't need to acknowledge rxComplete -- the upload engine
     ** does it for us.
     **/
 
    /** Build the up-load descriptor **/
    INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpNextPtr = 0;
    INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus = 0;
    INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.DataAddr = virt_to_bus(nic->packet);
    INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.DataLength = 1536 + (1<<31);
 
    /** Submit the upload descriptor to the NIC **/
    outl(virt_to_bus(&(INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD)),
         INF_3C90X.IOAddr + regUpListPtr_l);
 
    /** Wait for upload completion (upComplete(15) or upError (14)) **/
    for(i=0;i<40000;i++);
    while((INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus & ((1<<14) | (1<<15))) == 0)
    for(i=0;i<40000;i++);
 
    /** Check for Error (else we have good packet) **/
    if (INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus & (1<<14))
 -------------------------snap-----------------------------------------

I thaught the problem is the while loop:
    for(i=0;i<40000;i++);
    while((INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus & ((1<<14) | (1<<15))) == 0)
    for(i=0;i<40000;i++);

First I wondered why there is a the timing loop before the while loop.
Then I deleted the timing loop and the system stalls. The problem is
that the 3Com card writes the changes to the memory but the memory area
was not declared "volatile" therefore the optimizer makes a code where
the location is never read. I added "volatile" to the structure and it
works. But my system stalls nevertheless. There is a similar bug in the
transmit routine.


Thats the code I use instead of the above:

    /** Wait for upload completion (upComplete(15) or upError (14)) **/
    for(i=0; i<50000; i++)
    {
        Status = INF_3C90X.ReceiveUPD.UpPktStatus;
        if((Status & ((1<<14) | (1<<15))) != 0)
            break;
    }
    if(i >= 50000)
            printf("a3c90x_poll: UpPktStatus timeout\n");       /* tell
us there was a t                                                  

Thanks in advance

Peter

[Etherboot-users] Intel 810+3c905c

[Z. <sz...@fs...>]

Hi!

We have a mainboard with Intel 810 chipset, and a 3c905c netcard. I use
the Etherboot packet, but I am not able to boot with this mainboard form
the netcard. The netcard uses the 3com mbaflash utility in the flash.
The mainboard recognizes it, but if I change the mbaflash with the
3c905c-tpo.lzrom, the mainboard can't boot from netcard.

Have anyone a good idea?

tnx

Szor

Re: [Etherboot-users] epic100 problem

[Zanikolas S. <se...@it...>]

On Tue, 8 Aug 2000, Ken Yap wrote:

> >	OOPS, Something wrong with transmitter. status=2003
> >
> One thing I can suggest is it's some kind of timing problem, perhaps the
> driver isn't waiting long enough for some operations.  Another thing to
> check is the PCI config in the BIOS, it's possible that the PCI bus
> latency is set too low on your motherboard. There is code in eepro100.c
> to adjust this to 32 clocks so it seems to matter for some NICs. I don't
> have this NIC so could you also please contact the author of the driver.
> Other than that, you'd could try to debug this yourself, armed with a
> datasheet for the Ethernet controller chip. Maybe also look at the Linux
> driver to see if there are any places where timing is important.

	Thanks for the tips, I'll check it out and reply... 

serafim

Re: [Etherboot-users] epic100 problem

[Ken Y. <ke...@nl...>]

>	Loading ROM image...
>	ROM segment 0x8000 length 0x4000 reloc 0x9800
>	Boot from (N)etwork or from (L)ocal
>(we choose N)
>	Etherboot/32 version 4.6.4 (GPL) for [EPIC100]
>	Found SMC EtherPpowerII at 0xF800, ROM addres 0x000000000
>	Probing....[EPIC100] I/O F800 00:E0:29:1D:3D:97
>	Searching for server (BOOTP)...
>(all fine 'till now)
>	OOPS, Something wrong with transmitter. status=2003
>
>I've tried this in two seperate PCs with the same hardware characteristics
>(including the same network card). On the second one it gave an address of
>FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF in the ``Probing...'' line and a status=8000 in the last
>line
>
>Is there any hardware problem, an incompatibility, am I doing something
>wrong?

One thing I can suggest is it's some kind of timing problem, perhaps the
driver isn't waiting long enough for some operations.  Another thing to
check is the PCI config in the BIOS, it's possible that the PCI bus
latency is set too low on your motherboard. There is code in eepro100.c
to adjust this to 32 clocks so it seems to matter for some NICs. I don't
have this NIC so could you also please contact the author of the driver.
Other than that, you'd could try to debug this yourself, armed with a
datasheet for the Ethernet controller chip. Maybe also look at the Linux
driver to see if there are any places where timing is important.

[Etherboot-users] epic100 problem

[Zanikolas S. <se...@it...>]

Hello there!

I'm very new to etherboot and it seems that I've got a problem.

There's an SMC Etherpower II network card which works fine with the
epic100 module on a system running kernel 2.2.14-15

I've compiled the 32 bit version of the epic driver with the
-DNO_DHCP_SUPPORT, which comes with the etherboot package (v4.6)
and then followed the procedure for testing it with a floppy:
	
	cat floppyload.bin.pre epic100.lzrom >/dev/fd0

Booting with that floppy got the following messages:

	Loading ROM image...
	ROM segment 0x8000 length 0x4000 reloc 0x9800
	Boot from (N)etwork or from (L)ocal
(we choose N)
	Etherboot/32 version 4.6.4 (GPL) for [EPIC100]
	Found SMC EtherPpowerII at 0xF800, ROM addres 0x000000000
	Probing....[EPIC100] I/O F800 00:E0:29:1D:3D:97
	Searching for server (BOOTP)...
(all fine 'till now)
	OOPS, Something wrong with transmitter. status=2003

I've tried this in two seperate PCs with the same hardware characteristics
(including the same network card). On the second one it gave an address of
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF in the ``Probing...'' line and a status=8000 in the last
line

Is there any hardware problem, an incompatibility, am I doing something
wrong?

Well, sorry for the lengthy mail, and thanks for your patience and time.

Finally, I'd like to express my thanks to the people worked on the
etherboot project

yours,
serafim

[Etherboot-users] mknbi-1.0-4 released

[Ken Y. <ke...@nl...>]

I have released mknbi-1.0-4 at http://etherboot.sourceforge.net

Changes:

+ The last used sector of a floppy image was previously omitted from the
ramdisk and this could cause apps to fail.

+ FAT16 "floppies" should work now.

+ --harddisk now works for both mknbi-fdos and mknbi-dos.

For the moment please fetch mknbi-1.0-4 separately until etherboot-4.6.6
is released. It is available as .tar.gz, .rpm and .srpm.

[Etherboot-users] Re: mknbi-1.0-4

[Ken Y. <ke...@nl...>]

I forgot to mention that the problems fixed in this release only concern
FreeDOS and DOS users. Linux and FreeBSD users can ignore this release
and relax.

BTW, there is a SSH client for DOS here: http://www.vein.hu/~nagyd/
I have booted this diskless onto a 286 with a 320kB "floppy". Felt like
a 2400 baud terminal but ok if you just want to read mail with pine. :-)
It could be a way of providing a roomful of secure terminals with old
386s.