<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 5:52 PM, Marco Fretz <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mailinglist@blah.li">mailinglist@blah.li</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
hi,<br>
<br>
we had the same problem with newer HP pcs and servers (broadcom nics).<br>
pxe works well on broadcom, the install not. doesn't matter if you're<br>
using kickstart or manual install.<br>
<br>
the problem was in centos 4.2. after updating the install environment to<br>
4.5 the problem was gone... so it was a driver issue! the install kernel<br>
is not exactly the normal linux kernel i think.<br>
<br>
if anaconda just says that it cannot find install image, etc. the system<br>
has no connectivity at this time.<br>
<br>
hope this is helpful...<br>
<br>
bests<br>
marco<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
Paolo Supino wrote:<br>
><br>
><br>
> On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 3:07 PM, Romeo Ninov <<a href="mailto:rninov@gmail.com">rninov@gmail.com</a><br>
</div><div class="Ih2E3d">> <mailto:<a href="mailto:rninov@gmail.com">rninov@gmail.com</a>>> wrote:<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> Paolo Supino wrote / napísal(a):<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 2:17 PM, Romeo Ninov <<a href="mailto:rninov@gmail.com">rninov@gmail.com</a><br>
</div>> <mailto:<a href="mailto:rninov@gmail.com">rninov@gmail.com</a>> <mailto:<a href="mailto:rninov@gmail.com">rninov@gmail.com</a><br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">> <mailto:<a href="mailto:rninov@gmail.com">rninov@gmail.com</a>>>> wrote:<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> Paolo Supino wrote / napísal(a):<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 8:14 AM, nate<br>
> <<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a>><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a>>><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a>><br>
><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:centos@linuxpowered.net">centos@linuxpowered.net</a>>>>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Paolo Supino wrote:<br>
> > Hi Nate<br>
> ><br>
><br>
> > 3: After the error comes up I get the HTTP setup<br>
> configuration<br>
> screen with<br>
> > the source website (in IP) and CentOS directory as I<br>
> entered<br>
> them in the<br>
> > pxeconfiguration file and as it appears in the kickstart<br>
> configuration file<br>
> > and all I have to do is press the 'OK' button to<br>
> continue the<br>
> installation<br>
> > to a successful completion.<br>
><br>
> If that's the case the next most likely culprit is<br>
><br>
> > url --url <a href="http://192.168.11.1/source" target="_blank">http://192.168.11.1/source</a><br>
><br>
><br>
> Just because the PXE boot loader can download the<br>
> kickstart<br>
> config does not mean that the installation process<br>
> will work<br>
> with that NIC.<br>
><br>
> Also I've had lots of broadcom systems not work with<br>
> kickstart over<br>
> the years, it's not uncommon for newer systems to have<br>
> newer<br>
> revs of the chipsets and those revs not being<br>
> supported by the<br>
> installer.<br>
><br>
> But it sounds like in your case it does work, so I<br>
> would look<br>
> at the url above, as it likely is the cause of the<br>
> problem.<br>
> Check<br>
> the http access logs on the server for 404s and<br>
> similar errors.<br>
><br>
> nate<br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> CentOS mailing list<br>
> <a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a>><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a>>><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a>><br>
> <mailto:<a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:CentOS@centos.org">CentOS@centos.org</a>>>><br>
><br>
><br>
> <a href="http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos" target="_blank">http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos</a><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> Hi Nate<br>
><br>
> After figuring what I was doing wrong (see previous reply<br>
> ...) I started going through each of my systems in order to<br>
> boot them and install CentOS 5.2 on each. For the most<br>
> part it<br>
> works, but only for the most part? Because once in a few<br>
> boots<br>
> (not machine specific) anaconda stops and either asks me what<br>
> interface it needs to configure or fails to load 'stage2.img'<br>
> from the web server on <a href="http://192.168.11.1" target="_blank">192.168.11.1</a> <<a href="http://192.168.11.1" target="_blank">http://192.168.11.1</a>><br>
> <<a href="http://192.168.11.1" target="_blank">http://192.168.11.1</a>><br>
> <<a href="http://192.168.11.1" target="_blank">http://192.168.11.1</a>> ... All cables are good cables. The<br>
> network switch is a Cisco 3750G with no configuration)<br>
> and all<br>
> the NICs are broadcom with firmware <a href="http://3.8.9." target="_blank">3.8.9.</a><br>
> <<a href="http://3.8.9" target="_blank">http://3.8.9</a>.> <<a href="http://3.8.9" target="_blank">http://3.8.9</a>.><br>
> <<a href="http://3.8.9" target="_blank">http://3.8.9</a>.> Can you throw a guess where the problem might<br>
> be lying (I hate inconsistencies)?<br>
><br>
><br>
> Have you check apache logs for something. Check also the server<br>
> messages<br>
><br>
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><br>
><br>
</div></div><div class="Ih2E3d">> Hi Romeo<br>
><br>
> Yes I did, and nothing shows up in either access_log or<br>
> error_log :-(<br>
> I just had a node that stopped asking me for IP configuration<br>
> (twice) and only on the second time (checked on the server using<br>
> tcpdump) did it actually try to contact the server to retrieve<br>
> network configuration continue and it successfully retrieved<br>
> 'stage2.img' from the web server :-(<br>
><br>
> Paolo, what about DHCP or bootp servers. Check the logs, flush ARP<br>
> cache from server(s)<br>
><br>
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> <a href="http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos" target="_blank">http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos</a><br>
><br>
><br>
> Hi Romeo<br>
><br>
</div><div class="Ih2E3d">> The more systems I boot the more I'm starting to feel that it's<br>
> hardware problem related ... I just booted a system in which the ELOM<br>
> says that NIC0 has 1 MAC address, but when I boot the system I saw on<br>
> the network a different MAC address altogether ...<br>
> I'm checking at the lowest level: on the wire (using tcpdump) so if<br>
> nothing shows in the capture I'm sure I won't find anything in the logs :-(<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> TIA<br>
> Paolo<br>
><br>
><br>
</div>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br>Hi Marco <br><br> Thanx for the email. I've been debugging this problem for a few days and a few installs before I posted the first email in this thread I started sniffing the network interface on the server (dhcp, tftp, http are all on the same computer) and I noticed that no communication reaches the server between the PXE load and the retrieval error (and I think I wrote about it in my original post). Some people suggested that it might be that Linux gets confused in the interfaces (the Sun X2200 M2 has 4 NICs), which I find hard to believe (Linux kernel is old enough and probably got rid of these kind of bugs a long time ago). In some of the failures the kernel loaded, retrieved the kickstart configuration file and than failed to retrieve 'stage2.img' (again nothing appeared on the wire). I have a sneaky feeling that the kickstart process assumes a lot of basic facts and doesn't do any/enough sanity checking. Right now I need to get this cluster up and running (I'm already 2 weeks behind schedule). After it's up I will try to debug the process. <br>
The situation got me so aggravated that I was contemplating resurrecting my old private distro (not going to do that) that does things in a much simpler way.<br><br><br><br><br><br>--<br>ttyl<br>Paolo <br><br></div>