[CentOS] kickstart problems

Wed Sep 3 14:52:02 UTC 2008
Marco Fretz <mailinglist at blah.li>

hi,

we had the same problem with newer HP pcs and servers (broadcom nics).
pxe works well on broadcom, the install not. doesn't matter if you're
using kickstart or manual install.

the problem was in centos 4.2. after updating the install environment to
4.5 the problem was gone... so it was a driver issue! the install kernel
is not exactly the normal linux kernel i think.

if anaconda just says that it cannot find install image, etc. the system
has no connectivity at this time.

hope this is helpful...

bests
 marco

Paolo Supino wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 3:07 PM, Romeo Ninov <rninov at gmail.com
> <mailto:rninov at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     Paolo Supino  wrote / napísal(a):
> 
> 
> 
>         On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 2:17 PM, Romeo Ninov <rninov at gmail.com
>         <mailto:rninov at gmail.com> <mailto:rninov at gmail.com
>         <mailto:rninov at gmail.com>>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>            Paolo Supino  wrote / napísal(a):
> 
> 
> 
>                On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 8:14 AM, nate
>         <centos at linuxpowered.net <mailto:centos at linuxpowered.net>
>                <mailto:centos at linuxpowered.net
>         <mailto:centos at linuxpowered.net>>
>                <mailto:centos at linuxpowered.net
>         <mailto:centos at linuxpowered.net>
> 
>                <mailto:centos at linuxpowered.net
>         <mailto:centos at linuxpowered.net>>>> wrote:
> 
>                   Paolo Supino wrote:
>                   > Hi Nate
>                   >
> 
>                   > 3: After the error comes up I get the HTTP setup
>                configuration
>                   screen with
>                   > the source website (in IP) and CentOS directory as I
>         entered
>                   them in the
>                   > pxeconfiguration file and as it appears in the kickstart
>                   configuration file
>                   > and all I have to do is press the 'OK' button to
>         continue the
>                   installation
>                   > to a successful completion.
> 
>                   If that's the case the next most likely culprit is
> 
>                   > url --url http://192.168.11.1/source
> 
> 
>                   Just because the PXE boot loader can download the
>         kickstart
>                   config does not mean that the installation process
>         will work
>                   with that NIC.
> 
>                   Also I've had lots of broadcom systems not work with
>                kickstart over
>                   the years, it's not uncommon for newer systems to have
>         newer
>                   revs of the chipsets and those revs not being
>         supported by the
>                   installer.
> 
>                   But it sounds like in your case it does work, so I
>         would look
>                   at the url above, as it likely is the cause of the
>         problem.
>                Check
>                   the http access logs on the server for 404s and
>         similar errors.
> 
>                   nate
> 
>                   _______________________________________________
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>         <mailto:CentOS at centos.org <mailto:CentOS at centos.org>>
>                <mailto:CentOS at centos.org <mailto:CentOS at centos.org>
>         <mailto:CentOS at centos.org <mailto:CentOS at centos.org>>>
> 
> 
>                   http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> 
> 
> 
>                Hi Nate
> 
>                 After figuring what I was doing wrong (see previous reply
>                ...) I started going through each of my systems in order to
>                boot them and install CentOS 5.2 on each. For the most
>         part it
>                works, but only for the most part? Because once in a few
>         boots
>                (not machine specific) anaconda stops and either asks me what
>                interface it needs to configure or fails to load 'stage2.img'
>                from the web server on 192.168.11.1 <http://192.168.11.1>
>         <http://192.168.11.1>
>                <http://192.168.11.1> ... All cables are good cables. The
>                network switch is a Cisco 3750G with no configuration)
>         and all
>                the NICs are broadcom with firmware 3.8.9.
>         <http://3.8.9.> <http://3.8.9.>
>                <http://3.8.9.> Can you throw a guess where the problem might
>                be lying (I hate inconsistencies)?
> 
> 
>            Have you check apache logs for something. Check also the server
>            messages
> 
>            _______________________________________________
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>         <mailto:CentOS at centos.org <mailto:CentOS at centos.org>>
>            http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> 
> 
>         Hi Romeo
> 
>          Yes I did, and nothing shows up in either access_log or
>         error_log :-(
>         I just had a node that stopped asking me for IP configuration
>         (twice) and only on the second time (checked on the server using
>         tcpdump) did it actually try to contact the server to retrieve
>         network configuration continue and it successfully retrieved
>         'stage2.img' from the web server :-(
> 
>     Paolo, what about DHCP or bootp servers. Check the logs, flush ARP
>     cache from server(s)
> 
>     _______________________________________________
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>     CentOS at centos.org <mailto:CentOS at centos.org>
>     http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> 
> 
> Hi Romeo
> 
>   The more systems I boot the more I'm starting to feel that it's
> hardware problem related ... I just booted a system in which the ELOM
> says that NIC0 has 1 MAC address, but when I boot the system I saw on
> the network a different MAC address altogether ...
>   I'm checking at the lowest level: on the wire (using tcpdump) so if
> nothing shows in the capture I'm sure I won't find anything in the logs :-(
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> TIA
> Paolo
> 
> 
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