Fwd: Re: netboot with DFE-530ct

[Sune Rastad Bahn]

Yoshinori K. Okuji wrote:
> At Fri, 31 May 2002 11:59:13 +0200,
>
> Sune Rastad Bahn wrote:
> > using the D-link card DFE-530ct together with the otulip driver gives the
> > following curious behavior:
> > when booting a kernel:
> >
> > (nd)/vmlinuz-2.2.20 root=/dev/nfs
> >
> > from the grub menu it hangs and oops on a regular basis
> > whereas booting the same kernel from the grub-prompt
> > (with the exact same parameters) reveals no apparent problems.
>
> Don't paraphrase them. Describe what were displayed as they were. I'm
> interested in what the command "kernel" printed out both when using
> the menu and when using the command-line, particularly.

OK, I'll try to be more specific. Since I wrote last time I have changed the
 NIC (to a D-Link DE-530tx) , but the problem persist.

grub version 0.92 (fresh from a tarball)

tar -zxvf grub-0.92.tar.gz
cd grub-0.92
make clean
echo "#define NO_DHCP_SUPPORT" >> netboot/etherboot.h
./configure -enable-via-rhine 
make
mount /floppy/
cp stage?/stage? /floppy/boot/grub/
cat > /floppy/boot/grub/menu.lst <<EOF
bootp --with-configfile
EOF
umount /floppy
grub/grub <<EOF
root (fd0)
setup (fd0)
EOF

-------------------------------------------------------
I need the NO_DHCP_SUPPORT
because there is somebody else running a dhcp-service on the same network.

my menu.lst is simply

bootp --with-configfile

and then the configfile is:

timeout 10
default 0
fallback 1
color light-green/black blink-red/black
title  FAIBOOT
root   (nd)
kernel /tftpboot/vmlinuz-2.2.20 root=/dev/nfs
boot
title  GNU/Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz


--------------------------------------------------------
my symptoms are the following:

* It works all the time from the command prompt (at least it haven't failed 
for me):
grub> root (nd)
 Filesystem type is tftp, using whole disk

grub> kernel /tftpboot/vmlinuz-2.2.20 root=/dev/nfs
        [Linux-bzimage, setup=0xe00, size=0xfcf90]

grub> boot


* It fails from the menu :

root (nd)
 Filesystem type is tftp, using whole disk

kernel /tftpboot/vmlinuz-2.2.20 root=/dev/nfs
        [Linux-bzimage, setup=0xe00, size=0xfcf90]

(it then fails somewhere after 
freeing unused kernel memory: 180k freed) 

depending on the tftp server the behavior is somewhat different,
I have tried the following three debian packages:
 atftpd, tftpd and tftpd-hpa

I have had the best succesrate with the last one,
the first one seems to work fine the first time after the demon have started 
but fails all later time (perhaps this have something to do with caching? if 
for instance the grubclient fails if data is served to fast..)

One last clue:
it seems there are double request in the logfile such as:
Jun 10 09:50:55 albert in.tftpd[5880]: connect from 130.226.64.189
Jun 10 09:50:55 albert tftpd[5881]: tftpd: trying to get file: 
/tftpboot/vmlinuz-2.2.20
Jun 10 09:50:56 albert in.tftpd[5882]: connect from 130.226.64.189
Jun 10 09:50:56 albert tftpd[5883]: tftpd: trying to get file: 
/tftpboot/vmlinuz-2.2.20

Perhaps grub accidently ask for the same file twice, and get confused by the 
double stream of data?

I know it all just vague ideas, but I really hope somebody else can find the 
problem, because I getting more and more confused as to where the problem the 
more I dig into it.


Best Sune,