My Gentoo diskless install howto

rogeroberholtzer

I have done everything to set up a diskless client from the current 1.4 live cd. I have exported the directory containing the gentoo client is to use with rw permissions (as in the description at the top of this thread). However, when the diskless client boots, it claims / is mounted read-only. A local 'mount' lists it as 'rw'. And the server's /proc/fs/nfs/exports file lists it as 'rw' by my client.

So, why the read-only errors on writes?

I have a suspicion of the 'checkroot' file in the rc directory. There was no mention in the diskless info on doing anything with this file. But it does seem to be odd in that it complains about the nfs mounted / not being an ext2 file system. Well, of course it isn't. Why the complaint?

I am so close I can taste it.

Any pointers?

rogeroberholtzer · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 12:38 pm Post subject: NFS swap

I am trying to use swap via NFS. I seem to need it for a big compile. I only plan to use it as needed.

I made the swap file on the NFS server:

dd if=/dev/zero of=swp count=1000 bs=1M

Then, on the diskless client, I ran:

mkswap /full/path/to/swp

No complaint. 'file /full/path/to/swp' reports that it is a modern swap file. It has the proper permissions (0600) and belongs to root. However, when I run:

swapon /full/path/to/swp

I get the following error:

swapon: /full/path/to/swp: Invalid argument

The file exists. If I use some name that does not exist, I get an appropriate error.

The NFS mount is like this (listed by mount):

acme:/full/path on /full/path type nfs (rw,noatime,bg,soft,
rsize=8192,wsize=8192,addr=10.1.6.131)

The swap file is:

-rw------- 1 root root 1048576000 Nov 18 13:15 swp

Is there some NFS mount option I have overlooked?

(The diskless client is a VME-based PC to which adding additional RAM is not an option).

patsonrt1 · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 2:17 am Post subject:

Just a guess Rogeroberholtzer, but did you add "no_root_squash" in the servers exports file?
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darkjedi521 · n00b Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 1

I have the system booting with the kernel on a floppy. I followed the howto almost exactly in setup (subsituted floppy for PXE/TFTP). The kernel boots fine and then gentoo starts booting. It gets to the point where it attempts to mount local filesystems, and then I get 5-6 screens worth of errors regarding /var/lib before being dumped at a login prompt. None of my other rc scripts run. /usr doesn't mount, and pam returns fatal errors after a username is entered. Setting console one in inittab to be /bin/bash instead of agetty let me poke at the running system. doing the following:

hms · n00b Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 1

I have succesfully managed to set up a diskless system but when I start xine I get stalls in the movie. I'm guessing this is because the xfree server is run over nfs. Is there any way to improve xfree´s performance for a diskless system.
I don't have a powerfull enough server to run X there and with my experience a network isn't fast enough to export a fullscreen movie in real time over a network either so this isn't an option.

I have the same system running on a local disk and there xine plays movies smothless. During the tests with the diskless system the actual movie-file being played is on a local disk. My network is a 100Mbit so it shouldn't be the bottleneck.

I read the post about NBD and wonder if that could help me get the performance needed to run xfree over nfs.

/Magnus

GlennM · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:13 pm Post subject:

EDIT: Whoops, fixed it. Turns out you need to remove the local-only line from /etc/xinetd.conf. Doh!

I was wondering if someone could give me some help with TFTP...it seems that my test workstation can't get the kernel image. When the workstation starts, I get:

akmolloy · n00b Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 5

I've currently got a mythfrontend machine that I've spent quite a bit of time configuring, and it works well. I want to convert the exisiting installation (settings, programs, etc.) to a diskless install.

I've got a server setup and running, and sucessfully booted into a small kernel.

Any tips on how to do this? Could it be as simple as copying over the directories on the exisiting machine to the master server, and then modifying a few files like fstab?

Ben2040 · Guru Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 445 Location: UK

Hi

When compiling the grub image, both 0.93 and 0.92 fail with the following. I have tried without CFLAGS too....

hygge · n00b Joined: 07 Jan 2003 Posts: 66 Location: Sweden

thx for the great guide!

what do you think of adding options to the client's /etc/fstab?
maybe nfsvers=3,hard,rsize=8192 and wsize=8192?
will this speed something up or is it just uneccesary?

markedmann · n00b Joined: 09 Feb 2004 Posts: 18

Hey all:
I'm having a lot of trouble with configuring dhcpd.conf... Could someone please post a (working) sample for me to follow? I've used the one in the howto, but it appears to be simply a snippet.
Thanks in advance,
-Mark

tiny · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:37 am Post subject:

This worked for me.

Donpasquale · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 150 Location: Munich

Hi.

fisrt of all: thanks for the great howto.

But i still got some problems with that. If i boot up my client it all works fine till the point where the kernel wants to start the init it just stops and stays there doing nothing. If i mount the nfs share in another pc which runs from hd it does it in not even a sec.

I tried every option in the kernel i think. Please help me fix that problem. Im going crazy bout this

Here is my config:

dhcpd.conf:

dmitrio · Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:30 pm Post subject: :. copied to gentoo-wiki.com

I have copied this HOWTO, with permission of Alexandre "Swiss.Mage" Georges, to gentoo-wiki.com
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Gentoo_Diskless_Install
If you see anything that should be added or changed, feel free to do so.

Thank you for a great HOWTO.
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lschiere · n00b Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 1

Can anyone give me any pointers on how this diskless howto would need to be modified to be able to pxe boot (for instance) amd64 clients with an x86 server?

someguy · Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:17 am Post subject:

Aug 18 06:22:06 horus dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:e0:c5:68:22:a7 via eth0
Aug 18 06:22:06 horus dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.2.15 to 00:e0:c5:68:22:a7 via eth0
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus dhcpd: Dynamic and static leases present for 192.168.2.15.
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus dhcpd: Remove host declaration ibis or remove 192.168.2.15
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus dhcpd: from the dynamic address pool for 192.168.2.0/24
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.2.15 (192.168.2.4) from 00:e0:c5:68:22:a7 via eth0
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus dhcpd: DHCPACK on 192.168.2.15 to 00:e0:c5:68:22:a7 via eth0
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus in.tftpd[16988]: RRQ from 192.168.2.15 filename /mnt/diskless/ibis/boot/pxegrub
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus in.tftpd[16988]: sending NAK (1, File not found) to 192.168.2.15
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus in.tftpd[16989]: RRQ from 192.168.2.15 filename /mnt/diskless/ibis/boot/pxegrub
Aug 18 06:22:08 horus in.tftpd[16989]: sending NAK (1, File not found) to 192.168.2.15

im getting this too any help would be mucho appreciado
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)]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`
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Skywacker · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 72 Location: Missouri

the ftp program is getting "File not found" for filename /mnt/diskless/ibis/boot/pxegrub

look in /etc/conf.d/in.tfpd for your initial ftp directory. chances are your pxegrub file and kernel are not located in /diskless/mnt/diskless/ibis....

basically you need to edit your grub.lst until you have the correct location for your kernel, etc

I had to change my kernel to be -/b8/boot/kernel-3.2.6-gentoo-r8 because of my installation scripts.

corn · n00b Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 15 Location: Vancouver BC

It wasnt mentioned here but the init scripts seem to look for a variable called CDBOOT by setting this in /etc/rc.conf the startup scripts will skip stuff like fsck etc... Im not sure what it should be set to but all the scripts just check if it has a length.

I was wondering about shared resources such as a sysklogd. I heve them turned off right now. I was curious because I will be running 10-20 machines off my server.

Skywacker · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 72 Location: Missouri

I built 1 diskless node thanks to these instructions, but I'm wondering the best way to roll this out to my other 30+ machines. I tried just copying /diskless/b8 to/diskless/b9 and modifying fstab, hostname, and a couple other files. This gives me a booting, mostly working Gentoo system with one catch: I can't lamboot (lam-mpi) my cluster if I include b9.

b2 is my master
b8 is my first working diskless node
b9 is ia copy of the b8 dir with a few config files changed.

I can lamboot b2 and b8, but not b9.

Any ideas?

All other applications seem to work: ganglia, nfs, ntp, ldap authentication.

Thanks,
Skywacker

riksta · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 4:28 am Post subject:

just a quick tip to consolidate the howto commands a little

# mkdir /diskless
# mkdir /diskless/eta
# mkdir /diskless/eta/boot

can all be done with

# mkdir -p /diskless/eta/boot

Skywacker · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 72 Location: Missouri

No offense to this thread as it was very helpful, but once I had a working 8 node diskless cluster I ran a comparison test versus a diskfull 8 node cluster and the diskless cluster was about 400% slower. They were not identical clusters, and the master node on the diskfull cluster was faster, but I ended up reverting back to a diskfull cluster. Just something to think about if anyone out there is in the planning stage still.

-Skywacker

kakakoka · Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 4:20 pm Post subject:

The dhcpd server i am using (the freebsd dhcpd server on my lan) wont start with this:

option option-150 code 150 = text ;

In the header of the dhcpd.conf.

Whats could I be doing wrong?
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rkrenzis · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 8:26 pm Post subject: /etc/dhcpd.conf fix

option option-150 code 150 = text ;

Remove the space between the word "text" and the ";" symbol.

option option-150 code 150 = text;

rkrenzis · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 8:27 pm Post subject: Can't resolve as non-root user...

Everything works with the nfs-boot. emerge sync and adding packages is a breeze. *BUT* when I'm a regular user (non-root or uid 0), I can't resolve hostnames. Any thoughts?

TIA.

kakakoka · Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:23 pm Post subject:

Removing the space seems to make no difference.

dsf · n00b Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 21

I've updated the wiki for the HOWTO by simplifying several manual steps because of an improvement in the grub ebuild.