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cable_guy
n00b
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 17
Location: Smithers, BC
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 Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2005 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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I'm just posting thies here in hopes that other people who have the same problem can find it. There isn't currently anything posted about it on the net.
I originally set up my diskless nodes basically the same as this how to, using nfs to serve all the systems, and pxe to boot. I upgraded my cards to dlink dge-530t gigabit cards, and they don't support pxe boot. Then to my nasty surprise, etherboot doesn't support them either. The cure was to dissect a gentoo livecd installation cd.
I copied the iso image into /mnt/tmp, then did:
| Code: |
mkdir /mnt/loop0
mount /mnt/tmp/isoname.iso /mnt/loop0 -o loop
mkdir /mnt/iso
cd /mnt/loop0
find | cpio -pdm /mnt/iso
cd /mnt
umount /mnt/loop0
rm -r /mnt/loop0
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This gave me a folder with the exact cd contents. Take everything out of the root cd folder, except the isolinux folder and livecdsquash file. In the lisolinux folder delete everything except the isolinux.bin and isolinux.cfg. Then take your kernel for your diskless node and copy it to the isolinux folder. Edit the isolinux.cfg and take all the extra junk out, mine looks like:
| Code: |
default gentoo
timeout 5
label gentoo
kernel omkernel
append ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.0.2:/diskless/192.168.0.201 looptype=squashfs loop=/livecd.squashfs
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where omkernel is the name of my kernel file, and nfsroot="server ip":"root folder on server".
Then:
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cd /mnt/iso
mkisofs -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -r -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -o /mnt/newgentoo.iso .
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And you now have a bootable cd image that will boot your kernel, and load everything up the way it used to. Just don't forget to change the MAC address in your server config files to the MAC address of the new card first.
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skarecrow
n00b
Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 25
Location: $HOME
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:36 pm Post subject: pxe booting with windows DHCP |
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| I have a network which uses Windows 2000 DHCP servers. I setup a reservation for the NIC in my diskless linux box and configured DHCP options 66 and 67 for the pxe boot info. When booting, the client grabs the appropriate IP address, and leaves me at a grub prompt. When I use a linux DHCP server, the diskless workstation boots perfectly. What is the difference here? It seems like when the system gets the IP from the windows DHCP server that it isnt loading grub.lst. Any ideas? |
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caar
n00b
Joined: 24 Apr 2005
Posts: 2
Location: Zurich
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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I've been following this trak. I also set up a few diskless client configurations. I set them up more or less like it is described here. It all works. So far so good - till it comes to emerge!
Does anybody know a way to run emerge separately for the root (/) and the /usr part of a package?
I used to work quite intensive with Solaris about 10 years ago. The package system on Solaris destinguishes between the part which goes to root (normally /bin and /sbin) and the part that goes to /usr (/usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /usr/share, ...). Well, Solaris keeps architecture dependencies in root (/)...
Why I bother about this:
- diskless clients do not have to be of the same CPU architecture as the master or host;
different CFLAGS etc in /etc/make.conf could be used for clients.
- the part of a software that goes to /usr needs only be compiled once (the part that's common
to all the clients
- the part that goes to root (/) might be different on each client (e.g. for /etc)
A possible solution might be, if each client has only the client specific files in its file tree (/diskless/<hostname>) and there is a default file tree (/diskless/default). On the client a merge is needed of the client specific file tree and the default tree. This way most packages have to be applied only once and all clients profit from it. Unfortunately, I don't know of such a file system...
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Camisa
n00b
Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5
Location: North America
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:48 am Post subject: Idle Client |
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Does anybody else notice that their diskless client is mostly idle? I run emerge system or emerge world and observe the idle time at mostly 70%...
I also have determined when the kernel mounts the NFS / it mounts it NFSVERS=2... even though I have specified it to use version 3 in both the kernel config and in the fstab.
This is a new problem for me... I had a diskless jukebox running for about 9 months.. and I never had the compile time slowdown like I'm experiencing now.. Back then it was the 2.4. kernel and the system was built from stage 1.
Well this time, I'm still doing stage 1; but I'm using the 2.6.11.11 kernel.
Is anyone else aware of their NFS root using version 2? Do an "nfsstat" check on your server to see if the traffic is all from version 2 or version 3.
Final question: Should I be doing the NBD thing instead of NFS...? |
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b0fh
Guru
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 426
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| Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:47 am Post subject: |
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| I installed gentoo successfully for a diskless node. But I have a problem while shutting down the machine: The init-skript nfsmount unmounts my root partition, so the rest of shutdown fails, for example shutting down portmap afterwards (I need nfsmount because I mount other filesystems over nfs, too). Any ideas how to solve this? |
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blackphiber
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 86
Location: IL
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| Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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cp /usr/lib/grub/pxegrub /diskless/eta/boot/pxegrub
cp: cannot stat `/usr/lib/grub/pxegrub': No such file or directory
I have grub 0.96, where else would pxegrub be? or am I doing something wrong? thanks. |
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b0fh
Guru
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 426
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| Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Mine was at /boot/grub/pxegrub |
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blackphiber
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 86
Location: IL
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| Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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ls: /boot/grub/pxegrub: No such file or directory
using locate pxegrub turns up nothing. I have grub 0.96-r1. thanks again. |
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dapsaille
Advocate
Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 2366
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 9:43 am Post subject: |
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Hi all
First Thanks for this howto ...
but i've a little problem at boot it give me
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS : Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
/linuxrc has to be run as the init process as the one
with a PID of 1. Try adding init="/linuxrc" to the
kernel command line or running "exec /linuxrc"
VFS: Cannot open root device "nfs" or unknow-block(0,255)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknow-block(0,255)
Do you have any clue ?
I can post config files if necessary but i don't want to polluate this thread :p |
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Slammer
Bodhisattva
Joined: 28 Mar 2003
Posts: 270
Location: Greece
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:48 pm Post subject: |
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I succesfully finished a diskless gentoo installation, following this How-To. Now the client runs normally. The only problem is during shutdown I receive multiple error messages while the services are closed. (write not permitted in /var/lib/init.d directory). I am sure that the /var directory is mounted as r/w.
Additionally, I want to build a second diskless client using as more as possible common directories with the first client. I understand that is very easy to create a second client in a different directory, but how is possible to share common parts? NFS can not share symlinks (for example /diskless/client2/usr cannot symlinked to /diskless/client1/usr).
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Keep Slamming... |
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wimalopaan
n00b
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 15
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:11 pm Post subject: Diskless Gentoo Client |
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For all who are interested setting up multiple Gentoo diskless clients wie have composed a little howto (currently only in german). The installation procesdure is similar to what is decribed in this thread. Bit it is much more flexible in that you have only to maintain a single chroot for all clients. And you can make the nfs-export ro !
The location:
http://mozart.informatik.fh-kl.de/download/Software/GentooDiskless/diskless.pdf
We are working further on this topic and we now have an installtion with no interference to the normal gentoo baselayout (in contrast to the above how-to). Currently there is no actual documentation, but this is coming soon. The system can be used as a thin-client (remote login via XDMCP or RDP) or as a diskless-client (local login) or as a virtual-diskless-client running vmware with (potential) local cached images.
Of special interest in this topic ist also pam_cifs, which can mount and umount windows CIFS shares on the fly.
http://mozart.informatik.fh-kl.de/download/Software/pam_cifs/pam_cifs.html
pam_cifs is similar to pam_mount, but much more simpler and has a different architecture, which makes it a litlle bit more flexible. Currently there is no ebuild, but on Gentoo it compiles straight forward.
If you are interested don't hesitate to contact me.
I will post a follow up if the documentation is ready.
--
Wilhelm |
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krani1
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 21 Jun 2004
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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so i've followed this article, but my dhcpc server doesn't wake up, and I've got this in logs :S
| Code: | Aug 28 20:13:54 server dhcpd: /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf line 33: unknown option dhcp.option-150
Aug 28 20:13:54 server dhcpd: option option-150 "/diskless/eta/boot/grub.lst"
Aug 28 20:13:54 server dhcpd: ^ |
any help? |
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krani1
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 21 Jun 2004
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:57 am Post subject: |
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| * bump * |
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rsala
Apprentice
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Posts: 160
Location: Pittsfield, MA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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I'm having the same problem as Slammer. I assume that the nfsroot is getting umounted as part of the shutdown and then the system no longer has access to /var for some last minute bookkeeping/cleanup. I'm just not sure why no one has reported this problem before. Perhaps it has to do with some of the changes to the base layout over the years.
Has anyone come across an elegant solution to this problem? |
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wimalopaan
n00b
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 15
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corn
n00b
Joined: 19 Apr 2002
Posts: 15
Location: Vancouver BC
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| Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:24 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for this great HOWTO. I used it at work to set up a number cruncher farm. Currently the farm has 88 nodes up and running with 150 more coming online soon.
Some caveats were having each worker having its own / filesystem. Mirroring /diskless/192.168.1.1 to all 255 /'s in the subnet was a pain in the butt and now I am afraid to do an update as the root may end up not in sync with the mounted /usr partitions. Also to get each worker to mount its own slash I had to change the pxe default config file to not specify the root partition to mount.
Another thing I had to do was to make the system self configuring. The worker nodes will be rotated out and in and I did not want to edit the dhcp.conf file for every change. Not being a dhcp pro I ended up making a perl daemon that monitors syslog. When I see DHCPDISCOVER's that are not replied to I auto add a entry to dhcp. Once all the IP's in the subnet are full I ping old hosts and when I find one that is down I rewrite the entry for that host and restart dhcp.
Thanks again. This information provided a very valuable and functional solution to a large problem I was faced with. |
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wimalopaan
n00b
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 15
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:35 am Post subject: |
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If you have a look to my gentoo diskless description
http://mozart.informatik.fh-kl.de/download/Software/GentooDiskless/diskless2.pdf
you'll find a methode using translucent filesystems (unionfs) where you have only ONE root-fs fpr ALL clients. Theres is no limiting factor. You only have to update ONE client-root for ALL your clients.
Regards,
Wilhelm |
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corn
n00b
Joined: 19 Apr 2002
Posts: 15
Location: Vancouver BC
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Thats excellent Wilhelm I look forward to learning more about your solution but unfortunately my german does not allow me to extract any information from your documentation. |
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wimalopaan
n00b
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 15
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krani1
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 21 Jun 2004
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:24 am Post subject: |
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sorry it says 404 not found  |
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wimalopaan
n00b
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 15
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| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:43 am Post subject: |
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| should be done now |
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jamapii
l33t
Joined: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 637
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| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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Diskless booting seems to be broken with the latest kernels/stages or with some NFS setups.
The following information might be necessary, from this thread https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-240592-highlight-root+dev+nfs+nfsroot.html
| rafo wrote: | A couple of days ago I wrote
| Quote: | | I have tried to change it to use udev, but I just can't get it to work. The diskless node semi-dies at the point where /sbin/rc calls /sbin/depscan.sh (it still responds to ping), and it does not seem to be entirely reproducible: Sometimes I see the green message "Caching service dependencies", sometimes not. |
I now have it all sorted it out, I think. I have submitted a number of bug reports on the "Diskless Nodes with Gentoo" paper, September 16, 2005 (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/diskless-howto.xml). The Bugzilla numbers are 106525, 107258, 107260, 107262, 107263, 107264, 107271. |
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Albert_Alligator
Apprentice
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 193
Location: Okefenokee Swamp
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:32 pm Post subject: Re: Gentoo Diskless |
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Hi, I like the install guide, but the fonts you use in the PDF make it hard to read the scripts you've written. Can't copy them, and much of what I think are spaces look like brackets that are lying on their backs. Also, when I copied the scripts, all the letters pasted as individual words.
Stateless.sh
| Code: |
#!/bin/bash
MODPROBE=/sbin/modprobe
IFCONFIG=/sbin/ifconfig
ahostname(){
MYHOST="$1'$IFCONFIG eth0 | awk '/HWaddr/{print$5}' | tr -d': '' "
echo "STATELESS: Seting Host name to $MYHOST"
echo "HOSTNAME=\"$MYHOST\" " > /etc/conf.d/hostname
/bin/hostname "$MYHOST"
}
getparams(){
local cmdline=$(dmesg | grep '^Kernel command line ' | sed 's/^Kernel command line://g')
for pp in $cmdline ; do
echo $pp | grep '^stateless=' >/dev/null 2>&1
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo $pp | sed 's/stateless=//g'
return 0
fi
done
echo ""
return 1
}
isset () {
for p in $ ( getparams | tr ',' ' ') ; do
if [ "$p" == "$1" ]; then
return 0
fi
done
return 1
}
aunionfs () {
isset unionfs
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo "STATELESS : Loading module unionfs . . . "
$MODPROBE unionfs
while[ "$1" != "" ]; do
echo "STATELESS : Mounting tmpfs $1 . . . "
mount -n -t tmpfs -o defaults none /mnt/unionfs/$1
echo "STATELESS:Mounting$1 unionfs . . . "
mount -n -t unionfs -o dirs=/mnt/unionfs/$1=rw:/$1=ro none/$1
shift
done
else
echo "STATELESS: Not using unionfs as requested . . . "
fi
}
aunionfs etc var
ahostname stateless
exec /sbin/init
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You need to look at this and see if it is correct, I'm not much of a shell scripter my self, at least not yet, and so I'm not sure if that is correct.
This is what they look like without me fixing them.
| Code: |
# !/ sbin / r u n s c r i p t
g e t c m d () {
for i in cat / proc / cmdline ; do
if [ echo $i | grep xauto ]; then
echo $ i
return
fi
done
echo x a u t o = a u t o
}
d e p e n d () {
before xdm
}
start () {
# define some variables
X O U T F I L E =/ root / xorg . conf . new
OUTPUT =/ etc / X11 / xorg . conf
F I R S T P A R T =/ etc / X11 / a u t o c o n f / part1 . cfg
L A S T P A R T =/ etc / X11 / a u t o c o n f / part2 . cfg
# lets have a look what we should do
if [ cat / proc / c md l in e | grep xauto ]; then
ebegin S t a r t i n g X a u t o c o n f i g u r a t i o n . . .
case g e t c m d | tr = | awk { p r i n t $2 } in
1)
cp / etc / X11 / a u t o c o n f / xorg .1. conf $ O U T P U T
;;
auto )
# Run X - c o n f i g u r e to get c o n f i g u r a t i o n
X - configure
# D e t e r m i n i n g the start of the i n t e r e s i n g s e c t i o n
C O U N T E R = cat $ X O U T F I L E | wc | awk { p r i n t $1 }
u n t i l [ cat $ X O U T F I L E | tail - n $ C O U N T E R | head - n 1 | awk { p r i n t $1 $2 } | grep S e c t i o n
D e v i c e ]; do
let COUNTER -=1
done
STARTLINES = $COUNTER
# D e t e r m i n i n g the end of the i n t e r e s t i n g s e c t i o n
C OU NT E R =1
u n t i l [ cat $ X O U T F I L E | tail - n $ S T A R T L I N E S | head - n $ C O U N T E R | tail - n 1 | awk { p r i n t $1
} | grep EndSection ]; do
let COUNTER +=1
done
ENDLINES = $COUNTER
# Write new configuration
cat $FIRSTPART > $OUTPUT
cat $XOUTFILE | tail - n $STARTLINES | head - n $ENDLINES > > $OUTPUT
cat $LASTPART > > $OUTPUT
;;
esac
eend 0
else
ebegin S k i p p i n g X a u t o k o n f i g u r a t i o n . . .
eend 0
fi
}
stop () {
ebegin
eend 0
}
r es ta r t () {
ebegin
eend 0
}
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That's what the other one looked like before I spent some time cleaning it up...and I haven't even tried it to see if it works. (crossing my fingers).
Anyhoo, I'll be cleaning up the above one as well and post my cleaned version.....of course, you'll have make sure its correct as you are the author.
Thanks again for the tutorial, yours is the best one yet, makes use of unionfs which I had been meaning to do.
Cheers,
Al
_________________
As Socrates once said "I drank what?" |
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wimalopaan
n00b
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 15
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jamapii
l33t
Joined: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 637
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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The diskless booting problem is with NFS wsize.
That mount option can't be changed by a remount, and it is (might be) 4096 by default. The kernel documentation is wrong (/usr/src/linux/Documentation/nfsroot.txt). If this doesn't work, it must be changed in pxelinux. |
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Documentation, Tips & Tricks
