Mailing List Archive

Ok, I've got some more information. I hacked out the loop in tftp-hpa
that waits for the ACK. Yay, open source! Thank you! Frustration
level is lower.

However, problem is not solved: server now sends DATA packet, but
Allwell ignores it like a prom queen ignoring a computer geek. Same
behavior ensues (timeout).

Ok, so now I try using the -r option of tftp-hpa, and disallow the
blksize option the Allwell is asking for. tftp-hpa does the right
thing, giving a DATA packet with the standard blocksize. Again, the
Allwell is an ice queen.

It looks like Jason Bodnar had the same problem earlier:
http://www.geocrawler.com/mail/msg.php3?msg_id=7112481&list=5299
Jason, did you get it working?

Matt Butcher seems to have gotten it to work
(http://www.allwell.tv/DownLoad/Network_Boot_/network_boot_.html).
Matt, thank you for your document. It was helpful for me right up to
the point where I can't get it to work. Can you see what I'm doing
wrong?

Can anyone help me with this or do I throw the Allwell into the river?

Neologism


On Mon, 2002-02-04 at 01:43, Neologism wrote:
> I'm trying to network-boot a GCT Allwell set-top box without success.
> My frustration level is high.
>
> The problem seems to be that the Allwell is sending a RRQ with an
> option. tftp-hpa responds with an OACK, and waits for the corresponding
> ACK from the Allwell. The Allwell never sends that ACK, but instead
> continues with the same RRQ until timeout.
>
> Having read RFC1782, this makes me think the TFTP client in the Allwell
> is broken. Ack! Ack ack ack ack ack. Ack, thpppht. What do I do?
>
> The packets follow:
>
> RRQ:
>
> Trivial File Transfer Protocol
> Opcode: Read Request (1)
> Source File: pxelinux.0
> Type: octet
> Option: blksize = 1456
>
> OACK:
>
> Trivial File Transfer Protocol
> Opcode: Option Acknowledgement (6)
> Option: blksize = 1456

Hi,

Neologism <Neologism@POBox.COM> schrieb am 04.02.02:
> I'm trying to network-boot a GCT Allwell set-top box without success.
> My frustration level is high.
>
> The problem seems to be that the Allwell is sending a RRQ with an
> option. tftp-hpa responds with an OACK, and waits for the corresponding
> ACK from the Allwell. The Allwell never sends that ACK, but instead
> continues with the same RRQ until timeout.
>
> Having read RFC1782, this makes me think the TFTP client in the Allwell
> is broken. Ack! Ack ack ack ack ack. Ack, thpppht. What do I do?
>
> The packets follow:
>
> RRQ:
>
> Trivial File Transfer Protocol
> Opcode: Read Request (1)
> Source File: pxelinux.0
> Type: octet
> Option: blksize = 1456
>
> OACK:
>
> Trivial File Transfer Protocol
> Opcode: Option Acknowledgement (6)
> Option: blksize = 1456

Try to tell tftp-hpa not to use the blksize option. Some clients
demand the blksize option, but can't deal with it if the server
accepts it.

BTW: Maybe the rom sends two RRQ's, since that's the usual behaviour
of some roms (one with blksize, the second one with tsize).

Is it possible to put some network card into this box? Maybe you'll get
better results with some standard card instead the on-board device.

Regards,

Josef

______________________________________________________________________________
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Hi Josef,

On Mon, 2002-02-04 at 02:22, Josef Siemes wrote:
> Try to tell tftp-hpa not to use the blksize option. Some clients
> demand the blksize option, but can't deal with it if the server
> accepts it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I gave it a shot, but it seemed to have no
effect.

> BTW: Maybe the rom sends two RRQ's, since that's the usual behaviour
> of some roms (one with blksize, the second one with tsize).

Hmm, that's good to know, but this ROM is sending lots of RRQs, all the
same.

> Is it possible to put some network card into this box? Maybe you'll get
> better results with some standard card instead the on-board device.

Also a good idea, but unfortunately this box has only one optional PCI
slot and I'm using that for a 1394 card.

I should have mentioned what the internal ROM looks like. It identifies
itself thusly:

Intel LANDesk (R) Service Agent, version 0.99b
Copyright (C) 1997 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

DHCP MAC ADDR: [snip]
PXE-EA1: No PXE server found, using standard boot file.
IP ADDR: 10.0.2.2
PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout.
PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout.
PXE-M0F: Exiting LANDesk Service Agent.

I'm doing more research now on PXE, hoping to get that to work instead
(the server that came with Red Hat didn't work).

Thanks for your ideas,
Neologism

Neologism wrote:

>
> I should have mentioned what the internal ROM looks like. It identifies
> itself thusly:
>
> Intel LANDesk (R) Service Agent, version 0.99b
> Copyright (C) 1997 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
>


Try disabling PMTU discovery on the server. Intel LANDesk 0.99-something
had problems getting packets with the "no fragment" bits set (not to
mention a host of other problems.)

Also try to see if you can get a firmware upgrade.

The 0.99 series of the PXE kit should never have left the lab. Each
version has had a large number of very serious bugs.

-hpa

Hi,

Neologism <Neologism@POBox.COM> schrieb am 05.02.02:
> I should have mentioned what the internal ROM looks like. It identifies
> itself thusly:
>
> Intel LANDesk (R) Service Agent, version 0.99b
> Copyright (C) 1997 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
>
> DHCP MAC ADDR: [snip]
> PXE-EA1: No PXE server found, using standard boot file.
> IP ADDR: 10.0.2.2
> PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout.
> PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout.
> PXE-M0F: Exiting LANDesk Service Agent.
>
> I'm doing more research now on PXE, hoping to get that to work instead
> (the server that came with Red Hat didn't work).

I've seen that there's some bios update for the allwell. Maybe this already includes a more recent rom (the actual version is 4.x, 0.99X is *very* outdated).

There's also some possibility to boot this thing into dos mode (needed for the bios update ...), perhaps you can flash it this way with the
newest rom available from intel.

Regards,

Josef

______________________________________________________________________________
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Jetzt sichern: http://freemail.web.de

On Tue, 2002-02-05 at 03:02, Josef Siemes wrote:
> I've seen that there's some bios update for the allwell. Maybe this already includes a more recent rom (the actual version is 4.x, 0.99X is *very* outdated).

Yes, it's referenced in a howto but it's not actually on their website.
I've written them asking for help. My unit has another problem as well
with the NIC (it's dropping a lot of packets), which I'm hoping an
updated BIOS might address, otherwise it looks like I'll have to give up
on the Allwell.

Even so, I got a lot of satisfaction from learning how to boot with
PXELINUX. I'm not sure why. :-)

> There's also some possibility to boot this thing into dos mode (needed for the bios update ...), perhaps you can flash it this way with the
> newest rom available from intel.

Intel's website says for integrated NICs to flash the motherboard BIOS,
not the NIC ROM.

Thanks Josef,
Neologism