Mailing List Archive: PXE Hanging

PXE Hanging

Jan 25, 2002, 5:36 PM

Post #1 of 4 (1204 views)

Hi,

I have been trying to boot a PC based terminal using your PXELINUX project
and I am having a problem.

The Terminal (a Netier NetXpress XL2000) has a m-systems Disk-On-Chip 2000
flash memory module which is normally used to boot a cut-down version of
WinNT. I work in a repair department where we often have to open up these
terminals and temporarily install a hard-drive to reflash the disk-on-chip
based firmware so I was hoping to make repairs easier by netbooting then
reflashing over the network.

These terminals have PXE compatible network bios and are based on Pentium
technology. They boot linux correctly using PXELINUX if the flash memory is
disabled but when enabled PXELINUX gets as far as loading the kernel,
displays a 'ready' message then hangs. It does the same when using memtest86
as kernel image (works without flash, hangs with it). Is this a known problem
and is there a way I can patch your source to avoid the problem ( the flash
memory simulates an IDE device but may be using some memory your loader
needs?).

Using memdisk to try booting a floppy disk image displays a disk error (these
terminals have no floppy drives installed). I will try using a hard-disk
image when I work out an easy way to create one.

Thanks for your help,
Nigel

PXE Hanging [ In reply to ]

hpa at zytor

Jan 25, 2002, 5:40 PM

Post #2 of 4 (1187 views)

Permalink

Nigel Feltham wrote:

>
> These terminals have PXE compatible network bios and are based on Pentium
> technology. They boot linux correctly using PXELINUX if the flash memory is
> disabled but when enabled PXELINUX gets as far as loading the kernel,
> displays a 'ready' message then hangs. It does the same when using memtest86
> as kernel image (works without flash, hangs with it). Is this a known problem
> and is there a way I can patch your source to avoid the problem ( the flash
> memory simulates an IDE device but may be using some memory your loader
> needs?).
>

Make sure you're using a kernel which supports the 2.02 boot protocol
(2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later.)

-hpa

PXE Hanging [ In reply to ]

P.Lister at sychron

Jan 26, 2002, 2:51 PM

Post #3 of 4 (1168 views)

Permalink

> The Terminal (a Netier NetXpress XL2000) has a m-systems Disk-On-Chip 2000
> flash memory module which is normally used to boot a cut-down version of
> WinNT. I work in a repair department where we often have to open up these
> terminals and temporarily install a hard-drive to reflash the disk-on-chip
> based firmware so I was hoping to make repairs easier by netbooting then
> reflashing over the network.
>
> These terminals have PXE compatible network bios and are based on Pentium
> technology. They boot linux correctly using PXELINUX if the flash memory is
> disabled but when enabled PXELINUX gets as far as loading the kernel,
> displays a 'ready' message then hangs. It does the same when using memtest86
> as kernel image (works without flash, hangs with it). Is this a known problem
> and is there a way I can patch your source to avoid the problem ( the flash
> memory simulates an IDE device but may be using some memory your loader
> needs?).

The issues of DoC has appeared on the LinuxBIOS and Etherboot lists;
loading something in the wrong place doesn't seem like a problem until
you actually try to tun the image. I quote loader.S from the Etherboot
source...

/* This provides for execution at 0x88000 to avoid disk-on-chip drivers */
#undef NOT_AT_0x9xxxx
#if (RELOC & 0xF0000) != 0x90000
#define NOT_AT_0x9xxxx
#else
#define MAX_SP ((RELOC & 0xF0000) + 0x10000 - RELOC)
/* e.g. RELOC = 0x84000, MAX_SP = 0x90000 - 0x84000 = 0xC000 */
#endif

You can get a PXE-loadable Etherboot image from rom-o-matic. I can't
recall what the appropriate switch is; you'll probably need to look at
the configure options and possibly the source.

http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/
http://www.rom-o-matic.com/

PXE Hanging [ In reply to ]

hpa at zytor

Jan 26, 2002, 7:54 PM

Post #4 of 4 (1175 views)

Permalink

Peter Lister wrote:

>
> The issues of DoC has appeared on the LinuxBIOS and Etherboot lists;
> loading something in the wrong place doesn't seem like a problem until
> you actually try to tun the image. I quote loader.S from the Etherboot
> source...
>

That's not the issue here. SYSLINUX has dealt with these issues since
1.49 (by the way, if that's how Etherboot deals with it they're
guaranteed to have problems on PXE systems, which usually have a lot
more baggage than just 64K.)

The problem is more likely that the DOC and PXE BIOS extensions are
conflicting. There isn't much to suggest other than "don't do that
then"; since you're obviously booting via PXE you don't need the DOC BIOS.

-hpa