Tiny Core Linux

General TC => General TC Talk => Topic started by: Senator on May 18, 2010, 02:05:45 PM

Title: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: Senator on May 18, 2010, 02:05:45 PM: Hello

first - i want to say that i like TCL since i heard of it. Great Distribution. After playing around with it a while I have decided to use TCL for a ThinClient project with about 100 clients. As clients we want to use vortex86dx. Therefore we compiled a custom kernel. Our environment should be booted via PXE. And there is the showstopper. When we booting the default TCL Kernel and ramdisk via PXE the system boots as expected. But if we boot customized kernel the clients boot again immediately after loading the ramdisk. If we combine the original kernel with the remastered ramdisk the system boots also without any problems so I assume its an issue of our custom kernel.
If we start our customized kernel and the ramdisk in a virtual environment (vbox) there are no issues.

Is there a possibility to debug this behaviour via kernel boot options?

Best Regards
Title: Re: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: gerald_clark on May 18, 2010, 02:46:04 PM: Why do you need a custom kernel?
The Vortex86 boots via PXE and runs as is.
Please read the netboot section of the wiki.
Title: Re: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: curaga on May 18, 2010, 03:06:38 PM: Use options "debug rootdelay=50", and if you still can't see the messages, then the same without any initrd.
Another option would be to set up a netconsole (networking/netconsole.txt in kernel docs), if your custom kernel has that enabled.
Title: Re: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: Senator on May 19, 2010, 12:08:57 PM: Hello

@gerald_clark
unfortunately not all clients (about 10%) can be booted via pxe in production environment, as they can connect to network only via wifi. Therefore we have to install operating system and configuration on CF-card, but the default kernel does not find the CF-Card.
Code: [Select]
# lspci ... 00:0c.0 IDE interface: RDC Semiconductor, Inc. Device 1011fdisk -l doesn't find any block device.
We tried some changes in bios but no success

@curaga
We tried the kernel options with no success. When we boot without initrd the client reboots immediately after loading kernel. No boot message at all. As next option we want to setup the netconsole- thanks for the hint.

Best regards
Title: Re: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: gerald_clark on May 19, 2010, 12:27:10 PM: My Vortex86 has an SiS chipset.
Title: Re: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: curaga on May 19, 2010, 01:10:39 PM: That RDC IDE chip was not supported in .29. You should use a newer kernel, and enable PATA_RDC there.
Title: Re: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: gerald_clark on May 19, 2010, 01:18:47 PM: Have you tried V3.0Alpha?
Title: Re: custom kernel in pxe environment
Post by: Senator on June 03, 2010, 10:59:39 AM: Hello

V3.0Alpha works, although IDE chip is still recognized as Device 1011

thanks