some hints for using tftplist / httplist (particularly with Windows as server)

[majbthrd]

A few notes I made on getting tftplist / httplist to work (particularly with a Windows machine as server):

If you have a problem with:

1) TCL getting stuck for many minutes at boot at the "Setting Timezone to " caption when either tftplist or httplist was used as a boot option,

and/or

2) Extensions listed in the tftplist file but not getting loaded

... I may have an answer.

The first happens because of "wait4Server()" in tc-config.  Said function expects the TFTP/HTTP server to be ping-able.  If it is not, it waits a very long time.

The problem is that Windows Firewall disables responses to pings.  (Indeed, it seems technically possible that some Linux systems may have ipchains set up to block these too.)

The second can be caused if the list file specified by tftplist was edited on a DOS/Windows machine.  Many DOS/Windows text editors insert a Carriage Return at the end of each text line.  This doesn't get filtered by tc-config or BusyBox tftp, and so the filename requested by TCE won't match what is on the server.  Hence, the extension doesn't load, even though it is listed in the list file.

[gerald_clark]

I have submitted a patch to test the interface without pinging the server.
The new "no-ping" option is detailed at
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/tiki-index.php?page=Netbooting

As to the list file, it is a unix text file.  
Many config files are broken if lines contain /r.
Anyone using windows to edit any unix config file must take this into consideration.

[majbthrd]

That's terrific to hear on the patch!

Yes, I wouldn't expect lots of extra clap-trap to try to handle Windows/DOS text files.  I'm just posting my observations so that someone who encounters such a problem might know to modify the list file.

For example, there was a past thread ("Can't find tce directory during PXE boot") from November 19, 2009 on the forums where someone was having problems with a Windows TFTP server, and this might have been the cause.

Hopefully, this thread might help someone in future diagnose such a problem.

I have submitted a patch to test the interface without pinging the server.
The new "no-ping" option is detailed at
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/tiki-index.php?page=Netbooting

As to the list file, it is a unix text file.  
Many config files are broken if lines contain /r.
Anyone using windows to edit any unix config file must take this into consideration.

[gutmensch]

how about appending a "| dos2unix" when extracting the extensions from the tftp (or whatever) list file? that wouldn't hurt unix line breaks but will prevent from having problems with files with windows line breaks.

iirc dos2unix is part of tinycore based so this would be possible without any mod.

[gerald_clark]

My thought was why should this routine do dos2unix conversion when other routines don't.
This is a TC config file, not a Windows configfile.
However,since the Windows user may not have a Linux compatible editor to configure his tftp server, I added patch.