Samba and PXE questions

[mabhatter]

I've been working at getting Knoppix set up on my shops network (windows). I've went thru the various FAQs and tutorials at Knoppix.net and have hit several dead ends.

So far, I can connect to my local network, I can connect to the internet thru proxy server, I can connect to my IBM iSeries (AS400) and use the basic telnet (is tn5250 on the cd? how to find?), I can connect and print to my IBM InfoPrint (network attached). I am using the Save Configuration floppy to restart with each time I get something else added.

I was trying to get the remote boot working. http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqPXE I follwed the steps in the FAQ PXE to try to connect with terminal server. I am using two identical Dell GX1's with onboard 3com nics w/PXE bootable. They are not directly connected, but thru the network (may be my problem?) The second one cannot "get an IP address from DHCP server" . Am I missing something in the network config of Knoppix/terminal server/networking or is there a potential conflict with some other Windows computer running DHCP that's answering first?

I am also trying to get Samba working to connect to my windows networking shares. Once again, I followed the directions in the FAQ Samba Quick document. http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqSambaQuick The first part to share the knoppix session worked perfectly following the instructions! The other direction I could not complete the instructions. The final mount line in the FAQ would not work. I kept getting a mount error. I read thru what it listed and some man pages, and that part of the command worked OK. I changed the "smbfs -u..." part and that caused a different Samba-related error because I didn't specify the user/password to connect.
What's going on here? Any help would be appreciated!
thanks!

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Madhatter:

Have you had any success setting up your network? I'm just now trying to do so myself. I too have Dell GXs (270s) that may have similar configuration. I'd love to hear about your experiences!

TIA,

[RockMumbles]

In the past anyway, if you have a windows dhcp server running on your network, the PXE boot(disk) cannot find the Knoppix-terminal-server.

At home, with a linux dhcp server I could easily do PXE boots, but at school with a win2k dhcp server I can't ever get the client to boot from the server.

I prefer to run X-client machines to PXE booting, (it does depend on your hardware and network speed) there is less network traffic running only the remote display, also if you run the server headless you save a bunch of overhead on the server.

HTH

~rock

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Yes, I thought that would be a problem. I have used x-clients in the past, I'm going to have to read up on that again. Several years ago I had setup a lab this way using Slackware. Can you recommend any KNOPPIX related dox?

TIA,

[mabhatter]

Sorry guys, I forgot i even posted this. Actually, I have recently got back into setting up the project. I got PXE working by seting up a private network and it worked just dandy.

As far as getting it working, it's not knoppix' problem. There must be a "hidden" DHCP server on the network somewhere. Win XP connection sharing probably runs one in the background...rooting it out is another project entirely! The Dell OptiPlex(es?) are great for Knoppix. The older ones seem to work like tanks...and are far better than their Dimension counterparts. And many companies are practically giving them away! I find it completely useable on a 350, but then again, this is for a kiosk that runs one or two programs for production workers...not heavy use.

There is a small blurb on the PXE doc page about using x -broadcast rather than generic PXE. I'd assume that if you put the "knoppix 2" command as the boot prompt entry it would do PXE & remote X. But it seems to grab some of the same settings as your base install...so how to actually issue the "x -broadcast" command? What .sh file would control the remote boot up...and not mess up the base server. Anyway...I haven't had time to try out that idea or even look for answer yet.

So far, the community here is great! Thanks!