-
Junior Member
registered user
Pxe boot with Broadcom BCM5754 does not work
I am using Knoppix 6.7.0 in a PXE boot environment. I have remastered it a little bit to remove some packages and whatnot, but it's pretty vanilla. It's been working fine for a few months now, on lots of different hardwares.
I am having a problem with PXE booting a Dell 740 which has a Broadcom BCM5754 Gigabit card. I believe the problem is the firmware for the card, although I don't know. I can boot the machine using the Knoppix 6.7.0 CD, and it loads the NIC driver fine.
The exact behavior is this: I do the PXE boot, and it loads the minirt.gz image. I see kernel loading lines flash through the screen very very quickly, and then the machine reboots. It appears to be rebooting at the point it's trying to execute udhcp. I can't say with certainty because it is rebooting so fast. Sometimes so fast I barely see the kernel lines show up.
I booted to cd (also Knoppix 6.7.0) to diagnose what modules are loaded etc, and found that the tg3.ko module has 3 firmware files it loads. Those files are not in the minirt.gz packing. (but they are on the cd). So i copied the /lib/firmware folder to the minirt.gz, but it is not working. I then found a post on writing a custom hotplug script in /sbin/hotplug to load the firmware, but that does not seem to be executing, or if it is, it is not working. The article I found targeted Knoppix 5, so maybe it's not applicable anymore. (i tried to put an echo and a sleep to test, but for all i know it's in a background thread)
While I was at it, I modified the init script to not call the restart command in the bailout() function.
this does not stop the machine from rebooting!
I am at a loss as to how to diagnose this. It works from CD but not PXE, which shouts NIC, but I just don't know. I've tried removing the driver altogether to see if the script will pause and complain about no network / driver etc. No joy.
Any one have any ideas on how to approach this?
-
Junior Member
registered user
I booted to the CD and did a lsmod to get a list of everything. Then I used modinfo to go through the list for dependencies.
I then copied all of the .ko files to a drivers folder and renamed them to go in order. (ie, 0_ttm.ko, so that the nouveau.ko file can load).
I repacke the initram and rebooted, and this time the screen locks up with what looks like a kernel panic screen. This makes me feel like I'm moving in the right direction, but ... well, I put all of the kernel modules that I saw in /proc/modules. So I'm stumped again.
-
Junior Member
registered user
So i figured it out. and it makes no sense to me..
Somehow a while ago (like 5 months) I must have made a typeo when creating my customzed initrd. (this was when I was fixing the broadcomm b44.ko driver to work)
The root of the minirt.gz had a file called ..miniroot
I found it by accident. Once I removed that file and re-created the pxe minirt.gz it worked fine.
I don't understand how just this one model of machine broke, or even why it broke. but it's fixed now.
chalk this up to PEBKAC
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules
![Fanxiang 4TB 2TB 1TB SSD 550MB/s 2.5'' SATA III Internal Solid State Drive lot picture](/store/img/g/pB0AAOSwrbRkIWhk/s-l225/Fanxiang-4TB-2TB-1TB-SSD-550MB-s-2-5-SATA-III-Inte.jpg)
Fanxiang 4TB 2TB 1TB SSD 550MB/s 2.5'' SATA III Internal Solid State Drive lot
$188.99
![Fanxiang SSD 4TB 2TB 1TB 512GB SATA SSD 2.5'' III Internal Solid State Drive lot picture](/store/img/g/pB0AAOSwrbRkIWhk/s-l225/Fanxiang-SSD-4TB-2TB-1TB-512GB-SATA-SSD-2-5-III-In.jpg)
Fanxiang SSD 4TB 2TB 1TB 512GB SATA SSD 2.5'' III Internal Solid State Drive lot
$108.29
![New SSD 870 EVO SATA III SSD 1TB 2.5'' Solid State Drive Upgrade PC Laptop 4TB picture](/store/img/g/1xoAAOSwHrhmaWn2/s-l225/New-SSD-870-EVO-SATA-III-SSD-1TB-2-5-Solid-State-D.jpg)
New SSD 870 EVO SATA III SSD 1TB 2.5'' Solid State Drive Upgrade PC Laptop 4TB
$59.99
![Fanxiang M.2 SATA SSD 2TB 1TB 512GB 256GB SSD Internal M2 Solid State Drive Lot picture](/store/img/g/vt0AAOSwAgVls0tY/s-l225/Fanxiang-M-2-SATA-SSD-2TB-1TB-512GB-256GB-SSD-Inte.jpg)
Fanxiang M.2 SATA SSD 2TB 1TB 512GB 256GB SSD Internal M2 Solid State Drive Lot
$109.99
![Patriot P210 128GB 256GB 512GB 1TB 2TB 2.5](/store/img/g/RzIAAOSwSZNlN-zB/s-l225/Patriot-P210-128GB-256GB-512GB-1TB-2TB-2-5-SATA-3-.jpg)
Patriot P210 128GB 256GB 512GB 1TB 2TB 2.5" SATA 3 6GB/s Internal SSD PC/MAC Lot
$13.99
![WD BLUE 3D NAND 250GB 2.5](/store/img/g/DqQAAOSw8DdmTghh/s-l225/WD-BLUE-3D-NAND-250GB-2-5-SATA-Laptop-SSD-Solid-St.jpg)
WD BLUE 3D NAND 250GB 2.5" SATA Laptop SSD Solid State Tested,Wiped -WDS250G2B0A
$16.99
![Crucial M500 480GB SED MLC 2.5](/store/img/g/JU0AAOSwgNxmYyV1/s-l225/Crucial-M500-480GB-SED-MLC-2-5-6Gbps-SATA-Drive-CT.jpg)
Crucial M500 480GB SED MLC 2.5" 6Gbps SATA Drive CT480M500SSD1 - PRICE PER UNIT
$24.99
![Intel Pro 1500 SSDSC2BF180A4H 180 GB 2.5](/store/img/g/ItoAAOSwWoBmY0Rs/s-l225/Intel-Pro-1500-SSDSC2BF180A4H-180-GB-2-5-SATA-III-.jpg)
Intel Pro 1500 SSDSC2BF180A4H 180 GB 2.5" SATA III Solid State Drive
$12.99
![Netac 2TB 1TB 512GB 240GB Internal SSD 2.5'' SATAIII 6Gb/s Solid State Drive lot picture](/store/img/g/pJUAAOSwFaRkhuj-/s-l225/Netac-2TB-1TB-512GB-240GB-Internal-SSD-2-5-SATAIII.jpg)
Netac 2TB 1TB 512GB 240GB Internal SSD 2.5'' SATAIII 6Gb/s Solid State Drive lot
$118.99
![for Laptops 500GB-4TB Internal Solid State Drive Hard Disk 2.5 Inch SSD Drive picture](/store/img/g/BygAAOSwq9BmZ0tw/s-l225/for-Laptops-500GB-4TB-Internal-Solid-State-Drive-H.jpg)
for Laptops 500GB-4TB Internal Solid State Drive Hard Disk 2.5 Inch SSD Drive
$63.23