Adding computer to FOG

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Can you tell me what hardware these network adapters are in? Mfg and model.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 it’s on a motherboard which is an MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Plus LGA1200. I think that’s what you’re asking for.

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Yes we should document what/where the native doesn’t work.

I have a new kernel I want you to try. All that was done is recompile the kernel under 5.8.x. I want to see if the new drivers in 5.8. work. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nVZJXU1bCvmHzyEB31pHOLqV9RqXrcxT/view?usp=sharing

Download this as bzImage5817 and save it to /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe directory. Then go into FOG Configuration -> FOG Settings -> TFTP Server (button) -> TFTP PXE KERNEL

Change this field value from bzImage to bzImage5817 and save the value.

Now pxe boot this target computer in debug mode and lets see if the network adapter comes up.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 ok, I have the file in the directory. but the owner of the file is the Administrator is that going to be a problem.

[Sebastian Roth]

@JimmyJ0516 said in Adding computer to FOG:

ok, I have the file in the directory. but the owner of the file is the Administrator is that going to be a problem.

Usually not as access right default to readable for everyone on most Linux installs. But it’s still a good idea to run the command chown ... to change ownership. See what user and group name all the other files in that directory belong to and run chown user:group bzImage5817

[JimmyJ0516]

@Sebastian-Roth ok sounds good I just did it. Thanks. I scheduled the task and I am currently in the debug state I am not sure what to do next. I am still getting the same error message I was getting before.

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Well that is disappointing.

First lets make sure the kernel got loaded correctly. Run the uname -r it should be 5.8.17

If that is correct then:
Lets run this command again.
lspci -nn |grep -i net

It will return a value that looks like this

# lspci -nn |grep -i net
0b:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]

Remember the address in the far left column.

Now key in lspci -k | more

That is going to print a bunch of stuff. Look down the list at the far left column until you find that address. Take a screen shot of that line and the one below it. It should look something like this. (for disclosure I ran this command on my fog server that is running on a VM)

0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: VMware VMXNET3 Ethernet Controller (rev 01)
        Subsystem: VMware VMXNET3 Ethernet Controller
        Kernel driver in use: vmxnet3
        Kernel modules: vmxnet3

This command with the -k will list the kernel drivers used for that network adapter.

Stay in debug mode because we will need to look at the system log next on the target computer.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 Ok I did so. I am still in debug mode as well. here are the screenshots

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Well on the plus side (not really but is telling) there is no kernel driver loaded for that network adapter. Actually this is better than the kernel driver being loaded and is misbehaving. I see something interesting in the picture could you rerun that last lspci command again lets see if we can get a bit more details.

lspci -nn -k | more Post a picture of that. I only need the network adapter line.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 I ran the command and cropped out every other network adapter but the 3:00.0 which is the one we are working with. Here you go

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 That didn’t give me the output I expected. It should have given the hardware ID in [xxxx:xxxx] notation.

Can you take another picture and include the wide shot because it should that 03:00 line plus a few lines below lspci -nn -k

My intuition is telling me that we have the correct kernel driver but we may be missing some firmware needed to activate that network adapter. This next part is going to kind of stink but you will need to manually look through the messages file. This contains all of the boot up log messages. What is double bad is that you will need to use vi since there isn’t a nice editor built into the FOS Linux. I’m sure the answer is in that log file.

Lets take the easier of the routes and go with the more command to just display a page at a time of the log messages cat /var/log/messages | more

If you need to use vi you can key in vi /var/log/messages to give you a scrollable text editor. You may be able to use the cryptic commands like / to search so you can use something like /Real or /8169 to search next just key in / and press enter. To leave vi key in ESC:q that is the escape key the colon and q for quit.

Look through that for realtek or 03:00 There will be (I’m guessing) an error message coming from the r8169 driver.

If you have a plugin network adapter we can export that log file to a windows computer so you can use better tools to look for the error too.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 I am sorry. Looking back I typed nm instead of nn here the correct screenshot output let me know if you still need me to go through the logs messages.

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Interesting the subsystem has a different ID than the device. Subsystem [1462:7e75]. Let me look that one up.

Yes please look through that log file. It may have it listed as FIRMWARE_8125A_3 or rtl8125a-3

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 I looked for 8169 and 8125. This is what I found

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 OK good that gives me something to chase down. I have a feeling that network adapter is very new and the linux kernel drivers don’t support it just yet. Let me see what I can find out.

[george1421]

Just a place holder

ref: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1259947/cant-get-rtl8125b-working-on-20-04

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 so support is out for it correct

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 said in Adding computer to FOG:

@george1421 so support is out for it correct

In kernel 5.6 and later (currently supported by FOG as an add on kernel) it should be in there. I’m currently building a one off kernel of 5.6.18 with the rt8125 firmware included. The FOS Linux has the firmware for the 8169 but not the 8125 (complicated BS, just go with it). So the next step as soon as the compile is done is I will give you a new kernel to test it will be bzImage5618RT You will do the same process as with the bzImage5817 from earlier. I don’t know if it will work or not but we will try. If that doesn’t work I should have my 5.8.x and later build environment done by then and we can try the 5.9.x series of kernels. Without having the hardware in my hands we are going to have to hunt and peck to get this. But once we get it we can get it part of the next release of FOG so we don’t have to mess with it again. I’m sure others will have this network adapter in the future too so we need to get it worked out.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 Of course Thanks for the help. If you need any help from me just let me know.

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Ok here we go with round 2 5.6.18 with the 8125 firmware: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zcQvZNkick_Q4DyHKL9_X8dSXHjkN_BD/view?usp=sharing

Download this as bzImage5618RT and place it in /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe directory Then go into FOG Configuration -> FOG Settings and change the default kernel to this one (same as before). Then pxe boot the target computer into debug mode (task should already be running so just reboot) Then once at the fos linux console prompt key in uname -r to make sure it says 5.6.18 again. Once that is done then ip a s confirm it shows the network adapter.