Adding computer to FOG

[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.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 sounds good I am doing so now. The last time I did this I used WinSCP and threw it onto the home folder and then moved it to the directory you specified. I tried going directly to the directory but I had a permission error. Once I get the file Copied over I changed its permissions to 755 as all the others have that permission. is that ok before I do it again?

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Sorry running around a bit.

Yes you can copy to your home directory then use sudo cp bzImage5618RT /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe that should be good enough, all it needs is world read permissions.

ref: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1854314 Looks like 5.9 will have the fix in it for RTL8125B. Currently building 5.9 now.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 I did it again. I see it shows 5.6.18 as version but I only see the loopback address when running IP a s Screenshot

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Ok I did find something in bugzilla (ref in previous post) that the fix will be in 5.9. So here is bzImage593RT kernel. Please do the same as in the past. uname -r should give you 5.9.3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cUIzafHmLfqyBf1KxF_M-qF00SsArx0N/view?usp=sharing

[george1421]

@george1421 If this doesn’t work, do you have an add on network card you can temp install in this workstation? if so insert it and then still pxe boot from the onboard nic but have this secondary nic connected. when it starts up in debug mode then ip a and see if you can see the secondary nic. If you can, then give root a password like hello using passwd. This password will be reset when rebooted. Then connect to the target computer with user root and hello with winscp. Copy out /var/log/messages and then upload that to a file share site and post the link here. I want to look through that because there has to be a clue of why even on 5.9.3

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 You’re the man lol. Here I can see that 5.9.3 and I see both the loopback and the NIC.

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 Well that is good news. You can use this kernel for all systems by leaving it in the global setting, or if we discover strangeness you can reset the global setting back to bzImage and then set the kernel property in the host definition for each of these MSI boards. We have absolutely no experience with this kernel so I can’t tell you if its going to work or fail miserably. YMMV

Just remember when you walk the bleeding edge, sometimes you get a little bloody.

Let us know how imaging goes with the 5.9.x kernel. I heard that 5.10.x will be a LTS kernel soon so then FOG will make that as an add on option once it has been tested out.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 it worked flawlessly I have all of them up and running now thanks again.

[george1421]

@Developers to get this one-off kernel I started with the kernel config file for 1.5.9 and copied it into the linux 5.9.3 build tree. I updated CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE field to include the firmware for the rt8125 nic card and built the kernel

rtl_nic/rtl8125b-1.fw rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw rtl_nic/rtl8125a-3.fw

No other modifications were made to settings. I did open the .config file and then save it right away so the menuconfig program would do a sanity check on the .config settings. We needed to use 5.9.x series to support the B version of this network adapter. While the previous kernels supported this adapter it was only the A version.

One thing is if you need to compile 5.8.x kernels or later you will need gcc 4.9, which meant I need to spin up a new centos 8.2 system to build the kernel.

[Sebastian Roth]

@george1421 said in Adding computer to FOG:

to get this one-off kernel I started with the kernel config file for 1.5.9 and copied it into the linux 5.9.3 build tree. I updated CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE field to include the firmware for the rt8125 nic card and built the kernel

Thanks for working this out! As far as I see we can add those three firmware blobs to our official kernel - be it 4.19 based or later.

Update: Just added.

[george1421]

@Sebastian-Roth said in Adding computer to FOG:

official kernel - be it 4.19 based or later

Yes you can but its not necessary in this case because it was the combination of the firmware blobs AND 5.9.x to get support for the 8125B version.

See the RHEL Bugzilla report here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1854314 that is what sent me down the 5.9 path, because 5.8.x didn’t work even with the firmware. The OP found this in his syslog in FOS unknown chip XID 641

[Sebastian Roth]

@george1421 Ahhh, missed that part. But nonetheless I think it doesn’t hurt to have it added even now so we don’t forget as soon as we update the kernel to 5.9 and later.