Ipxe boot Marvel/Yukon nic to FOG successfully
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@Hanz said:
ipxe.kpxe fixed this issue
I am not sure if I understand what you are saying? The picture shows an error. So I guess this is an earlier picture of using undionly.kpxe (filesize of 91341 KB must be it). And I guess using ipxe.kpxe is working for you!?
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@Sebastian-Roth yes that is correct, I’m sorry I didn’t really explain it thoroughly. ipxe.kpxe works really well so far with all our systems, is there any particular advantages to undionly.kpxe over ipxe.kpxe ?
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@Hanz undionly (as the name says) is only using the UNDI interface. ipxe.pxe/kpxe also has native drivers included. The binary is bigger and takes a little longer/more resources to load via TFTP on bootup. Whichever works for you is fine.
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@Sebastian-Roth why would the ipxe.kpxe load very slowly once it gets to bzimage
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I meant slow because the ipxe.kpxe binary being 3-4 times the size of undionly.kpxe - 320 KB vs 90 KB. It’s not an issue with proper network equipment but still some more data a client has to download each time it boots via PXE.
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@Sebastian-Roth no once it goes past the default.ipxe, and boot.php, bzimage is really slow
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@Hanz Ahhhh, now I understand. You experience bzImage download being very slow… Well this might have to do with native Marvell driver in iPXE not being great. If you really want to know I guess we need you to capture a paket dump (https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/TCPDump) and we might find something there.
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@Sebastian-Roth Ok gotta get squared away here, I have one machine with a Yukon nic and it will only work (otherwise ipxe error indicating tftp timeout) with the ipxe.kpxe, another machine (indicative of most machines in our network) with realtek nics that works well with the undionly.k/kkpxe (either)…
Problem is that if I use the ipxe.kpxe to boot (all computers will get to menu) however the majority of our machines with the realtek nics take about 5 mins to load bzimage, whereas the yukon nic goes like normal…about 3 seconds.
If I use the undionly.kpxe, not all machines will contact server for pxe boot either tasked or not.
My only option it seems (that’s why I’m asking) is to change option 67 when dealing with the “problem children.”
Does the installer download the newest ipxe.k/kkpxe and/or undionly.k/kkpxe ? I have a lot of questions about the inner workings, hate to be a pain, just too curious for my own good.
It also seems that setting the custom kernel per GUI for the individual machine won’t work.
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@Hanz As far as I know, the pxe binaries come with the FOG package itself, whereas the bzimage is downloaded upon installation.
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@Hanz said:
Problem is that if I use the ipxe.kpxe to boot (all computers will get to menu) however the majority of our machines with the realtek nics take about 5 mins to load bzimage, whereas the yukon nic goes like normal…about 3 seconds.
This is interesting. Can you please try realtek.pxe/kpxe? This binary comes with a native realtek driver only. If this one is slow we know where to start digging. Are all the NICs the same realtek model??
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@Sebastian-Roth It’s really a hodge podge of different machine types. I understand why I get timeout (because drivers aren’t present) but not why the slow bzimage when using the driver that’ll get me there. Apparently Yukon nic doesn’t have any UNDI drivers, as I see most manufacturers UNDI PXE loading when initiating pxe boot.
I’m trying to get “one” to work with all, or maybe build an undionly to include whatever is in the ipxe.kpxe krnl that makes this one nic type work. I guess I’ll just change option 67 when dealing with these machines until I find a better solution.
Any idea why the individually specified kernel doesn’t seem to help any ?
@Quazz I would like a setup like yours shown below that might allow me to make fog switch the little kernel by yukon, else use undionly.kkpxe. Could you guide me ?
Possibly something I could add to default.ipxe or something ? I just realized the kernel on gui is really the bzimage not the udionly or ipxe “little kernels”
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old topic but I had a similar issue, I simply created a DHCP reservation for the problem laptops (I only had a few) and set the 67 for those laptops on the reservation. That way I could leave fog alone and let the DHCP service give the appropriate details out (and being a reservation it is a permanent solution as far as I care).
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@KKTwenty101 I finally got this to work by updating the bios on my marvel/yukon nic machines.
PXE took off immediately afterwards. Just an option to try.