Adding computer to FOG

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 Thanks for replying back I have updated my kernels but I am still having the same issues.

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 OK lets go a bit deeper dive then.

If the computer is not registered yet manually create a host record. You will need to collect the mac address of the computer to manually register it.

Now schedule a capture or deploy (doesn’t matter) but before you hit the schedule task button tick the debug checkbox then schedule the task.

PXE boot the target computer it should jump into imaging mode right away. You will still see the error but will not stop you from booting. You will also have to clear several screens of text by hitting the enter key. Eventually you will be dropped to the FOS Linux command prompt.

At this command prompt I want you to key in the following commands.

uname -r it should respond with 5.6.18. If the -r switch doesn’t work key in uname -a the answer will be in that string. If it still says 4.19 then you are still using the older kernel.

If it does answer 5.6.18 then run this command lspci -nn |grep -i net It should print out one or two lines. There are hex numbers in square brackets. I need to know the numbers it will look something like this [8086:2df0]. I’ll need those numbers to see if there is a linux driver for them.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 5.6.18 was shown when running uname -r so that worked with no issues. After running the other command I got a result of 10ec:8125

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516

[10ec:8125] translates to:

vendor: 10ec (“Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.”), device: 8125 (“RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller”)

First appeared in linux kernel 5.4. So 5.6.18 should be new enough to support that network interface.

If you are still at the FOS Linux command prompt key in ip a s Does it show any more interfaces than the loop back interface?

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 Yes I only see the loopback address I also attached a picture here

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 I have an idea let me see if I can get a solution in about 30 minutes.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 Perfect thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

[george1421]

@JimmyJ0516 OK I ran into the first issue linux kernel 5.8.x needs an updated version of the compiler. So the answer isn’t going to come as fast as I wanted. Let me do some more research on this. It will probably be some time this weekend before I’ll have something for you to test.

[JimmyJ0516]

@george1421 It fine no worries. The district might be closing so I have time. Thank you again and please take your time there is no rush

[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.