FOG kernel stalling out after PXE boot
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Hey all~
I’ve got my fog server up and running, the web interface works great, the clients seem to interact fine. When I try to actually create an image, things start to go sour. I’m following [url]http://fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Uploading_your_first_Image[/url] and at the “[SIZE=13px][FONT=sans-serif][COLOR=#000000]Perform Full Host Registration and Inventory[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]” step, the kernel starts to load, a whole bunch of stuff happens, and it gets to:
[2.785662] [<c0f06486>] kernel_thread_helper+0x6/0x10
and just spins. cursor blinks. nothing.
I’ve tried the other options in the PXE boot as well, and they all end up in the same place. I’ve searched around a fair bit, and I’m not finding much.
Any ideas?
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Have you tried updating the fog kernel?
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Another option would be to try adding “acpi=off” to Host Kernel Arguments on the web console.
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Hi Guys, am having the same problem with a newer X68 motherboard and just wanted to know where to put “[FONT=arial][COLOR=#222222]acpi=off”?[/COLOR][/FONT]
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FOG Web Console->Hosts->%pick-a-host%->General->Host Kernel.
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Thanks BryceZ, but when I do that I now get stuck earlier on tps65010 no chip?
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Peter, have you tried updating the kernel? Not all kernels are built the same. Unfortunately there is no great listing (that I’m aware of anyway) that correlates kernel to compatible hardware sets other than on the FOG [URL=‘http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=WorkingDevices’]wiki[/URL], which is far from a complete listing. I’d suggest trying different kernels to see which ones work for your hardware.
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I am currently trying different Kernels to see if any work, I will post any updates. FYI the motherboard is Giga-byte GA-Z68XP-UD3R F5
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Update, I have found that Kernel [FONT=Ubuntu][COLOR=#333333]- 2.6.36.1 Core allows me to image, but I cannot see anything on the screen. I have also tried to build my own kernel, but have not had any luck yet.[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Ubuntu][COLOR=#333333]Would I be better off starting with [/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Ubuntu][COLOR=#333333]Kernel - 2.6.36.1 Core and trying to get the graphics working or work on a newer kernel?[/COLOR][/FONT]
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Unfortunately I’m not a kernel expert. I would think that a newer KS kernel would be more likely to support your newer motherboard. It seems like you need a module that’s not compiled into the 2.6.36.1 Core.
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So we’ve been using FOG on our HP XW4400 workstaions quite successfully. Now we have gotten a shipment of new HP z400 workstations, and despite the Z400 being on the happy list with FOG, we are getting the kernel_thread_helper+0x6/0x10 message when trying to boot past the FOG menu via PXE. We tried changing kernels and manually adding the machine to the FOG host list to set the acpi=off parameter to no avail.
On the XW4400s, while watching the boot process it seems there’s a display change from 800X600 in the FOG menu to something much higher when it goes to do the imaging or inventory so I’m wondering if that is related. The old workstations have a mix of Geforce based cards and the Z400s are all Quadro 2000s. Any ideas? -
Which version of the boot image are you using? The wiki says that the Z400’s work with 0.29, but there were some significant changes between 0.29 and 0.30 which have been problematic for a number of people.
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I tried a couple of them, but I was afraid of breaking what is working. 3.1-rc8 Core was the last one I tried. I saw that FOC0.29 worked with the Z400s but I don’t know if that’s relevant since HP uses the same model number (Z400) for workstations spanning years. The Z400 on my bench is not the same Z400 that was available when 0.29 was released. Also, how does one tell which PXE Boot Image was deployed with which version of FOG?
Sorry if my questions seem simple; I’m not fluent in Unix. -
The boot images are not updated between version releases, so the 0.29 boot image was the same from release until 0.30 which received an new boot image, and so on.
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OK; so what boot image was used in 0.29?
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The boot images don’t really have version numbers
To get the boot image from 0.29 go to the sourceforge project page for FOG and download [URL=‘http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/files/FOG/fog_0.29/’]FOG 0.29[/URL] to your FOG server. Go to /tftpboot/fog/images/ and rename init.gz to init.gz.BACKUP (or whatever). Open the downloaded package and go to fog_0.29/packages/tftp/fog/images/, and copy init.gz into /tftpboot/fog/images/. Make sure the ownership and permissions are the same for init.gz and init.gz.BACKUP, and then PXE boot one of your Z400 computers to give it a try.
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OK; I get the same message with the init.gz from the 0.29 package.
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And just to make sure I did everything right (since Unix is not my primary language):
/tftpboot/fog/images$ ls -l
total 36628
-rw-r–r-- 1 fog root 30971987 2010-05-11 08:25 init.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 fog root 6530155 2011-11-30 16:12 init.gz.BACKUP -
Hey Bob, I am about to throw an older video card into one of my new machines, I will let you know how it goes.
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OK, I swapped out the Quadro 2000 and tossed in a Geforce 9800GTX+ and PXE boots past the initial FOG menu. It complaines that the BIOS for the Z400 is unknown, but appears to function as expected. I’m going to pull an image now and see how it goes.
