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View Full Version : [ubuntu] 11.04 PXE shuts down ethernet on hotplug



pashdown
April 30th, 2011, 10:57 PM
Trying to install Natty 11.04 via PXE. The ethernet is a Realtek RTL8168d/8111d gigabit. It DHCPs and configures just fine. Then it downloads what it needs for partitioning and does that. After partitioning, it runs net/hw-detect.hotplug which discovers the interface as new, then strips it of any configuration so it can not proceed further. Is there any way to disable this secondary hotplug detection of the ethernet interface?

pashdown
May 1st, 2011, 08:05 AM
After more investigation, I found the root of the problem is that the firmware files "rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw" and "rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw" were not being properly installed by "d-i hw-detect/load_firmware boolean true". Without the firmware loaded, the interface has the unfortunate tendency to go down repeatedly.
Although these files are located in "ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.52.tar.gz" and "ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.52_all.deb", they are not included in "ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/nic-firmware_1.52_all.udeb", which I believe may be the root of the problem.
I did a workaround for this by creating a tar file of the required firmwares and downloading it with the following preseed commands:
d-i preseed/early_command string cd /lib/firmware; \
wget http://pxeserver/pxe/ubuntu/11.04/desktop/common/realtek-firmware.tgz; \
tar zxvpf realtek-firmware.tgz; \
modprobe -r r8169; \
modprobe r8169; \
udhcpc