8.10 Alternate CD LTSP cant connect

[palitone]

Hi guys newbie here...

Im having problems with the latest release of Ubuntu (ubuntu 8.10alternate cd). I was trying to install a LTSP. I used its F4 option and selecting Install an LTSP Server according to this tutorial:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/LTSPQuickInstall

After the installation, the tutorial says that i will be able to boot my thinclient on to the LTSP server but it never happend. Im using 2 NIC for my server and i have a celeron 400mhz with PXE NIC on mythin client. PXE boots on the thinclient and he detects the DHCP but in the end does not connect. Can anyone help me please...I appreciate any help...Thanks

[smartboyathome]

Let me know how it works for you. I'm going to run ubuntu as a thin client using a VM.

[palitone]

No Luck Smartboy...still the same. Im going to try the manual install at the botom part of the tutorial. Please let me know what happend on your VM install...Thanks.

[palitone]

Here what it displays...


DHCP MAC ADDR: XX XX XX XX XX XX
PXE-EA1: No PXE server found, using standard boot file.
IP ADD: 192.168.0.20
PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout
PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout
PXE-MOF: Exiting LANDesk service Agent
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK & PRESS ENTER


Please help me....anybody, need this to work. Thank you.

[Aearenda]

The default LTSP setup assumes that the LTSP server is providing both the DHCP and TFTP services on the terminal's network. Is it possible that you have a DHCP server running somewhere else on the same network, e.g. on a router device?

Your two-NIC setup should match the third diagram at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/LTSPWiring.

[palitone]

Yes Aearenda im using the third option. I did not try what youre suggesting because the network im trying to setup is designed using the third option. Can you help me how will i be able to run the LTSP server using the third option. thank you in advance mate...

[Dragonbite]

Verify that you have the right NICs connected to the right location.

I wish I had my notes from before, somebody told me how I can make a NIC light flash so I can confirm eth0 and eth1 are correct.

I know it sounds like a stupid suggestion but believe me it is easier to get those mixed up than one originally thinks.

[Aearenda]

I haven't tried it with 8.10 yet, but I have several working 8.04 servers, and I think it is very similar, so let's see where we go. Please post the contents of the following files on the LTSP server (you can open them from the file explorer with the 'text editor' for this, or do it from a terminal by typing gedit and a space in front of each file name):

/etc/network/interfaces
/etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf
/var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.cfg/default

Also, please post the output from the following commands run in a terminal:

grep tftp /etc/inetd.conf
pgrep -l dhcp
grep dhcp /var/log/daemon.log
grep ftp /var/log/daemon.log
ls /opt/ltsp/i386

That'll do for now!

[Aearenda]

Let's add the output of the commands
ifconfig
route to the list, please!

Aside: The forum post counts aren't incrementing as we do this! Strange...

[palitone]

Thanks mate...here it is

/etc/networkinterfaces
After ubuntu install, both eth0 and eth1 have both the same IP so I manually edit this file to give dynamic IP to my eth0 since im behind a router


# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.0.254
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255



/etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf



# Default LTSP dhcpd.conf config file.
#

authoritative;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.0.20 192.168.0.250;
option domain-name "example.com";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option routers 192.168.0.1;
# next-server 192.168.0.1;
# get-lease-hostnames true;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386";
if substring( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9 ) = "PXEClient" {
filename "/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0";
} else {
filename "/ltsp/i386/nbi.img";
}
}



/var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.cfg/default



DEFAULT vmlinuz ro initrd=initrd.img quiet splash



Output in the of the following command in the terminal


grep tftp /etc/inetd.conf

tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /var/lib/tftpboot

pgrep -l dhcp

5208 dhcpd3
grep dhcp /var/log/daemon.log

Dec 1 13:16:37 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server V3.1.1
Dec 1 13:16:37 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.
Dec 1 13:16:37 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: All rights reserved.
Dec 1 13:16:37 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/
Dec 1 13:16:38 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: Wrote 0 leases to leases file.
Dec 1 13:19:21 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:80:ad:77:00:cb via eth1
Dec 1 13:19:22 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.0.20 to 00:80:ad:77:00:cb (southern-26a5e9) via eth1
Dec 1 13:19:22 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.0.20 (192.168.0.254) from 00:80:ad:77:00:cb (southern-26a5e9) via eth1
Dec 1 13:19:22 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: DHCPACK on 192.168.0.20 to 00:80:ad:77:00:cb (southern-26a5e9) via eth1
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server V3.1.1
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: All rights reserved.
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: Wrote 1 leases to leases file.
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd:
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: No subnet declaration for eth0 (192.168.1.100).
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: ** Ignoring requests on eth0. If this is not what
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: you want, please write a subnet declaration
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: in your dhcpd.conf file for the network segment
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd: to which interface eth0 is attached. **
Dec 1 13:23:11 ubuntuLTSP dhcpd:

grep ftp /var/log/daemon.log

No entry

ls /opt/ltsp/i386

bin cdrom etc lib mnt proc sbin sys usr
boot dev home media opt root srv tmp var

ifconfig

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:ac:e8:4e:d3
inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::204:acff:fee8:4ed3/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2168 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1915 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2737369 (2.7 MB) TX bytes:203424 (203.4 KB)

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:d4:61:6d:b0
inet addr:192.168.0.254 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::213:d4ff:fe61:6db0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:23 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:3696 (3.6 KB)
Interrupt:17 Base address:0xd800

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:164 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:164 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:9824 (9.8 KB) TX bytes:9824 (9.8 KB)

route

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 eth0
default 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0



Thank you very much mate for helping.....

[Aearenda]

There's certainly something odd about having both NICs get the same address, and your workaround for this has led to some errors in your /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf. I think the subnet declaration in there should look like this:


subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.0.20 192.168.0.250;
option domain-name "example.com";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.254;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option routers 192.168.0.254;
# next-server 192.168.0.1;
# get-lease-hostnames true;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386";
if substring( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9 ) = "PXEClient" {
filename "/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0";
} else {
filename "/ltsp/i386/nbi.img";
}
}

In other words, change the 192.168.0.1 entries to 192.168.0.254, matching your manual ip address. The next-server option, which is commented out on my server too, is actually what tells the client where to go for the TFTP service, and this is where it fails. However, in the absence of that parameter, it expects the DHCP server to provide the TFTP, so it should have worked anyway. I would not expect fixing just this part to make it all work, but it's worth a try.

After fixing the dhcpd.conf file, do this to restart dhcpd:

sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restartand then reboot your terminal.

Whenever you change your terminal-side IP address for the LTSP server manually, you have to do this:

sudo ltsp-update-sshkeys
However, this isn't the cause of the problem - it only shows up later, causing all login attempts to fail.

Please let us know what happens.

EDIT: Have you done anything with ufw or iptables on your LTSP server?

[palitone]

Still no luck....still the same. I didnt make any modifications with ufw or iptables. I only did what the tutorial said. Thanks for hanging out on this mate...

[Aearenda]

Ok, next step then - modify the line in /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf that reads
# next-server 192.168.0.1;so that it reads
next-server 192.168.0.254;That is, remove the '#' and fix the address. Then restart the DHCP server as before and try again. This makes the TFTP server address explicit.

Maybe your terminal has a dodgy pxe implementation! Do you have any others to try?

[palitone]

Still no luck mate....

My thinclient is a celeron 400mhz and has 32mb SDRAM. It has a IBM Ethernet WOL LAN card. Ill look for another computer and ill PM you then what happend...Thanks mate

[Aearenda]

Ah - I don't think 32Mb is going to work anyway - 48Mb is the minimum specified at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToCookEdubuntu/Chapters/HardwareRequirements but my experience suggests that you really need 128Mb to get a usable terminal. I have in the past got 64Mb 233MHz Pentiums to work, but that was using LTSP 4.2, not the LTSP 5 that is built in to Ubuntu.

That said, I don't think the 32Mb is the reason why your terminal isn't working - there's still something wrong with the getting of the TFTP connection. To prove whether it is the PXE implementation, you could generate, download and burn a boot CD for the network card in your terminal from http://rom-o-matic.net/ (this is what I had to do with my 64Mb PCs that were too old to have PXE). The PC starts from the boot CD but immediately looks for the network and proceeds to start up from the server thereafter.

If that doesn't work, I think the next step is to start capturing some network traces.

Another file to check - what's in /etc/default/tftpd-hpa ? On Hardy it is:
#Defaults for tftpd-hpa
RUN_DAEMON="no"
OPTIONS="-l -s /var/lib/tftpboot"

[palitone]

Thanks mate but you are right. I tried what youve said, i upgraded the memory into 128, tried rom-o-matic and still nothing happend....

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

/etc/default/tftpd-hpa
Still the same...


#Defaults for tftpd-hpa
RUN_DAEMON="no"
OPTIONS="-l -s /var/lib/tftpboot"


by the way mate this is the structure of my network

Router ---> LTSP Server ----> Switch ----> Thinclient

Thanks mate...ill wait for further instructions from you...MASTER!!!

[Aearenda]

OK, here's my next suggestion:

1. Make sure there is nothing else attached to the network switch on the terminal side apart from the LTSP server and the terminal.

2. On the LTSP server, start up a terminal session and type in
sudo tcpdump -i eth1 -w eth1capture

3. Attempt to boot the terminal.

4. When the PXE fail message comes up on the terminal, press CTRL/C on the terminal session so that the capture is stopped.

5. On the terminal, do
zip capture eth1capture

6. Attach the file capture.zip on your reply (you have to 'go advanced' to do that).

[K.Mandla]

Moved to Installations and Upgrades, although Networking might be a better home for it.

[palitone]

Thanks K.Mandla

Here it is mate...thanks

[Aearenda]

May be old age creeping up on me and all that, but I see no attachment...

EDIT: Ok, it's there now!

[Aearenda]

The capture shows that the LTSP server TFTP service is responding to the client, trying to set the block size for the transfer, but the client ignores the response and requests the file again. If you install wireshark on your server you can open the capture file and see this quite clearly.

Do you trust your switch and cables? If you boot the 'terminal' using a live CD of some sort, can you ping the server?

EDIT: Actually it can't be the cabling, since the BOOTP dialogue works and a DHCP address is given. It's worth trying another switch though, if you have one - or a crossover cable.

Assuming the switch and cables are good, let's assume the problem is with the terminal's PXE implementation for now. Please will you repeat the capture using the Etherboot version of the rom-o-matic boot CD.

[Aearenda]

I just noticed something else: your server is using the address 192.168.0.1 again - but your /etc/network/interfaces says it should be .254!

I didn't notice this at first because mine is 192.168.0.1 as well, so it just looked 'right'.

It doesn't change anything really, at this point - the terminal should be acknowledging the packet from the server, and it doesn't. However, how has this come about? Have you changed it back?

[Dragonbite]

Moved to Installations and Upgrades, although Networking might be a better home for it.

How about an LTSP forum? ;)

[Aearenda]

It's about time there was an LTSP forum - but most of the LTSP stuff happens on the edubuntu and K12OSN mailing lists.

[palitone]

Thanks guys...

Aearenda...I changed the IP to 192.168.0.1, just experimenting...
ill try the rom-o-matic and send it here....Ill try to change the switch too.

Dragonbite...Your right, there should be dedicated forum for LTSP...Hope admins are reading this...

thanks again...be back later.

[palitone]

I replaced my switch with 16port D-link rackmount switch,
I booted one computer, attached it to the ltsp network and it pings,
Here mate is the capture.zip for the etherboot:

94985

I also replaced the PXE NIC card that I used,
I also used x-cable,

Still no luck mate.....Thanks for your patience...

[Aearenda]

In this one, the terminal does the boot request, and the server replies, but there is just nothing from the terminal after that. Weird - unless you stopped the capture too soon - but I'm sure you didn't do that.

With the replacement NIC card, is the PXE error message on the screen any different? What was the error message from the etherboot CD start?

Please will you post your current /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf, after the ip address change.

In the captures so far, the BOOTP reply from the terminal server has not been captured in full because it is longer than tcpdump's default snapshot size. Just in case there is something odd in there, please will you repeat the PXE capture, this time using the command
sudo tcpdump -s 0 -i eth1 -w eth1capture

The next step, assuming nothing shows up in the longer capture, is for me to try to grab a trace and comparison log files from a working 8.10 system. I've been comparing with an 8.04 system so far. Maybe your client is simply not going to work - maybe my memory of how to use the etherboot CD doesn't work on 8.10 - maybe TFTP in 8.10 does its logging differently - I don't see why it should, but we're missing some clues here. I'll see if I can do that today (it's morning here now).

EDIT: I have my working 8.10 LTSP server now - I hit the 'same IP' problem too - and the DHCP server is assuming the 192.168.0.1 address, whereas the address in use is 192.168.0.254. But it just works anyway, since the terminals don't need to use a router.

[palitone]

With replacing the PXE card, errors are the same
The etherboot has the same error as before

Here is the dhcpd.conf


#
# Default LTSP dhcpd.conf config file.
#

authoritative;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.0.20 192.168.0.250;
option domain-name "example.com";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option routers 192.168.0.1;
# next-server 192.168.0.1;
# get-lease-hostnames true;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386";
if substring( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9 ) = "PXEClient" {
filename "/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0";
} else {
filename "/ltsp/i386/nbi.img";
}
}




Mate...im getting desperate..:lolflag:

Do you think it has something to do with my hardware?
Im running an Asus P5GL-MX MicroATX motherboard, 1GB DDR ram
40Gb HD, 2 NIC (3com, IBM ethernet), Celeron 2.2ghz

When you installed the 8.10, did you use the atlernated cd?
did you change any configuration or you just boot your thinclient
immediately after install? I used F4 during install and selected
install a LTSP Server

Thanks mate...sorry for late replies, our time difference is 4 hours...

[Aearenda]

No problems over the time - I am periodically out anyway, doing my real job :-). I suspect the terminal's PXE firmware, not the server. It indicates that it doesn't understand the PXE response from the LTSP server; but I can't be sure unless we get the whole of the packets using '-s 0' on the tcpdump.
By the way, are you sure the etherboot CD gave the exact same message? I don't think it should have. Is the boot order on the client preferring the CD over the NIC?

My 8.10 installation was from an Alternate CD, I selected English, pressed F4 to select the LTSP installation, and then let it go with the defaults except that I had to use eth1 for the Internet side and eth0 for the client side - eth0 didn't work during installation, but it did afterwards. Both NICs ended up with 192.168.0.254, and I found that /etc/network/interfaces had eth1 largely commented out - so I removed the '#' from the 'iface eth0... dhcp' line and it got a dhcp address correctly after ifdown, ifup. I didn't change anything to do with the LTSP setup - it just worked. My terminal uses a motherboard adapter with PXE built in, probably a bit newer than yours.

[palitone]

Sorry mate in dragging you into this...youre probably right about the
PXE. Here is the capture I did with -s 0:



If this will not work, ill find another cpu to install the server and different thinclient...Thanks again mate...

[palitone]

Mate,

I read some posts and some of them having problems booting tftp after they switch other ubuntu releases, im using intrepid ibex and maybe it has an incompatibility to old PXEs. Im using old PXE NICs from IBM and 3com. I will try some of them. Ill start with Drapper Drake.

Thanks mate...thank you a lot for guiding me...:smile:

[Aearenda]

I've had some trouble connecting to the Ubuntu forums this morning, and I have to go out soon, so this is in haste... but I'm happy to keep on working at this if it is helping, as others have stuck with me in the past.

EDIT: Later: See my gPXE CD suggestion at the end before doing much else... what follows adds detail to my line of reasoning, but you can read it later if you like!

------------------ Old comments ------------------

I'd recommend Gutsy as a good LTSP release. You may find Dapper difficult. You'll need the 'Edubuntu' CDs for these.

However, I still don't understand why starting with a rom-o-matic CD didn't work - this bypasses the NIC ROM, and works for me. In fact, I use this to generate a hard disk boot for ancient terminals that don't have PXE ROMs at all.

The full trace shows two interesting things. The first is in the DHCP ack from the server. Yours looks like this:
Bootstrap Protocol
Message type: Boot Reply (2)
Hardware type: Ethernet
Hardware address length: 6
Hops: 0
Transaction ID: 0x8b046234
Seconds elapsed: 0
Bootp flags: 0x0000 (Unicast)
Client IP address: 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0)
Your (client) IP address: 192.168.0.21 (192.168.0.21)
Next server IP address: 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)
Relay agent IP address: 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0)
Client MAC address: HewlettP_04:62:34 (00:50:8b:04:62:34)
Server host name not given
Boot file name: /ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0
Magic cookie: (OK)
Option: (t=53,l=1) DHCP Message Type = DHCP ACK
Option: (t=54,l=4) Server Identifier = 192.168.0.1
Option: (t=51,l=4) IP Address Lease Time = 12 hours
Option: (t=1,l=4) Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Option: (t=3,l=4) Router = 192.168.0.1
End Option
Padding

and mine looks like this:
Bootstrap Protocol
Message type: Boot Reply (2)
Hardware type: Ethernet
Hardware address length: 6
Hops: 0
Transaction ID: 0x5c7ce178
Seconds elapsed: 4
Bootp flags: 0x8000 (Broadcast)
Client IP address: 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0)
Your (client) IP address: 192.168.0.20 (192.168.0.20)
Next server IP address: 192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254)
Relay agent IP address: 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0)
Client MAC address: DellComp_7c:e1:78 (00:06:5b:7c:e1:78)
Server host name not given
Boot file name: /ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0
Magic cookie: (OK)
Option: (t=53,l=1) DHCP Message Type = DHCP ACK
Option: (t=54,l=4) Server Identifier = 192.168.0.254
Option: (t=51,l=4) IP Address Lease Time = 12 hours
Option: (t=1,l=4) Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Option: (t=3,l=4) Router = 192.168.0.1
Option: (t=6,l=4) Domain Name Server = 192.168.0.1
Option: (t=15,l=11) Domain Name = "example.com"
Option: (t=17,l=14) Root Path = "/opt/ltsp/i386"
End Option

Mine is giving 3 extra options, one of which is the root path. I don't know if this is significant or not - the root path tells the client where to find the chroot image used to boot, but your client isn't getting that far yet, so I don't think this is the immediate problem unless the PXE rom checks for it at this stage. For reference, this is my /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf:
#
# Default LTSP dhcpd.conf config file.
#

authoritative;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.0.20 192.168.0.250;
option domain-name "example.com";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option routers 192.168.0.1;
# next-server 192.168.0.1;
# get-lease-hostnames true;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386";
if substring( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9 ) = "PXEClient" {
filename "/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0";
} else {
filename "/ltsp/i386/nbi.img";
}
}

I haven't fixed the router and DNS entries in here. You'll see that the root path entry looks just like yours; yet your server doesn't supply that in the DHCP ACK, and it should. EDIT: There is a reason for this - see later

EDIT: Ignore this paragraph altogether! [The second difference is further down the capture. My server offers a larger blocksize, which the client refuses; yours doesn't; and then mine confirms the blocksize to port 2071 on the client, where yours sends to 2070. I don't know if this is significant, but it is what I would investigate next. I'll google this some more later ion the day, but I have run out of time for now.] It's ok, it's because this is the second request after refusing the larger block size.

I hate to harp on about this, but are you really sure that the rom-o-matic CD produced exactly the same messages?


-------------------- READ FROM HERE --------------------------

Later: I have just downloaded current etherboot and gPXE CDs for my test terminal (which uses a 3c905c NIC) from rom-o-matic - the first time for ages. I find that the etherboot CD fails to boot with very similar symptoms to your system, including the missing options from the DHCP server, whereas the gPXE CD boots fine. It looks like the 8.10 setup doesn't allow for etherboot correctly.

This led me to look more closely at the very first packet in the traces (I should have done this before), where the terminal broadcasts for a DHCP server to respond. Your terminal includes the following:
Option: (t=55,l=4) Parameter Request List
Option: (55) Parameter Request List
Length: 4
Value: 01033C2B
1 = Subnet Mask
3 = Router
60 = Vendor class identifier
43 = Vendor-Specific Informationwhere the equivalent from mine is
Option: (t=55,l=24) Parameter Request List
Option: (55) Parameter Request List
Length: 24
Value: 01020305060B0C0D0F1011122B363C438081828384858687
1 = Subnet Mask
2 = Time Offset
3 = Router
5 = Name Server
6 = Domain Name Server
11 = Resource Location Server
12 = Host Name
13 = Boot File Size
15 = Domain Name
16 = Swap Server
17 = Root Path
18 = Extensions Path
43 = Vendor-Specific Information
54 = Server Identifier
60 = Vendor class identifier
67 = Bootfile name
128 = Private
129 = Private
130 = Private
131 = Private
132 = Private
133 = Private
134 = Private
135 = Private
I conclude that your NIC's PXE rom just isn't going to work, with any version of LTSP, since it doesn't ask for information it needs. However, the rom-o-matic gPXE CD should - I've proved that the current version works with my system, so I recommend you do a full capture with the rom-o-matic gPXE CD for your NIC as your next step, before trying any other versions of Ubuntu etc.

Assuming this works, it is reasonably straightforward to bypass the NIC's PXE rom - you place the gPXE code on the terminal's hard disk, have it boot that using LILO, and have the disk stopped soon after the terminal boots using a short timeout with hdparm. I'll tell you how when we get that far!

[palitone]

Cool...Thanks mate, ill post the findings.

EDIT: I downloaded the gPXE: all drivers, i cant find my other NIC driver in gPXE list. Would it be ok?

[Aearenda]

What NIC is it?

Generally, a driver for the chipset family will do - you only need the specific one to build a ROM image. So, for example, any of the RTL8139 drivers will do for a card based on that chip.

I don't see the 'all' version - are you at http://www.rom-o-matic.net/gpxe/gpxe-0.9.6/contrib/rom-o-matic/ ? (and you need a .iso download from there)

[palitone]

Theres a gPXE: all driver selection at rom-o-matic I selected it and

IT WORKED....THANKS AEARENDA...
thanks for everything mate....

:lolflag:

I still have few more questions:

How can I enable internet sharing to the thinclients? and
How can I transfer a dsk floppy image to a floppy disk?

Im plan to use diskettes to boot hehehe...Thanks mate, dont know if thank you is enough hehehe....You were right PXE is the problem, I used the etherboot not the gPXE. I had several re-installations too hahaha... Now its ok... Thanks mate....Thank you very much!!!:D

[Aearenda]

I'm glad it's working!

The thin clients boot locally, but all the work they do runs in a session on the server - that's what a 'thin' client is - so they don't need direct internet access. The server does all the work, that's why the terminal can be so old/weak/slow. On the other hand, if you want to run 'thick clients' or 'fat clients' that run local sessions but still boot off the server, or if you want to put an ordinary PC on the client network, then you need to turn on packet forwarding on the LTSP server itself - so it acts as a router - or turn on masquerading, which is easier since the network the other side of the LTSP server doesn't need to know about the terminals. I use masquerading, in conjunction with some serious firewalling on the internet side; and there are as many ways of setting this up as there are people using Ubuntu. OK, I exaggerated, but only a little. Here's one way: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/ThinClientHowtoNAT, but it's out of date - /etc/network/options doesn't exist any more. I think you can simplify this - you should be able to put the following in /etc/rc.local, just before the last line which says 'exit 0':


# Masquerading
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
# Enable it in the kernel
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

This will take effect on reboot. You can do it without a reboot for testing by doing this:
sudo -i
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
exit
The 'sudo -i' is necessary to allow the echo redirection to work as root.

You can copy the diskette image directly to the floppy disk device:
dd if=<your-image.dsk> of=/dev/fd0I don't recommend using diskettes - I tried it with a roomful of 10 terminals in 2004, and I was forever trying to fix the diskette drives and making new diskettes. Then I used CDs - it's amazing how noisy they can be. Finally I gave in, and did the LILO trick on the hard disks, which I had previously removed, and after that all my pain went away.

By the way, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP is a great place to go for ideas.

[palitone]

Thanks mate....youre a great help, if other problems comes up I know who to ask for advice......Thanks for everything. More blessings and Good luck.

):P):P

[qman_txun]

Hi to all, I just want to know how to setup the primary network interface using static IP Number, here are my static IP Number that my ISP gave me Ip Address 67.46.66.xxx, Netmask 255.255.255.2xx, Gateway 67.46.66.xxx and DNS server are 66.82.4.8 and 66.82.4.12 how could I put this information on the interface file so that I can go to the Internet, the server is working and the terminals can boot from it.

Thanks

[Aearenda]

qman_txun: It's best not to ask a different question on a thread started by somebody else; you should start your own thread if you can't find the information you need by searching the existing threads and online documentation.

Unfortunately you have left out some information necessary to answer the question accurately, so I'll make some assumptions.

I'm assuming you are using Edubuntu 8.10 with a two-interface setup, and that your secondary network interface is 'eth1' serving your terminals with the default address. As far as I know setting a static address on the primary side 'eth0' should not break your terminals or any other terminal-side services.

You should look at /etc/network/interfaces, and identify at least three entries there; one will be for the 'lo' device, and the others probably 'eth0' and 'eth1'. One of them will have a static address 192.168.0.x - that's the terminal side that I am calling 'eth1'. The other one will probably have a dynamic address, and is the internet side. You need to change that one, which I will call 'eth0' here, so that it looks like this:


auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 67.46.66.xxx
netmask 255.255.255.2xx
gateway 67.46.66.xxx
If your eth0 and eth1 are the other way around, change what I just typed accordingly.

You also need to modify /etc/resolv.conf to fix the DNS addresses; add two lines like this:

nameserver 66.82.4.8
nameserver 66.82.4.12
If your ISP told you to use a domain name, you might also need entries like this:
domain your-domain-name
search your-domain-name

I think that should do it. You might need to uninstall network-manager if it changes the DNS settings in /etc/resolv.conf.