On Wed, Sep 26, 2001 at 09:55:46AM +0100, peter144 wrote: > I have been working on an automated build based around > Kickstart, and thought it may help some people to note a > slightly off topic) issue that may be encountered by others. > > My configuration involves 2 x IBM x330 systems (with onboard > Intel Ethernet Pro 100 dual port NIC's) connected via a > Cisco 2900XL Catalyst switch. > > One IBMx330 is the server (for everything), and one is the > install target. > > The objective is an entirely media-less boot mechanism. > > This is working using PXELinux communicating with DHCP, the > client obtains the kernel and ram disk via TFTP, and then > picks up the ks.cfg over NFS, which in turn issues a static > IP and installs over NFS. > > The reason for this diatribe is that I experienced a problem > whereby, if I interrupted the boot process (Ctrl-S) when it > reached the /sbin/loader, and then released it (Ctrl-Q) the > install worked. > > If I didn't interupt it the install would hang. In the > tcpdump I could see the client issuing DHCPDISCOVER > requests, and the server responding with DHCPOFFER's. But, > the client would not accept the offers and therefore could > not get the ks.cfg. > > This is mentioned in the DHCP FAQ as a possible routing > issue, but there is another possible cause. > > Turns out that the ports on the Cisco were set to > auto-negotiate, with spanning-tree enabled. > > After setting the ports to fixed 100MB Full Duplex with no > spanning-tree, all works fine. I have seen this same problem usings sun's jumpstart. I seem to recall the setting to fix was "portfast" The spanning tree needs to be set for ports that are connected to other switches but not for individual hosts. Chuck
