Hi all,
I am having some quite strange beghaviours with an nfs install. I think
I have narrowed it down to the network card and am wondering if anyone
can clarify my observations and questions.
RedHat 8.0
I am installing a device with an isa ne compatable network card (PC104 I
think). It is basically an old 486 equivalent (i.e. slow :-)), a CDRW,
128 megs of RAM, and a 40 gig disk.
I do a kickstart install, booting off the linux cd 1.
boot: linux ks isa text
After selecting the ne network driver and configuring the base address
and irq I have the machine ipaddress and kickstart file configured via
dhcp. The kickstart config installs via nfs. The install runs fine - the
ipaddress and kickstart file are configured via dhcp. As soon as the
client mounts the install media via nfs, and starts reading the install
media - the install just hangs. I see lots of these messages
eth0: mismatched read page pointers
eth0: mismatched read page pointers
Then lots of nfs server OK messages.
Doing a snoop with ethereal showed lots of NFS retransmits and TCP
retransmit/timeout exceeded errors.
Doing a search seemed to indicate this may be a problem with the network
card.
When I move to doing the install via the cd - the install works fine.
But it hangs at the end of my kickstart file in the post section when I
mount the install server manually and copy a few custom tarballs etc
into place.
I removed this code from the kickstart file and ran it manually after
install. I would imagine the card would be screwed after the install
too. This doesn't seem to be the case. I am able run the same script
manually to mount and copy a few tarballs into place.
Can anyone shed any light on what may be going on? I am wondering if it
is a full duplex half duplex issue? This card is a 10 base t half duplex
card and is plugged into a old hub. Everything else on the network is at
half duplex 10 meg? Is the install process setting the card to full
duplex by default - which then ends up being half duplex after the install?
I am not up on commands to determine that info for an isa card?
any help would be much appreciated or pointers on how to clarify what is
happening.
thanks,
Michael
--
Michael O'Sullivan <mos@xxxxxxxx>
"A good man always knows his limitations" - HC
