Hello everyone, I am having a similar issue that is becoming quite confusing, and I am hoping that by throwing the topic out there, I might gain some insight from the rest of the community. So here goes ... I'm trying to kickstart a node in my render farm. It is connected into an Alcatel 6600 series L2+ switch, connected via LACP aggregate to main switch closet. Everything is on the same VLAN and subnet. If I start the bootstrap install procedure, if I have my machine connected to the 6600 switch, I get no link. Nada. Nothing. Zip. No DHCP broadcast is seen by the server (on the same subnet as the affected machine). I've even tried connecting the DHCP server physically to the same switch, and again, it doesn't even see a request from Kickstart. What makes it weird is that there are 14 other machines on this switch also using DHCP (although not from Kickstart), and they have no problems getting leases and communicating with the DHCP server. If I connect the affected machine to the main switch and try again, it will get an IP properly, but installation always crashes without fail while trying to install one of the OpenOffice RPMs. The RPM itself is fine, mind you, but Kickstart doesn't like it, and fails consistently at the same byte each and every time. If I get the machine to grab a lease by connecting it to the main switch, and then swap it back on to the Alcatel, it continues to communicate without trouble, but again, crashes out during installation of the OpenOffice RPM mentioned previously. I've tried a second NIC, with the same result. I've tried a different HDD with the same result. Even when connected to the Alcatel 6600 switch during the DHCP negotiation phase, I can see the NIC light up, I see it actually activate, and then it gets shut down again immediately after. This is extremely confusing. I have never seen a situation like this before, and I am running out of possible explanations. Has anyone else ever encountered anything like this before? cheers, Klaus
