fog - boot issues

Hi,

I had fog 0.28 working good on ubuntu 9.10, but it broke - i assume because of an Ubuntu automatic update. I have experienced the same problem.

Anyway, last week, I set up a new fog server with Ubuntu 10.04 and fog 0.28. Everything went fine, (web ui works) but now i cant pxe boot. I have a server 2008 r2 server which is doing DHCP, and fog isnt doing DHCP.

I have set up the 066 and 067 scopes, they should be fine. but when booting fog, on any computer (tried different computers) i get file not found errors.

I turned the fog server off, and the same error occurs, so i presume that it is not the fog server.

I have noticed that when you try to change various setting on the windows server dhcp server, it says that the remote procedure call failed. try to apply the setting again, and it works. I am thinking the dhcp server may be stuffed?

We also have WDS set up. I noticed that it hasnt been working for a while, even with the correct scope settings for it in place.

One interesting thing is that, when i finished installing fog, i rebooted the windows server to see if that made a difference. for a few minutes while the server was booting, everything worked fine - but then fog stopped working again. I have tried to repeat this, and it wouldnt happen again.

I wont get to use it again till thursday, however the fog website says that a new version of fog will be released on tuesday. I will try reinstalling ubuntu, and using it.

But does anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing the problem?

Thanks for reading this, and for any help you may offer.
Nick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nick1234

I have set up the 066 and 067 scopes, they should be fine. but when booting fog, on any computer (tried different computers) i get file not found errors.

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I am working from memory on this, as the server is back in the office and I don't have access at the moment.

I had the same problems on 10.04 and discovered that there is a difference between where FOG and Ubuntu put the tftpboot folder. FOG assumes /tftpboot where as the tftp server is using /var/lib/tftpboot. I solved the problem by replacing the folder /var/lib/tftpboot with a symlink to /tftpboot, once the tftp server was restarted so did netbooting. I could probably have just tweaked the config files to have the tftp server use /tftpboot.

Hi Sjatkn,

thanks for your help. I am not going to be able to see this machine until thursday, I know that there was a folder /tftpboot. Did fog put that there - or ubuntu.

I may have to install fog on another machine when i get a bit of time today, just to see what is going on.

thanks for your help.

thanks mate, i tried it on a test server today, and it worked, hopefully that is all that is wrong on the proper one.

that seems strange, when i changed the scope settings back, WDS wouldnt work either. Meh, if this works, then who cares.

well i reinstalled the server ubuntu 10.04 and the new version of fog jsut released. i am still having the same issues. i made a sym link as suggested, set all files in /tftpboot to 777 permissions, and still no go.

however, if i put an option 60 (pxe client) into the dhcp server, WDS works.

iv tried differetn network cables, connecting to different switch, and i am using a different computer as the server.

any ideas?
thanks

some googling suggests perhaps i should try running

Quote:

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sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd start

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so as to try starting the tftp server, in case its not running. Does that seem like it could help. I dont get back to the place where the server is for a week, but will likely drive past tomorrow, and will drop in and try this if worthwhile.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nick1234

if i put an option 60 (pxe client) into the dhcp server, WDS works.

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That seems right. I have been adding option 60 to Ghost boot my machines and then removing it again so that I can then upload an image into FOG.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nick1234

some googling suggests perhaps i should try running so as to try starting the tftp server, in case its not running. Does that seem like it could help. I dont get back to the place where the server is for a week, but will likely drive past tomorrow, and will drop in and try this if worthwhile.

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It is worth checking that you have correctly entered DHCP option 067, Linux is case sensitive and the last character is a zero.

This has just been tested on my VM Ubuntu 10.04 / FOG server I created (not the VM you can download from FOG).

To see which directory is being used by tftp, login to the Ubuntu server and type.

Code:

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ps aux | grep tftp

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You will receive something like.

Code:

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root      2246  0.0  0.0  14788  328 ?        Ss  23:03  0:00 /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --listen --user tftp --address 0.0.0.0:69 --secure /var/lib/tftpboot

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If you see /var/lib/tftpboot then you can either set up a symlink as I suggested before or edit /etc/default/tftp-hpa

Code:

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sudo vi /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

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Here I have commented out the incorrect TFTP_DIRECTORY and added the second pointing to the directory with the FOG boot files.

Code:

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TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
#TFTP_DIRECTORY="/var/lib/tftpboot"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/tftpboot"
TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

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Restart tftpd by typing

Code:

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sudo killall in.tftpd

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Then try netbooting.

Long shot.. i had a new Samsung Digital signage fitted and the software has a pxe software running in it for the DS fir fixing it and it was blocked my windows dhcp from offering out the right gateway ip and settings.. any thing like that at your end ??

just sounds like the same problem i had..

sjatkn, the pxelinux.0 is fine - il try the other things (next thursday - not tomorrow).

nothing like that to my knowlege, certainly not since i last had it working. i now think it is the fog server, not the windows dhcp server.

thanks both of you for your suggestions

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nick1234

nothing like that to my knowlege, certainly not since i last had it working. i now think it is the fog server, not the windows dhcp server.

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From XP you can test to see if it is the TFTP server. From a command prompt.

Code:

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tftp server-address GET pxelinux.0

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It just makes it a little quicker to test if you have resolved the problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sjatkn

From XP you can test to see if it is the TFTP server. From a command prompt.

Code:

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tftp server-address GET pxelinux.0

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It just makes it a little quicker to test if you have resolved the problem.

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just tried this today, it works fine, but fog still wont boot. (i had a few minutes there today)

strangely, i rebooted the fog server, and while ubuntu was loading, it worked, (the fog menu pxe booted) but then as soon as ubuntu loaded completely, it stopped. so i think the windows server must be fine, and it must be something on the ubuntu server.

i had to leave, but i set ubuntu to download and install all its updates, maybe this could fix it. but i most likely wont see it till thursday next week, when i will reinstall ubuntu (or perhaps try it with fedora) if it doesnt work

Had a bit of a go at it today, didnt work. i then wiped it and reloaded ubuntu 10.04, and fog .29. still didnt work.

i decided to take the server home, tried it there, and it works, so we have some network/dhcp issue at the school where it is meant to be.

does anyone have any idea's?

using the windows tftp command, (which is available in win7 btw, you have to install it from programs and features), i can download a copy of the pxelinux.0 file from any compyter on the network, so the tftp server is accessible. i think it must be the windows 2008 dhcp server. (Keep in mind that, with the appropriate settings, WDS will pxe boot)

Thanks
Nick