[LUGSB] PXE Install Problems

[Douglas La Rocca]

Hello,

I've been having trouble with a PXE install on my computer. I'm running an
updated Gentoo 2008.0 (kernel 2.6.27-gentoo-r2) and I'm trying to install
linux on a laptop that doesn't have a CD-ROM or floppy disk drive. I've
gotten as far as getting the client to boot up a linux kernel
(2.6.27-gentoo-r2 compiled on the server running Gentoo) but the process
stops when it tries to mount NFS. I'm following the instructions here:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/diskless-howto.xml.

I get the following error:

**Looking up port of RPC 100003/2 on 192.168.1.101
rcpbind: server 192.168.1.101 not responding, timed out
Root-NFS: Unable to get nfsd port number from server, using default
Root-NFS: Server returned error -5 while mounting /diskless/192.168.1.102

I think that either the client's kernel isn't configured properly or
the DHCP server on the host (gentoo 2.6.27-r2) isn't configured
properly.

I've checked the following kernel configuration options for the client:

General Setup --->
  [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers

Networking --->
  [*] Networking support
  Networking options --->
    <*> Packet socket
    <*> Unix domain sockets
    [*] TCP/IP networking
    [*]   IP: multicasting
    [*]   IP: kernel level autoconfiguration
    [*]     IP: DHCP support (NEW)

File systems --->
  Network File Systems  --->
    <*> NFS file system support
    [*]   Provide NFSv3 client support
    [*]   Root file system on NFS

This is my /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file for the host dhcp server:

# Disable dynamic DNS
ddns-update-style none;

# Assume one default gateway for IP traffic will do
option routers 192.168.1.1;

# Provide DNS info to clients
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
option domain-name "somedomain.com";

# Specify the TFTP server to be used
next-server 192.168.1.101;

# Declare a vendor-specific option buffer for PXE clients:
# Code 1: Multicast IP address of boot file server
# Code 2: UDP port that client should monitor for MTFTP responses
# Code 3: UDP port that MTFTP servers are using to listen for MTFTP requests
# Code 4: Number of seconds a client must listen for activity before trying
#         to start a new MTFTP transfer
# Code 5: Number of seconds a client must listen before trying to restart
#         a MTFTP transfer

option space PXE;

option PXE.mtftp-ip               code 1 = ip-address;
option PXE.mtftp-cport            code 2 = unsigned integer 16;
option PXE.mtftp-sport            code 3 = unsigned integer 16;
option PXE.mtftp-tmout            code 4 = unsigned integer 8;
option PXE.mtftp-delay            code 5 = unsigned integer 8;
option PXE.discovery-control      code 6 = unsigned integer 8;
option PXE.discovery-mcast-addr   code 7 = ip-address;

# Declare the subnet where our diskless nodes will live
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

  # Provide PXE clients with appropriate information
  class "pxeclient" {
    match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
    vendor-option-space PXE;

    # At least one of the vendor-specific PXE options must be set in
    # order for the client boot ROMs to realize that we are a PXE-compliant
    # server.  We set the MCAST IP address to 0.0.0.0 to tell the boot ROM
    # that we can't provide multicast TFTP.

    option PXE.mtftp-ip 0.0.0.0;

    # This is the name of the file the boot ROMs should download.
    filename "pxelinux.0";
  }

  # Add one host declaration for each diskless host
  host slave102 {
    hardware ethernet 00:D0:59:15:6D:B0;
    fixed-address 192.168.1.102;
  }
}

I'm not sure if this helps at all, but the network setup I have here
is the PXE host connected to a router (wireless) and the slave wired
to the router. The router's IP is 192.168.1.1 locally, the host's is
192.168.1.101, and the client's is 192.168.1.102.

Is the problem due to the router and the DHCP server on the host
giving out IPs in the same 'subnet' or whatever it is? (192.168.1.0)
If I can't get this resolved I know I can take the hard drive out and
install Linux on it with another computer, but I don't think I have
the resources to do that here in my dorm. Any help in this respect
would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Douglas La Rocca
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