LTSP 4.0 Network Card Detection Problem

[dragoncity99]

Hi everyone,

I have installed LTSP 4.0 (Linux Terminal Server Project). All goes well when today i faced a problem with my desktop Dell Dimension 2400 model was unable to boot successfully, the following is the error message i encountered:

Running /linuxrc
Mounting /proc

ERROR! Could not automatically detect the network card.
       PCI cards should be detected automatically.
       ISA cards cannot be detected,so they require
       the nic driver to be specified in a 'NIC=' parameter
       to be passed on the kernel command line,
       usually specified in option-129, in the
       /etc/dcpd.conf file.  See the LTSP docs for more info.

Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!

Any suggestions, ideas and solutions are most welcome.
Thankx in advance.

[griffjon]

I'm having this same problem.  I've not yet solved it, but this is what I've learned  so far -- the Broadcom NICs are not well supported, it seems.  Etherboot does not have drivers for the 440x series, so an etherboot rom won't work.  PXE booting, which the card does support, gives the error you have encountered.

The troubleshooting documents are pretty sparse on this problem, yet I have been encountering it left and right!

I think there is a way to specify the NIC driver in /etc/dhcpd.conf, but I don't know what keywords to put in for the Broadcom BCM4401  card....

[griffjon]

using NIC=BCM4401 in option-129 doesn't work, btw.

[dragoncity99]

Yeah, that's true, i even tried to guess the numbers beside MAC address during booting.

I faced the same thing to when searching for the solutions.

I even copied the drivers from the official site to copy the driver over the ltsp kernel  after compiling it. Geez, nothing works.

Maybe we should try more luck.

[griffjon]

Where can I download more "luck"  

I'm spending most of today hacking at this,  Knoppix auto-detects and can use the BCM4401 card, so it must be in the realm of possibility.

[griffjon]

Hung out in #LTSP on irc.freenode.net and got it working, here's the recipe:

Clear out your dhcpd.conf for the option-128/129 junk, you don't need it there.  You do need to set the IP there, however.

browse to /tftpboot/lts/pxe/pxelinux.cfg/

if all of your client machines use broadcom, you can edit the default file, otherwise, convert the ip of each client to hex (use http://hesketh.com/schampeo/projects/ipcalc/ , remove the leading 0x, and copy default to a new file named the hex of the IP.  The file should be in all caps.  client 10.0.0.10 => 0A00000A)

at the end of the append line, add a space and then NIC=b44

restart yur dhcpd (/etc/init.d/dhcpd restart) (only if you had to change /etc/dhcpd.conf) and reboot, and you're good to go!  I had to mess with video and sound afterwards, but hey!

[dragoncity99]

Thank u very much buddy. It works for me too. U saved the day

Now im facing another problem, do u have any idea on how to make the drivers on this Dell 2400  display driver to display on 1024x768. I changed the lts.conf but, it's very very very BIG still. ( I mean the icons and workspaces).

Did u face the same thing?

[dragoncity99]

I did this in my first company using LTSP to solve the display problem.

1. I overwrite the "intel display module" in the "ltps" directory with the one i have in Fedora Core 1.

2. Upgrade to LTSP 4.1 and solved the problem of the display.



I must inform u that, i never implemented sound modules on LTSP clients at all. But one thing u can do to solve sound problem is,

1. pop in a LiveCD and detect the sound module used by the kernel (2.4.xxx coz ur LTSP should be using 2.4.x kernel as well) to make ur LTSP Client to run.

2. Note down the driver and copy the "sound driver" module from ur real Linux System (I propose FC1) to your LTSP

3. Upgrade the LTSP kernel to 2.6.x running on the latest modules. U need to learn how to compile a Kernel & hardware driver as modules rather than into the kernel.

Okay, where u can find the linux driver modules on are real system and LTSP directory?

1. LTSP directory:
/opt/ltsp/lib/modules/.../drivers/ ( sorry, i can't exatly remember it)

2. You real linux system:
/lib/modules/xxx/kernel/drivers/sound (for sound)
/lib/modules/xxx/kernel/drivers/video (for video)
xxx = ur kernel version. U need to check on ur own linux system.

[deven_01]

Hi dear
your error is regarding to kernel that invoked by LTSP which is under /tftpboot/lts/
When you get kernel panic error then there is no enry for that kernel in dhcpd config file
I am forwarding my dhcp config file conent which will help you

ddns-update-style none;
allow booting;
allow bootp;

option subnet-mask            255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address      192.168.0.255;
option routers                192.168.0.254;
option domain-name-servers    192.168.0.254;
option domain-name            "My domainname";

option option-128             code 128 = string;
option option-129             code 129 = text;

shared-network WORKSTATIONS {
  subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    # Assign a dynamic address from the range of .100 to .253
    range   dynamic-bootp   192.168.0.100   192.168.0.200;

    filename    "/lts/vmlinuz-2.4.24-ltsp-4";        # Etherboot kernel
# This path 'filename /lts/vmlinux ' is so important check wheather your ltsp
#server having this
#if this is not, then it will showing you that kernel error
    option root-path "192.168.0.250:/opt/ltsp/i386";
  }
}

Refer the following link for ltsp its nice one
http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/WebHome

 Regards,
 Devendra