etherboot problem..

Before I get flamed, I know this is the coreboot discussion forum.
Someone told me the other day that coreboot was the form of linuxbios,
and my issue touches linux bios.  If this is the wrong list, please
forgive me without burning me at the steak.

Anyway, on with it.

I have a problem, that has had me banging my head against the wall for
weeks.  I am finally giving up, and asking on the list, as I cannot find
documentation to aid in fixing this issue.

Here goes..

I have an Linux NetworX cluster here, that uses etherboot on the nodes.
The new software replacement doesn't use etherboot, although it's capable
of sending out the pxe payload re-packaged for etherboot.  The problem
is, that when it gets to loading the kernel, it just hangs there.  So
after trying to build all sorts of new newer newest kernels.  I did a
little home work.  What I did find, was that execute "file" on each
kernel. ( The new and old LNXI kernel ) did show two differences.

Old : x86 boot sector

My newly built kernels show something different.

New : Linux kernel x86 boot executable RO-rootFS, root_dev 0x802, swap_dev
0x1, Normal VGA

I have searched and searched for documents that explain how to get the
image I need.  Can anyone please shed some light on this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Joshua

[ron minnich]

your new kernel uses vga. Does the linuxbios on the system have vga support?

ron

[Peter Stuge]

[e-mail] wrote:
> Can anyone please shed some light on this issue?

I know nothing specifically about those clusters, except that they
are pretty old by now.

It could be that you're hitting a bug in the old Etherboot which I
assume is in the boot flash, when sending it a newer kernel.

One thing you could try is to take out one node into a lab setting
and send it various other payloads.

Etherboot should indeed be able to boot anything that is usable as
payload with LinuxBIOS/coreboot.

Some suggestions would be FILO, GRUB2, gPXE (yes), and then finally
move on to a new kernel.

The tool to use is still mkelfImage, but note that the perl script
with the confusingly similar name mkelfimage is NOT useful at least
to make a coreboot payload.

The good mkelfImage is available at http://coreboot.org/Mkelfimage

I would send a filo.elf configured to boot a kernel from local
storage to Etherboot. Which needs local storage. But I think it's
a start for debugging the problem further.

//Peter

[ron minnich]

What are these nodes btw? opteron? xeon?

ron

They are Xeon..
> What are these nodes btw? opteron? xeon?
>
> ron