Syslinux - Feb 2002 - Allwell doesn't respond to OACK with ACK in TFTP

I'm trying to network-boot a GCT Allwell set-top box without success. 
My frustration level is high.

The problem seems to be that the Allwell is sending a RRQ with an
option.  tftp-hpa responds with an OACK, and waits for the corresponding
ACK from the Allwell.  The Allwell never sends that ACK, but instead
continues with the same RRQ until timeout.

Having read RFC1782, this makes me think the TFTP client in the Allwell
is broken.  Ack! Ack ack ack ack ack.  Ack, thpppht.  What do I do?

The packets follow:

RRQ:

    Trivial File Transfer Protocol
        Opcode: Read Request (1)
        Source File: pxelinux.0
        Type: octet
        Option: blksize = 1456
    
OACK:

    Trivial File Transfer Protocol
        Opcode: Option Acknowledgement (6)
        Option: blksize = 1456

Ok, I've got some more information.  I hacked out the loop in tftp-hpa
that waits for the ACK.  Yay, open source!  Thank you!  Frustration
level is lower.

However, problem is not solved: server now sends DATA packet, but
Allwell ignores it like a prom queen ignoring a computer geek.  Same
behavior ensues (timeout).

Ok, so now I try using the -r option of tftp-hpa, and disallow the
blksize option the Allwell is asking for.  tftp-hpa does the right
thing, giving a DATA packet with the standard blocksize.  Again, the
Allwell is an ice queen.

It looks like Jason Bodnar had the same problem earlier:
http://www.geocrawler.com/mail/msg.php3?msg_id=7112481&list=5299
Jason, did you get it working?

Matt Butcher seems to have gotten it to work
(http://www.allwell.tv/DownLoad/Network_Boot_/network_boot_.html). 
Matt, thank you for your document.  It was helpful for me right up to
the point where I can't get it to work.  Can you see what I'm doing
wrong?

Can anyone help me with this or do I throw the Allwell into the river?

Neologism


On Mon, 2002-02-04 at 01:43, Neologism wrote:
> I'm trying to network-boot a GCT Allwell set-top box without success. 
> My frustration level is high.
> 
> The problem seems to be that the Allwell is sending a RRQ with an
> option.  tftp-hpa responds with an OACK, and waits for the corresponding
> ACK from the Allwell.  The Allwell never sends that ACK, but instead
> continues with the same RRQ until timeout.
> 
> Having read RFC1782, this makes me think the TFTP client in the Allwell
> is broken.  Ack! Ack ack ack ack ack.  Ack, thpppht.  What do I do?
> 
> The packets follow:
> 
> RRQ:
> 
>     Trivial File Transfer Protocol
>         Opcode: Read Request (1)
>         Source File: pxelinux.0
>         Type: octet
>         Option: blksize = 1456
>     
> OACK:
> 
>     Trivial File Transfer Protocol
>         Opcode: Option Acknowledgement (6)
>         Option: blksize = 1456

Hi,

Neologism <Neologism at POBox.COM> schrieb am
04.02.02:
> I'm trying to network-boot a GCT Allwell set-top box without success. 
> My frustration level is high.
> 
> The problem seems to be that the Allwell is sending a RRQ with an
> option.  tftp-hpa responds with an OACK, and waits for the corresponding
> ACK from the Allwell.  The Allwell never sends that ACK, but instead
> continues with the same RRQ until timeout.
> 
> Having read RFC1782, this makes me think the TFTP client in the Allwell
> is broken.  Ack! Ack ack ack ack ack.  Ack, thpppht.  What do I do?
> 
> The packets follow:
> 
> RRQ:
> 
>     Trivial File Transfer Protocol
>         Opcode: Read Request (1)
>         Source File: pxelinux.0
>         Type: octet
>         Option: blksize = 1456
>     
> OACK:
> 
>     Trivial File Transfer Protocol
>         Opcode: Option Acknowledgement (6)
>         Option: blksize = 1456
Try to tell tftp-hpa not to use the blksize option. Some clients
demand the blksize option, but can't deal with it if the server
accepts it. 

BTW: Maybe the rom sends two RRQ's, since that's the usual behaviour
of some roms (one with blksize, the second one with tsize).

Is it possible to put some network card into this box? Maybe you'll get
better results with some standard card instead the on-board device.

Regards,

Josef

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Hi,

Neologism <Neologism at POBox.COM> schrieb am
05.02.02:
> I should have mentioned what the internal ROM looks like.  It identifies
> itself thusly:
> 
>     Intel LANDesk (R) Service Agent, version 0.99b
>     Copyright (C) 1997  Intel Corporation.  All rights reserved.
>     
>     DHCP MAC ADDR: [snip]
>     PXE-EA1: No PXE server found, using standard boot file.
>     IP ADDR: 10.0.2.2
>     PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout.
>     PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout.
>     PXE-M0F: Exiting LANDesk Service Agent.
>     
> I'm doing more research now on PXE, hoping to get that to work instead
> (the server that came with Red Hat didn't work).
I've seen that there's some bios update for the allwell. Maybe this
already includes a more recent rom (the actual version is 4.x, 0.99X is *very*
outdated).

There's also some possibility to boot this thing into dos mode (needed for
the bios update ...), perhaps you can flash it this way with the
newest rom available from intel.

Regards,

Josef

______________________________________________________________________________
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