CentOS - Apr 2010 - how to debug pxe boot problems

Hi all,

I'm  trying to get a pxeboot server up and running, according to the
instructions on the WIKI (http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/PXE/PXE_Setup
& http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/PXE/PXE_Setup/Menus)

Here's my /tftpboot/pxepxelinux.cfg/default :


default menu.c32
prompt 1
timeout 300
ONTIMEOUT local

MENU TITLE PXE Menu

label Dos Bootdisk
        MENU LABEL ^Dos bootdisk
        kernel memdisk
        append initrd=images/622c.img

LABEL CentOS 5 x86_64
        MENU LABEL ^CentOS 5 x86_64
        kernel images/centos/5/x86_64/vmlinuz
        append initrd=images/centos/5/x86_64/initrd.img
ramdisk_size=100000 ksdevice=eth0 ip=dhcp url --url
http://192.168.2.250/linux/centos/5/os/x86_64

label linux
        kernel vmlinuz
        append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=9216 noapic acpi=of


Then, here's the layout for the CentOS 5 image:

[root at intranet /]# ll /tftpboot/images/centos/5/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Apr 13 07:20 x86_64 ->
/home/www/linux/centos/5/os/x86_64/


As you can see, I linked the folder to a Linux image on the hard
drive. Apache then advertises that folder on the LAN as follows:
http://192.168.2.250/linux/centos/5/os/x86_64 and I can browse the
folders via Firefox.

Yet when I bootup a PC in PXE mode, it doesn't actually load the
CentOS image. I can see the PXE Menu and choose between "Dos
Bootdisk", "CentOS 5 x86_64" and "linux" (which I setup
as a test).
When I load "Dos Bootdisk", I get an error:


Loading memdisk....
Could not find ramdisk image:images/622c.img
boot :



So, it's reading the configuration, but not loading the CentOS boot
image. /var/log/messages doesn't give my any errors on this (yes I
know how to read /var/log/messages)
Does anyone know how to get pxeboot to output debug messages to
syslog?  OR,what am I doing wrong?  The tutorials I got on the net are
rather vague on this. And please don't tell me to use Cobbler, I
already tried that but no one one this lists supports it.



-- 
Kind Regards
Rudi Ahlers
SoftDux

Website: http://www.SoftDux.com
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Rudi Ahlers writes:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm  trying to get a pxeboot server up and running, according to the
> instructions on the WIKI (http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/PXE/PXE_Setup
> & http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/PXE/PXE_Setup/Menus)
> 
> Here's my /tftpboot/pxepxelinux.cfg/default :
> 
> 
> default menu.c32
> prompt 1
> timeout 300
> ONTIMEOUT local
> 
> MENU TITLE PXE Menu
> 
> label Dos Bootdisk
>         MENU LABEL ^Dos bootdisk
>         kernel memdisk
>         append initrd=images/622c.img
> 
> LABEL CentOS 5 x86_64
>         MENU LABEL ^CentOS 5 x86_64
>         kernel images/centos/5/x86_64/vmlinuz
>         append initrd=images/centos/5/x86_64/initrd.img
> ramdisk_size=100000 ksdevice=eth0 ip=dhcp url --url
> http://192.168.2.250/linux/centos/5/os/x86_64
> 
> label linux
>         kernel vmlinuz
>         append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=9216 noapic acpi=of
> 
> 
> Then, here's the layout for the CentOS 5 image:
> 
> [root at intranet /]# ll /tftpboot/images/centos/5/
> total 0
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Apr 13 07:20 x86_64 ->
> /home/www/linux/centos/5/os/x86_64/
> 
> 
> As you can see, I linked the folder to a Linux image on the hard
> drive. Apache then advertises that folder on the LAN as follows:
> http://192.168.2.250/linux/centos/5/os/x86_64 and I can browse the
> folders via Firefox.
> 
> Yet when I bootup a PC in PXE mode, it doesn't actually load the
> CentOS image. I can see the PXE Menu and choose between "Dos
> Bootdisk", "CentOS 5 x86_64" and "linux" (which I
setup as a test).
> When I load "Dos Bootdisk", I get an error:
> 
> 
> Loading memdisk....
> Could not find ramdisk image:images/622c.img
> boot :
> 
> 
> 
> So, it's reading the configuration, but not loading the CentOS boot
> image. /var/log/messages doesn't give my any errors on this (yes I
> know how to read /var/log/messages)
> Does anyone know how to get pxeboot to output debug messages to
> syslog?  OR,what am I doing wrong?  The tutorials I got on the net are
> rather vague on this. And please don't tell me to use Cobbler, I
> already tried that but no one one this lists supports it.
 You need to have the kernel and initrd under the tftpboot directory,
 i.e. not symlinked. I presume /home is automounted? Your boot environment
 doesn't know about autofs.




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Rudi Ahlers wrote on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:55:43 +0200:
> When I load "Dos Bootdisk", I get an error:
> 
> 
> Loading memdisk....
> Could not find ramdisk image:images/622c.img
> boot :
> 
> 
> 
> So, it's reading the configuration, but not loading the CentOS boot
> image.
I don't see that you tested the CentOS boot image. You tested loading a 
DOS image and that obviously doesn't find images/622c.img
> Does anyone know how to get pxeboot to output debug messages to
> syslog?  OR,what am I doing wrong?
What do you want to see more? It does not find that image. That's pretty 
clear, isn't it? Put kernel and initrd always in the same directory.
And why you are trying to boot a DOS disk when you want to boot CentOS, I 
don't know.

Kai

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