trying to set up a IBM 4500R with pxelinux 1.67 with an Intel eepro(ish) NIC. Got DHCP (ISC 2.0) and atftpd working. pxelinux downloads the boot.msg, kernel and initrd, but when it tries to load the kernel we get: boot: Loading 7.1/vmlinuz............. Loading 7.1/initrd.img.............. ready. Failed to free base memory, sorry... [system hangs] I tried enabling debugging in pxelinux.asm, but that provided no further debugging output. Based on information on the website, we saw that freeing memory was a relatively recent addition to the codebase, so we tried version 1.64, and that just hung with the "ready." prompt. This is our pxelinux.cfg/default file. We tried many permutations of the file with various append options, but all ended with the same result as above. This is the simplest iteration with no boot menu, and very minimal kernel options: default vmlinuz label vmlinuz kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img label local localboot 0 This is the inital boot screen before it loads the kernel and hangs: Intel(R) Boot Agent Version 3.0.03 Copyright (C) 1997-2000, Intel Corporation CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 03 47 78 59 3A GUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 CLIENT IP: 10.28.34.158 MASK: 255.255.252.0 DHCP IP: 10.28.33.136 GATEWAY IP: 10.28.32.254 PXELINUX 1.67 2002-02-03 Copyright (C) 1994-2001 H. Peter Anvin UNDI data segment at: 00096E40 UNDI data segment size: 4D30 UNDI code segment at: 0009BB70 UNDI code segment size: 1F40 PXE entry point found (we hope) at 9BB7:0106 My IP address seems to be 0A1C229E 10.28.34.158 ip=10.28.34.158:10.28.33.136:10.28.32.254:255.255.252.0 TFTP prefix: /tftpboot/ Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/0A1C229 [etc, etc, eventually it loads the default file which points it at boot.msg, vmlinuz, initrd] please tell me I overlooked something silly in the documentation or am doing something else foolish :) G. -- greg notch notch at av.com http://www.altavista.com - smart is beautiful BF7C EC14 D458 D6EA D8DD A30F 1A24 1A3F DBCF BAD3
Hi, "Greg Notch" <notch at av.com> schrieb am 04.02.02:> trying to set up a IBM 4500R with pxelinux 1.67 with an Intel eepro(ish) > NIC. Got DHCP (ISC 2.0) and atftpd working. pxelinux downloads the boot.msg, > kernel and initrd, but when it tries to load the kernel we get: > > boot: > Loading 7.1/vmlinuz............. > Loading 7.1/initrd.img.............. > ready. > Failed to free base memory, sorry... > [system hangs]The 'Failed to free base memory'-Message is quite usual. There's some PXE function to free the used memory, but on almost all boards this doesn't work. After this control is handed over to the just loaded kernel image, so the next thing that usually follows here is the first message from the kernel: 'uncompressing ...'. Which kernel version do you use? Could you try to get some recent 2.4 kernel? Does it work (i.e. does the kernel boot - it won't work without the initrd I suspect ...) without the initrd? Where do these kernel and initrd images come from? Which kernel version is this?
we are using a 2.4 kernel. does it need to be more recent than 2.4.2? we have also tried homebrew 2.4 kernels w/ xfs, same deal. 10|root on linux-admin1[/tftpboot]#strings vmlinuz | grep 2.4 2.4.2-2BOOT (root at porky.devel.redhat.com) #1 Sun Apr 8 18:24:33 EDT 2001 /usr/src/bs/BUILD/kernel-2.4.2/linux/include/linux/mount.h thanks for the help! G. -- greg notch notch at av.com http://www.altavista.com - smart is beautiful BF7C EC14 D458 D6EA D8DD A30F 1A24 1A3F DBCF BAD3 -----Original Message----- From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com] Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 7:32 PM To: Greg Notch Cc: Josef Siemes; syslinux at zytor.com; Greg Connor Subject: Re: [syslinux] pxelinux hang: problem freeing memory? Greg Notch wrote:> > we tried several different kernels and initrds, some homebrew, some fromthe> pxelinux directory on the redhat 7.1 disc, others from the kickstart > distributions, etc. All were based on RedHat 7.1 distributions. All hadthe> same results. >RedHat 7.1 uses a 2.2 kernel. Please try a 2.2.20, or a 2.4 kernel. 2.2.x for x < 20 has a problem booting on systems with large EBDAs, which include many PXE stacks. -hpa
Greg Notch wrote:> we are using a 2.4 kernel. does it need to be more recent than 2.4.2? > > we have also tried homebrew 2.4 kernels w/ xfs, same deal. > > 10|root on linux-admin1[/tftpboot]#strings vmlinuz | grep 2.4 > 2.4.2-2BOOT (root at porky.devel.redhat.com) #1 Sun Apr 8 18:24:33 EDT 2001 > /usr/src/bs/BUILD/kernel-2.4.2/linux/include/linux/mount.h > > thanks for the help! >2.4.2 *should* be OK, although it would be useful to see if you could try it with a 2.4.17 kernel too. -hpa
just tried it with a 2.4.16 kernel, no dice.
#strings vmlinuz-lammy18 | grep 2.4
2.4.16-lammy18 (root at lammy.notch.org) #1 Thu Jan 24 20:01:20 EST 2002
any ideas on the root cause? it looks to me like the .cant_free function
never returns, which would explain why it never loads the kernel:
.ok:
mov [BIOS_fbm],ax
ret
.cant_free:
mov si,cant_free_msg
jmp writestr
thanks!
G.
--
greg notch
notch at av.com
http://www.altavista.com - smart is beautiful
BF7C EC14 D458 D6EA D8DD A30F 1A24 1A3F DBCF BAD3
-----Original Message-----
From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com]
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 7:42 PM
To: Greg Notch
Cc: Josef Siemes; syslinux at zytor.com; Greg Connor
Subject: Re: [syslinux] pxelinux hang: problem freeing memory?
Greg Notch wrote:
> we are using a 2.4 kernel. does it need to be more recent than 2.4.2?
>
> we have also tried homebrew 2.4 kernels w/ xfs, same deal.
>
> 10|root on linux-admin1[/tftpboot]#strings vmlinuz | grep 2.4
> 2.4.2-2BOOT (root at porky.devel.redhat.com) #1 Sun Apr 8 18:24:33 EDT 2001
> /usr/src/bs/BUILD/kernel-2.4.2/linux/include/linux/mount.h
>
> thanks for the help!
>
2.4.2 *should* be OK, although it would be useful to see if you could try
it with a 2.4.17 kernel too.
-hpa
Greg Notch wrote:> just tried it with a 2.4.16 kernel, no dice. > > #strings vmlinuz-lammy18 | grep 2.4 > 2.4.16-lammy18 (root at lammy.notch.org) #1 Thu Jan 24 20:01:20 EST 2002 > > any ideas on the root cause? it looks to me like the .cant_free function > never returns, which would explain why it never loads the kernel: > > .ok: > mov [BIOS_fbm],ax > ret > > .cant_free: > mov si,cant_free_msg > jmp writestr >No, it tailcalls writestr which returns to the caller. The root cause is probably something having to do with your system. Does booting from media other than the network (floppy, CD-ROM, etc) work? -hpa
thanks for all the help guys. booting from cdrom and disk are fine. its just the pxeboot that hangs. G. -- greg notch notch at av.com http://www.altavista.com - smart is beautiful BF7C EC14 D458 D6EA D8DD A30F 1A24 1A3F DBCF BAD3 -----Original Message----- From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com] Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 7:56 PM To: Greg Notch Cc: Josef Siemes; syslinux at zytor.com; Greg Connor Subject: Re: [syslinux] pxelinux hang: problem freeing memory? Greg Notch wrote:> just tried it with a 2.4.16 kernel, no dice. > > #strings vmlinuz-lammy18 | grep 2.4 > 2.4.16-lammy18 (root at lammy.notch.org) #1 Thu Jan 24 20:01:20 EST 2002 > > any ideas on the root cause? it looks to me like the .cant_free function > never returns, which would explain why it never loads the kernel: > > .ok: > mov [BIOS_fbm],ax > ret > > .cant_free: > mov si,cant_free_msg > jmp writestr >No, it tailcalls writestr which returns to the caller. The root cause is probably something having to do with your system. Does booting from media other than the network (floppy, CD-ROM, etc) work? -hpa