Hi Robert,
First thing, get rid of the splash.rle reference, when I have tried that
(no matter what debian version), it just breaks down randomly, or even
works, randomly.... The splash.rle reference in the debian "standard"
netboot stuff is really only there for machines that have video out
(it's a neat little piccie, but it doesn't work with serial, I've found
sometimes serial-booting systems attempt to actually send you the entire
image byte by byte via the serial-line... No idea why...).
Anyhow, with that would, make sure your pxeboot config contains an entry
similar to the following:-
LABEL i386-serial
kernel debian-installer/i386/linux
append vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz
console=ttyS0,19200n8 --
This seems to be the "perfect" match I've found so far for the default
debian kernels from the standard netboot download.
You can modify the the append line to:-
append vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz
console=ttyS0,19200n8 -- console=ttyS0,19200n8
This _should_ force the debian installer to add the console part to the
end of the boot loader command line it generates post-install, it works
reasonably well, but I do it myself at the moment for various reasons.
Also, lastly the biggest thing that I have found that causes people
problems is the serial port settings on your terminal, I run minicom
with baudrate 19200, no flow control (not even software), I had it work
for me for about 3 months of random installs without caring on that,
then I got a batch of new soekris in and they started doing extremely
strange things when I was installing them, which the flow-control thing
fixed immediately.
Anyhow, hope this info helps.
--
Cass
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert
Prince
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 10:00 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Soekris] pxeboot on 4801
Hello all,
I have a 4801 and a 4501. I started with the 4801, tearing my hair out
over getting it to complete pxeboot. After a few days I realized I
should try the 4501, and with everything else equal, the 4501 boots
nicely, and I was able to install a version of Debian onto a CF card.
Using minicom on linux, the 4801 gets a DHCP address just fine, and
contacts the TFTP server (which I watch by tailing syslog on the TFTP
system). The 4801 requests splash.rle and then kind of hangs ... no
splash screen, no boot/install information. After watching the 4501
boot I knew I had to prod it by hitting enter, which I saw (from the
TFTP log) caused it to grab initrd.gz. After 10 seconds or so, minicom
goes offline (ie, loses connection with the console).
I tried again with kermit, and got the exact same behavior. I have
tried with two different USB/serial adaptors, one from Radio Shack which
I would expect to be flaky ;) and one from Belkin ... okay, which I
would also expect to be flaky. Still, since the 4501 works with both of
them, and I'm not clear on how the hardware is different between the
4501 and the 4801 ... ?
Anyone have any ideas? Tips? Anything would be helpful ...
Cheers,
Robert
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