Can't get tftp to start (errors different to other forum posts!)

I'm trying to get a tftp server set up on Mandriva, so I can get an embedded ARM board to boot from the Mandriva host.

I have installed tftp server; the GUI services program tells me tftp is started on demand (whatever that means!). Despite many attempts I can't get it to start at all. I've tried this:

/etc/init.d/xinetd restart

which gives the error:

Stopping xinetd [FAILED]
Starting xinetd/bin/bash: xinetd: command not found
[FAILED]

I assume that means that somewhere in the xinetd script there's a command it can't get at? Maybe that's the tftp server?

If I do:

ps -ef | grep tftp

I can definitely see it [tftp] not running.

My /etc/xinetd.d/tftp looks like this:

# default: off
# description: The tftp server serves files using the trivial file transfer \
# protocol. The tftp protocol is often used to boot diskless \
# workstations, download configuration files to network-aware printers, \
# and to start the installation process for some operating systems.
service tftp
{
disable = no
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -s /var/lib/tftpboot
per_source = 11
cps = 100 2
flags = IPv4
}

Which seems, from other postings I've seen here, to be correct.

I have read numerous web pages, including posts here and it would seem I'm doing the right thing. I am guessing there's a problem in something the xinetd script is trying to invoke. However, looking at the script, I am lost as to what most of it means!

As an aside, I assume that the image I want to transfer to the ARM board, I should put into /var/lib/tftpboot?

Many thanks in advance!

Just found that the reason I was getting the restart errors was because there's a bug in Mandriva 2007.1 if you upgrade from 2007.0.

However, even though I don't get an error when I do:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart

It is still not starting the tftp server.

It's only started on demand. At the moment that a request arrives, (x)inetd will spawn a process for tftpd and start it.

If your port is the standard port, try telnet ipaddress 69 and see if you can connect.

OK, that makes sense, Wim, thanks.

Is it a fair assumption that if my Mandriva host receives a tftp request then I should be able to see the tftp running with a "ps -ef"?

Also, is there a way of looking at what traffic has come in on a particular ethernet port? For example, I have two ethernet ports and I'm trying to get the embedded ARM board to tftp into 192.168.0.6, which is what I have set my eth1 card up as with a static address? Therefore I'd like to have a look to see what I've had in on eth1. That was I could see whether uboot on my ARM board is really sending the request out correctly.

Cheers!

ps -ef |grep tftp should indeed reveal the connection. My vsftp is started by inetd; see output below where the first ps gives the output when I'm connected and the second one when I disconnected.

wim@btd-techweb01:~$ ps -ef |grep ftp
nobody    1001  3235  0 08:09 ?        00:00:00 vsftpd
nobody    1002  1001  0 08:09 ?        00:00:00 vsftpd
wim       1003  1001  0 08:09 ?        00:00:00 vsftpd
wim@btd-techweb01:~$ ps -ef |grep ftp
wim@btd-techweb01:~$

To log traffic, check out man tcpdump or ethereal (with GUI; link to download page)